Day 31: My Last Day in Australia

Today was my last day in Australia, and Eve and I set out to make sure it was as full a day as possible.  We had a lot things to do in Australia that had been forgotten up to that point. So we headed off to get them done!  Our first stop was Tom from the Beard's house.  There I picked out and purchased a Beards Tshirt, to show my support for how awesome they are.  Of course I put it on right away.

Next was a lunch date with Bek.  She hadn't been feeling well as wasn't able to come to the Beards concert with us last night, so she texted us and asked if we could come have lunch with her.  So we met her near her work and went for another A.B.  This is that delectable, chips, gyro meat and sauce dish that Eve and I had tried earlier.  It was just as good the second time around, and this time I got pictures!  (Everything looks red because we were sitting under a red awning.)

While we were eating lunch I also tried a Farmer's Union Iced Coffee.  Apparently this is a unique South Australian drink, but it is not like iced coffee in the states.  It was more milk than coffee, and a lot of sugar too.  Delicious!  I would drink it again, and I don't even like coffee!  After lunch, I said goodbye to Bek and she headed back to work.  I hope I get to see her in Adelaide again someday soon!

After lunch Eve realized that she had never really taken me to downtown Adelaide!  Guess we found too many other things to do to outside of the city.  So that was where we headed next.

Downtown we found the Malls Balls, a giant statue of two polished balls balanced on top of each other.  Your reflection looks really funny in them.  We also looked at statues of four pigs that are running around in the courtyard that connects all the arcades. There is even a sculpted trash can that one of the pigs is eating out of.

We had a few errands to run at the mall.  But since it was hot we split a juice smoothy - yum!  There is a good smoothy chain in SA but I can't remember what they're called.  We were also hunting for a kangaroo scrotum pouch for Nate.  I thought he might be amused by it, which it turns out he was.

After the mall, Eve and I went to the Post Office and to the library to return the books we'd borrowed at the beginning of the trip.  (Note to Eve: if your mum is looking for her library card, I think it's on the bookshelf in your lounge.)  I mailed some things home that I didn't have space to carry.  Now Bek has them for safe keeping.

We scampered home to have tea with Pete and Barb, and then headed over to Eve's school to play a netball scratch match (for fun).  It turned out that teams were four on four, McMillans (me, Eve, Joel and Pete) vs. everyone else.  Katie, Debs, Lachlan, Katie and another boy whose name I have forgotten were there.  It was a lot of fun and I found out that I am really terrible at netball!  It is not really like basketball at all, and I'm sure I had a zillion violations because it's hard to remember where you can and can't go.  Either way, my team was superior and so we dominated everything.  (Hey, I'm writing this history, so I can write it however I want!)  After netball, Eve and I laid on the netball court and watched the international space station pass overhead.  That was pretty cool to see!  It looked like a gigantic star, only way closer than all the other stars.  It was crazy to think that those people are so far away, yet we could see them and they seemed so close.  Since we were hot and sweaty from netball, we headed to the beach, Glenelg, for a night swim.  First we ran down the sand and then into the water.  The water was warm and the lights from the buildings on the beach created cool shadows and rays in the water.  It was very relaxing, and also fun because I spent my first evening in Australia at the Glenelg beach, and now also my last.

After we were done swimming we rang up Hannah, and went to her house to get changed.  But we still had some more things to accomplish, although it was already 10 pm by this time.  We grabbed Hannah and headed out to the Pie Cart downtown.  Meat pies are best from South Australia, but our mission tonight was to find a Pie Floater.  This is a pie, floating in pea soup.  It sounds pretty gross, but it's actually not bad, particularly when you can add lots of sauces.  We put tomato sauce on the pie itself, and worceshire sauce is making hair and eyes and a mouth.  Then there was also some mint sauce which blended in with the soup becuase it's also green.  The pie cart owner even gave me a postcard to comemorate my first ever pie floater.  (It was the first time Hannah had ever eaten one, either - what kind of Australian is she?) 

We were now nearing the list of things to do, but we weren't quite finished yet.  We walked from the pie cart to an all night pancake restaurant, where I tried some South Australian beer, and Eve and I split some delicious chocolate pancakes.  By this time it was well after midnight, so we dropped Hannah off and headed home.