australia // day four // city to bay (and back again)

early nights equal early mornings, so we thought best to make use of being awake at stupid o'clock by taking mum's car out and heading for a drive. i took boyfriend up to gawler (gateway to the barossa), where i used to go to high school, and work for a few years after school. being behind the wheel again was so much fun! i hadn't driven a car in almost three years, but it really was like riding a bike; you never forget. mum's car is really big and powerful, so i had to be really careful with the speeding part, as i've always had a bit of a lead foot, ha. i took him through town, pointing out the shops and pubs of interest, and then up to my old high school... bit of a walk down memory lane! there's been a ton of new buildings added to the landscape that i remember, but there were still lots of good (and bad) memories hiding in the grounds. we headed back soon after, and readied ourselves for a day out with the bff and the bffbf...

lauren and lenny picked us up just after 11, and we headed south for the day. we stopped just outside of adelaide for coffee and custard tarts, then continued on our merry way - we had plans with the biggest thrift shop south of the equator (possibly a lie, although it is pretty big); savers noarlunga. once inside, we split up and went our seperate ways. boyfriend didn't know where to start, so headed for the safety of the home department while i sorted through the bric-a-brac section, trying to find some decent prints and frames for home. lauren and lenny fanned out trying to find him a jokey 'day at the races' outfit and when we caught up half an hour later, we'd all scored some great bits and pieces. boyfriend and i had to be careful with taking a lot of stuff home, but we did have a spare suitcase to fill, so we loaded up some vintage frames and happily headed out for lunch.

we headed back into the city for some lunch. having not been to the adelaide central markets in literally years, we decided to start in the food hall and make our choices from the afternoon's asian choices. having been craving pork in plum sauce for days, i feasted until my belly was stuffed... so worth it. after lunch we worked off all the bad by having a walk around the city of churches - which was a bit of a bad call, because it was fruheezing cold and i was ill prepared for the wind, and also because some of the infamous landmarks of adelaide have been removed while renovations happen in rundle mall. (thankfully, we were able to introduce him to the mall's balls and haighs chocolates - two very important key stones of adelaide history.) never the less, it takes more than that to stop me shopping, so that's how we spent the next few hours. while boyfriend and lenny popped to the pub for man stuff, lauren and i did what we do best; hit the shops!




not yet done with the day, we joined the peak hour traffic and headed to the glenelg foreshore. we parked up on jetty road and tried to walk against the wind to the beach, casually holding down our skirts, handbags and hair out of our eyes all at the same time. boyfriend foolishly went to stand on what he thought was wet sad, which turned out to be a pile of seafoam atop a seaweedy beach. massive lols ensued as he tried to walk off a wet trainer, as we all laughed and pointed at him. we headed to the grand hotel for a drink in the warmth, and as we watched the angry grey clouds roll in across the ocean, we discussed climate change, national debt and womens rights. it was crazy up in there.

day four was a stroll down memory lane.

*have you entered my prairie charms giveaway?*