Landing in Adelaide: How to Meet Strangers when Travelling?

The final morning of my fifth freezing day in Gold Coast, Stuart sent me off on the bus which took me to Coolangatta Airport. (note: this was back in August)

Two hours later, I was in Land of Wineries with Jessie waiting at the Airport for my arrival.

people walking on adelaide street


Okay, my impression on Adelaide, it felt like... Hull, England. Small town, friendly people, no tall buildings and rainy.

adelaide street


Adelaide is always raining and freezing cold in the winter. ALWAYS.

Brrrr... to think I was travelling south where it got colder and colder. GOD.

But thank god being in Australia, one of the highest chocolate consuming nations, there were always body warming bites around.

haigh's chocolate


So Jessie and I popped by Hudson Coffee for a hot cuppa. They serve really good hot white chocolate.

meeting jessie for drink


That evening, I met up with Anne, my host in Adelaide.

my host


Who was the first to teach me how to operate the most complicated bus ticket system I have ever seen.

various type of tickets


There are so many types of tickets you can purchase: student fare, weekly fare, 10x fare; by the time I figured all out, I would have flown to Melbourne on Virgin Blue and back.

The very same day, I've also met up with another local, Bronwen (lady gym instructor *wink wink*), to arrange a road trip to the vineyards the next day.

bronwen
cute Bronwen


Okay. Back to my original point. So how does one meet strangers, and get free stays, and free road trips in a foreign land?

I have exactly TWO answers for that.

1. Couchsurfing.com

It's one of my favourite sites. It's more useful than most travel info sites, because this site is the key to your free stay, free tour guide, free food (maybe, not guaranteed), and best of all, free friends!

Both Anne and Bronwen were my couch surfer friends. We've been in contact a month before I started my journey down under.

How it works is that you search for a couch surfer who has a couch (this can be a bed, a mattress, or.. well.. a couch) to spare for you to spend a few nights so you don't have to pull your budget on unnecessary "needs" like hotels.

Anne and housemate, Kitty, were two very lovely Adelaidians with a HUGE fat fluffy Persian that's to die for (which I cuddled to no ends every time I saw it), offered me their surprisingly very confortable couch in their very cosy house during my whole stay in Adelaide.

me couch surfing
My uber comfy bed-like couch (pardon me, I looked haggard)


They even had a bit of dress-ups (Anne's housemate was selling Gothic clothings) with some of their friends.

gothic costume


Kitty even made us all dinner on my first night. My very first Australian home cooked food.

rissoto
Very Cheesy Rissoto


Bronwen, on the other hand, also offered me a two single-bed room in her house, and because I accepted Anne's offer first, I turned her down but accepted her offer on a road trip to Barossa Valley the very next day. :D

bronwen
re-using photo: Bronwen bringing us on a roadtrip


Who introduced me to Tobias, her couch surfer friend from Germany, who was also in town, but for business.

tobias german guy


me and german guy


Who introduced me to Katharina, his couch surfer friend from Germany, who was also in town, for travelling.

Now we have a group of road trip buddies!

roadtrip buddies
Tobias, Katharina, Bronwen, Jessie (from Malaysia) and Me (the one taking photo)


And it was only my first morning (second day) in Adelaide.


Soon it was champagne and strawberries all the way to the vineyard in the car.

champagne in car
Booze


me in car
Me


me and plastic cup
Plastic cups


champagne and strawberry
Strawberries


me and jessie with champange
Happy hour!


See. Who says you can't have fun travelling alone? There're friends to be made everywhere!


Now, my answer no. 2 to how to meet strangers when you're travelling.

2. Own a Blog

That has many friendly local/foreign readers that's residing/studying in foreign countries~!

Who will contact you when you're in town and then go for coffee together. :D

It's the most effective method. Some of the closest people I got to know were through my blog while travelling. :D

jessie v sign


Jessie, don't kill me :p
I love you xoxo.

Share:

13 kissed Nicole

  1. Hi Nicole, I live in Tasmania, and that's way colder than Adelaide. When my Tassie friends went to Adelaide for holiday, they just can't stand the heat and wanted to fly back immediately. If you're coming to Tas, I don't mind being your host. By the way, the highest chocolate consuming nation is Switzerland. I found out from the trip to Cadbury Chocolate Factory here in Tas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. couch surfing is exactly what i need! thanks nicole :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi nicole,
    here's g from adelaide.
    i've read through your posts on wines.
    here's some good recommendations.

    sparkling wines from mclaren vale:
    mrs.wigley's moscato from wirra wirra vineyards

    or

    verdi from italy.

    verdi is much cheaper than wirra's...and remember,if anyone tellsyou that jacob creeks produce goodwines, he/she must be lying.

    cheers.
    g.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with you 100% on point no.2
    I've been making friends with loads of other bloggers around the world with similar passion, and then we add each other on facebook and start to know each other better, with a promise that one day we'll visit each other.
    I've never try the "couch surfer" website, but I would think it's a bit difficult for a family of three to get a couch :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. At times, i learnt some new vocab from you as well, nicole....some Bombastic word there.....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Or have relative in the country you're going to visit lol.

    ReplyDelete
  7. And you have shown us whatever we thought is impossible to possible..
    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Such a wonderful trip! Wish I have free time like you. ^.^

    ReplyDelete
  9. hmmmm.... could be a great way to meet up with many hot chics... haha

    ReplyDelete
  10. Noooooooo..........

    Hull is way too boring.
    I stayed there for a year and it nearly took my life.

    DL

    ReplyDelete
  11. OMG! Couchsurfing! It is so cool to see someone talk about it! I have been looking for an excuse to use it forever (plane layovers etc) but still haven't yet. :(

    Definitely soon though!

    Ahhh that is so cool!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your blog is very interesting

    You have many photos and you are very beautifulll.. seriously :)

    I have a blog to . The address is www.olhardireito.blogspot.com

    please take a look

    Many kisses from Portugal ****

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your blog is amazing and thanks for the Couchsurfing tip!! Angie R sent me to your blog because my accomodation just fell through in New York in June.

    ReplyDelete