Two nights in Alice Springs

We returned from our outback trip all in one piece and went to a pub to party it up with our tour group for the evening. The pub was really cool and dinner was cheap finally so that was good, there was live music for a little while and a really nice atmosphere. Then we said our goodbyes and in the morning moved hostels for our last two nights.

We went golfing at one of the top 10 desert golf courses in the world and decided just to play the front nine. To say the least we're not the best golfers ever and when you mix that with not getting a cart "moseying" along the course might have been an understatement. Funnily on the first hole we met two older guys, one who graduated from University of Houston, and one was an Aggie. Small world. Anyway, we really took our time and had people passing us the whole time and I think people were getting a little testy. An Austrian guy playing with his kids even caught us and let us know how slow we were. But as my friend Trace's dad says: If you don't have the time to enjoy a round of golf, maybe you shouldn't be out there. We enjoyed every penny and even got better than 3 over on some holes.

We had dinner at a famous outback steakhouse called Overlanders where we ate family style dining on different Kangaroo steak dinners. Kangaroo is awesome!!! You have to order it medium rare or less or it gets too tough, but it is great. We got a bottle of wine and had a riot of a time, but for some reason they placed us in the corner... After our 2.5 hour dinner we went to a popular bar there called Bojangles, which was kind of quiet. Then we realized it was because it was only 9:30, but we were tired so we crashed for the night.

We got up the next morning and hired some bikes and rode them about 15kms out to "Desert Park." It was a really nice little park, the birds were beautiful and I got some good pictures. We went to a bird's of prey show which was pretty cool and then went and saw some Kangaroos. The cool thing about the park was that there were little stop sections when certain animals were caged in, still in their natural state so you could go in and get up close and personal with them. A pretty wild experience.

We rode back stopping every 5 minutes the same as we did on the way up because one of the bikes had a chain that came off on every other bump. Luckily Derek is bicycle savvy and fixed it up real quick every time. We got a shower and went to this restaurant we had been to on one other night called Oscar's. If you ever go to Alice Springs GO TO OSCAR'S!!!! It is awesome. The food is presented stylishly and is absolutely delicious. I had chicken stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes the first time we went and a porterhouse the next time. Total the meals were a little less than $20 American, which is crazy for the quality and style of the meals. My porterhouse was a little overcooked and they happily took it back and then rushed out another one, which was perfect. Good stuff, happy people, great service, and you don't even tip in Australia!

After dinner we headed to Bojangles again and it was a little dead at first again. We stayed for about 30 minutes and had a pitcher of this cider they have on tap at all the bars, which is delicious and the next the we new the place was crazy. The dance floor was packed, the tables were packed, the standing room was packed. People were going nuts. You can watch the bar on streaming webcam actually at Bossaloon.com.au We drank quite a bit and had a good time and still got back at around 11 to crash and get up for our planes the next day. Little bit of some lingering headaches, but they were cured by some food, coffee and Advil.

We arrived back in Sydney at our hostel today (Sunday) at 6 PM and found that there was only one bed in our room open. After a little talking and pain in the bum waiting we figured it all out and both got beds. We have orientation for school starting tomorrow. So far: Success! Pictures will be up when I get to my computer hopefully tomorrow or the next day.