March 12, 2005

Well, our journey to Adelaide was was basically all about Green Day, at least to Vienna: "What time is it now? Can we go by the venue again?"

So for the rest of us, the day started by taking the ferry from Kangaroo Island. We were sad to leave the kangaroos and penguins behind. We wondered as we pulled away if we could see any penguins in the water. The tour guide told us that penguins stay in the water most of the day. But, we didn't see any. The ferry ride was nice. We had some brekkies (breakfast) and relaxed. Andy has decided that his favorite soda here in Oz is Lift, a tart lemon soda. He drinks it at every meal, including brekkies. When we lived in Spain many years ago, he loved a similar soda - Limon.

Upon arriving back at Cape Jervis, we drove north about an hour and a half to Adelaide, Green Day town to Vienna. Adelaide is a nice town. We walked around downtown for a bit and had lunch at a Fridays-type restaurant called Hogs Breath. This place advertised itself as 100% Australian which was ironic because just about everything on the wall was American: Elvis posters, Marilyn Monroe, Humphry Bogart. It wasn't our best meal but may have been our most expensive.

We found a motel relatively close to the Green Day venue. It is a very nice motel called the Lindy Lodge Motel. The owners have just acquired it about six months ago so they are still working out some kinks, but the management is very nice and flexible. They moved furniture around so we could add a bed to our room for Vienna. They also had a pool table which Andy and I were happy to put to use. The afternoon was spent on errands and going to the local mall for dinner. The rest of the day was spent preparing for Green Day.

So, I guess you want to know how the concert was. It turned out to be pretty great. Vienna thought it was transcendent! We started out a bit disappointed because our tickets were for seats literally on the very back row, about as far from the stage as possible. We looked for any way at all to get down to the general floor area with no luck. Security was tight. We even tried to sneak in with a couple of guys who looked like they had a good idea. But, the first one was snagged and the rest of us got away with just a bit of a scare.

We looked around for any way to get us or at least Vienna closer to the action. In the end, we walked up and down the aisles stopping in less obvious places along the way. Vienna was most successful on her own. She found some great spots that arguably were better than general seating since there weren't a hundred people blocking her view. She found spots along the railing of the reserved seating which was one big balcony around the stadium. So, in the end she was very satisfied with her view of Billie Joe and the rest of the band.

The show itself was pretty cool: lots of great lights, loud music and Billie Joe doing goofy stuff (some of which I didn't altogether approve of). But, we had a great time and our ears were ringing afterward, and that's the main goal, right? T-shirts were A$40, but what's funny is that both Vienna and Andy got one. I'm not sure why Andy got one, but he wanted one and likes it a lot. We got back to our room by about midnight. Time for bed as tomorrow is Sunday and Vienna and I are going to church. There is a local ward across town. It's a good way to get back into a good spirit after our raucous evening.

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