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Reports

During my travels, I received free accommodation for a night in exchange for writing a daily travel diary. This diary documented how I reached my next destination, the hosts who welcomed me, the food I was offered, and other experiences along the way. Below, you will find the archives of these extensive reports. Please note that English is not my native language, and most entries were written quickly, often around midnight. Enjoy!
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Saturday, 27 July 2002
--> Rostrevor, Adelaide, Southern Australia

After checking out at the hostel I was picked up by my next hostess, Wendy, at the Rundle Malls. She took me for a short walk along the North Terrace, the cultural boulevard of Adelaide, before taking me along in the bus to the north-eastern suburb Rostrevor.

I noticed how last night's comedy night had quite some influence on me, because we were constantly telling each other jokes and laughing out loud.

At the home in Rostrevor I met up with Wendy's 62-year-old husband George and their son Troy.

Yes there is quite an age difference between Wendy and George, but they seem to be happily married.

George is originally Dutch and come from the Dutch province Friesland (Fryslan), where they have their own little language: Frisian. Still after leaving The Netherlands in 1962 I recognized a bit of his language in his English accent. A plate on the wall said, in Frysian: "If you are used to speak Frisian, you don't have to speak another language." I didn't really get that one, because you'd be quite stuck in Australia if you'd only speak Frisian. I guess George is a smart Frisian man.

With George as the retired man and currently jack-of-all-trades (gardener, carpenter, whateverer), Wendy is the Internet addict in the house and studies is studying graphic design.

She saw me on A Current Affair (TV) in March and was very amazed about my venture, so she wrote down the web address and invited me over. She never thought I would ever really come over!

Around lunchtime George prepared some nice hamburgers, which would give us enough energy for the upcoming walk.

As I should see more of Adelaide than the concrete city centre, Wendy took us all out for a walk through the next-door park, along Creek Number 4 (really original name, guys) all the way to the Morialta Fall.

Along the road I was introduced to the really blue and noisy Blue Bird [b]and was a good bit amazed by all the nature that I found here as [b]the busy city was actually just around the corner.

The walk back to the house always looks shorter, but happily I took my water bottle along. It was quite necessary. The sky was blue and the sun was bright. "We are very lucky with this kind of weather, did you take this along with you?" asked Wendy.

Back home I had to get a bit of a nap and returned back alive when George was watching footy on TV (it's a sacred thing in the family; George even has his own seat in front of the TV where nobody else is allowed to sit). In the kitchen a lemon-filled chicken was being baked in the oven.

Troy had his friend over for a while and then showed me his racing tactics on his IMac computer. His room is filled with posters for modern day Lego action figures and he showed me different transformer cars/robots he had created himself.

I was also a bit amazed with the computer stuff he had created. He showed me some of the Flash-movies he had made himself and that was really mouth-opening for me. I mean, I taught that myself only a few years ago and now this kid here can do it even better! Look at this example by Troy (Flash player necessary).

I enjoyed the company of the family during dinner and we talked a lot about Australia and I surprised George a bit by telling him how certain things have really changed in The Netherlands in the last ten years.

After dinner we listened to Troy’s music collection (he loves the Gorillaz and Eminem) and as it was pouring down with rain in the evening (the weather had definitely changed for the coming days now) I told the family some of my adventurous stories. Which is a rare thing for me, but it was cosy and I enjoyed reminiscing things myself too. It also clears the head a bit.

Around 9.30pm the family went to bed and I crawled behind my laptop in Troy’s room, which was for my occasion changed into my guest bedroom for the night.

What a relaxing day to start the weekend in Adelaide with!

Good night Rostrevor!

Ramon.

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