April 25 & 26
After a busy previous weekend, we planned to make this one more relaxed. Also, it was a good thing we attended the NRL & Footy matches the week before, as both Melbourne Storm & Geelong Cats lost at home this weekend!
But we learned that Saturday April 25 is ANZAC Day (Aus New Zealand Army Corp) where they honor those that have served in their military, starting back in WWI. We were interested in attending a local service, but it was a horribly rainy Saturday (which traps you when you have a bike) & bus services were limited due to the Holiday. However, we were invited to celebrate with a family of one of Nadine’s Deakin friends for a meal & to watch Footy (think like Thanksgiving Holiday where we eat & watch Football). It was nice to be in a house with heat, have a home cooked food, make small talk, and just experience the day with an Aussie family.
On Sunday we did our 3rd and final rowing lesson, and then caught brunch at a local pantry (with a coupon of course :) ). We also posted our bikes up for sale on Gumtree (Aussie version of Craigslist).
This week was also a celebratory week for our research….Dave officially submitted part of his project as a 6 page paper to a Sports Tech conference to be held in Barcelona in September. And Nadine collected data on her final subject, meaning the experimentation part of her research was completed! There are still many steps to go for her, but an important milestone nonetheless.
April 26 - Corio Rowing Club
April 26 - Rowing lessons
May 2 & 3
This was truly our last weekend in AUS before packing up, and we had plans for one final weekend in Melbourne & some Friday night pub exploring in Geelong.
Friday night we ventured around Geelong, finding some local pubs to get grub and drinks, and also rub shoulders with the locals. We ended the night at lowbrow place with a great cover band. They were doing great covers of songs, including ‘Under the Sea’ from the Little Mermaid. We drank and danced, and, most importantly, were laughing and just spending time together.
On Saturday we headed into Melbourne one last time. We grabbed a few final gifts, then headed over to an up & coming ‘hipster’ neighborhood (Fitzroy). We ate lunch at a place specializing in modern aboriginal food….Dave got to eat Wallaby, Kangaroo & Emu…then we stopped at a Mexican café where Nadine ordered guacamole & a hand-made Chili Margarita. We window shopped and people watched, and finally ended the quest to find Dave a local cocktail that caught his eye back in January…an espresso martini…but we found a bar that made one with Whiskey (and not Vodka). It was delicious and a real pick-me up at the same time.
We then headed to the rugby match between Melbourne Rebels and Waikato Chiefs, a team from NZ (this was Rugby Union, the kind of rugby Dave played while at USM). Melbourne was a huge underdog, as the Chiefs had won the Championship in 2012 & 2013, and the crowd had as many as Rebels fans as Chiefs fans. It was an intense match, and the Rebels pulled off the upset…final score 16-15! We had gone 3-0 for all the games we attended!
On Sunday, the weather warmed up into the 70s, and since we had not sold our bikes, we decided to take one last ride down to Torquay to surf. We got down there mid-afternoon, in order to surf during the warmest part of the day. The water was chilly (duh!) but the waves were manageable and the air was warm. Dave was catching waves with all smiles, while Nadine was still taking the time to master the basics. But who could complain about one more surf session along the Surf Coast in Australia :-)
May 2 - Modern aborginal cuisine - Sampler plate
May 2 - Nadine takes a load off
May 2 - Daves Whiskey Espresso Matrini
May 2 - Now thats a rugby player
May 2 - Panorama of the match
May 2 -Ball is out of the scrum!
May 2 - NaDave at Rugby Union match (wearing our gear!)
May 3 - Our last surf day in Australia...paddle out for one more!
May 3 - Moonrise over Torquay Beach as we say goodbye
So this is the last travel log for NaDave here in Australia. We started our adventure back in December, heck, back on November 4 when we found out! We then arrived into AUS on Jan 1, and on May 12th we fly back home to the States....132 days later! We will fly into LAX together, then Dave will head to Michigan for 2 weeks, before flying off to Germany to start his 6 month internship at Adidas. Nadine heads down to Mississippi to finish her PhD, and then hopefully Dr Nadine will join Dr Dave in Germany in October!
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