Glenelg Beach and Aussie Football Game

It was a really fun weekend in Adelaide. Friday was a perfect rainy day when I woke up, so I headed over to T bar to hang out, do some writing, and get a coffee and some lunch. My friend, Nina (from Germany), texted me and asked me if I wanted to grab some coffee, so she headed over to join me at T-bar. Afterwards, we walked over to Uni to go get some work and printing done at the library. Around 5pm we went to Woolworths do get some groceries then headed home. At around 7pm I met up with my friends Mikel and Daniel (both Dutch) at Coles to get some stuff to cook dinner. We went over to Caroline’s (from Canada) place at Urbanest (really nice student accommodation) and the boys cooked us dinner.

We met up with some of the other International students after dinner and headed to the International Student Party at 9 or so. We had a lot of fun there and got to meet up with all of our friends and make new ones as well.

Saturday afternoon Caroline, Doris (from France), Martin (from Germany), and I decided to go to Glenelg Beach because it was such a gorgeous day and it was almost 70 degrees out. We met at the tram and paid $4.70 for a day-trip ticket to go to the beach and back.

The tram ride was about 20 minutes and we arrived at the beach around 2pm. We first headed to the beach and walked along it till we reached a stretch of huge boulders that led out off the shore. Someone (Caroline) was determined to get the end, so we made our way over the slanted, slippery rocks like a maze. It was really scary but really fun.

After that we were all hungry so we went to a little sandwich/salad/wrap place to get a late lunch.

And of course afterwards we had to get ice cream.

We decided to stay for the sunset, so we wandered around the town and checked out the shops till the sunset around 6pm. It was phenomenal.

Sunday I woke up early and met up with Daniel, Mikel, Sarah, Mark, Lisa, Nathalia, Karin, Flora, and Elyse at the bus stop. Mikel had organized a trip to an Aussie Football match in advance, so we were all able to get seats together. It was the Adelaide Crows versus Port Adelaide Power.

I don’t really understand the rules of the game… basically seems like a mixture of football, soccer, and volleyball… which is really strange. They don’t wear any padding or protection like in American football, and the strangest difference of all was actually that they don’t separate the fans. All the fans are put in the same section, no matter which team they are rooting for. That surprised me the most.

The field is a big circle and each team has a 3-part goal on either side. They can score either 1 point at a time, or if they get it in the middle goal without it hitting the ground or poles its 6 points. They can kick the ball, hit it like a volleyball, or toss it to each other and run with it. I’m not sure which scenarios allow which.. it all seemed rather complicated.

My friends and I rooted for the Crows, just because we heard they were the best and, sure enough, they won the game pretty significantly. After the game we took the long bus ride back to the city then got dinner at the Pancake House, which was delicious.

Monday was back to school for the start of week 2 of classes and week 4 in Adelaide. It was a great weekend and I’m sure it will be a great week as well.