Stirling and Mt. Lofty

there was this quaint bookstore in Stirling that sold used vintage books - the kinds i used to browse through in my high school library with complete disinterest. over the years since high school, i've gone through so many phases of appreciating vintage goods, to despising them, and back to finding a whole lot of charm in these old quirky books with their browning paper, intricate (and sometimes interesting) covers, and simply loving the smell of old books. to step into a vintage bookstore is such a joy for me. finding a bookstore (especially a second-hand bookstore) throughout my trip always excited me. and this first vintage bookstore in Stirling (also the first bookstore where i made a purchase - Dante's Paradiso) opened a whole world of appreciating books not only for their content, but for how damn well they age!

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there was a group of Taiwanese college kids in Mt. Lofty and it appeared that they had either cycled or hiked up to the observation deck. it's always nice to see a group of friends traveling to foreign places and having a great time creating memories and inside roadtrip jokes. i always loved inside roadtrip jokes. they're what bond a group of people together - and these jokes will always stay with them, no matter how the years have chipped away on their respective lives.

Meopta Flexaret VII

Kodak Ektacolor Pro 160

Downtown Adelaide

downtown Adelaide still looks the same as i remembered it from back in 2006. walking down the Adelaide University campus and Rundle mall was a surge of nostalgia, and the cold air hitting my face is a pleasant feeling for me. walking never felt so good. i kept hoping that i would run into anybody that i knew from back in high school or college along the streets of downtown Adelaide. unfortunately i didn't, but that was fine, it was only the beginning of my journey. we had lunch in a food court in one of the malls and after converting Australian currency to Malaysian currency mentally, i told myself to lay it off otherwise i'd never buy anything.

Meopta Flexaret VII

Kodak Ektacolor Pro 160

Adelaide

i didn't get much - if not, any - sleep during the eight hour flight to Adelaide, but i didn't care if my body was demanding for sleep because i was too excited to be here back in Adelaide after six years!

and to be here again, this time for a huge interstate roadtrip is another thing to be really excited about. what lay in front of us for the next three weeks was something i couldn't possibly imagine in my wildest dreams. taking it one day at a time was the least i could do so that it all doesn't blend and mesh together like one haphazard half-forgotten dream. i'm being selfish here when i say i want to recall every single detail of my days spent enjoying delicious food, feeling the cool breeze slap my face and throw my hair into countless directions, and simply breathing in an entirely new atmosphere of being a foreigner in a new environment. ah, the spirit of traveling!

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now that i have that out of my system, my only regret is not taking more pictures! while i relegated most of my pictures to the digital SLR, i really wish i had paid more attention to the TLR because at the end of the day, the film pictures seem all to familiar to the ones already taken with the digital SLR. nothing new, except that it's on film. i feel ashamed for not thinking this through. somehow, i still have a lot to learn in managing the two mediums and perhaps concentrating on my main priority - of not giving a shit and just taking some damn pictures.

Meopta Flexaret VII

Kodak Ektacolor Pro 160