Easter Weekend at the Races

Every Easter weekend there are Horse Races up in Clare, a city about 40 min north. Kaitlyns housemates sister (Sophie) invited us to go up with here and she said it is her favorite day of the year, so we had to go!

At the races all the girls were their nicest dresses and the guys all dress up in suits. Therefore, we needed to go shopping ASAP because we were not prepared with the clothes we brought from home! The weekend prep began on Thursday, late night shopping in the Barossa (shops are open until 9 instead of 5).  We found great dresses and accessories for reasonable prices and in a short amount of time. It was a very successful night and all the stores were having massive 'end of summer' sales!

On Friday, Sophie picked us up to spend the night at her parents house out in the country. The house was an old fashioned farm house. It was really nice to get to go and see that side of Australia. We had an early night and got up early Saturday to start getting ready. It felt like homecoming but not as fancy.

We ended up at Spohie's friends house up in Clare for a pre races brunch and drinks. It was full of muffins, cookies, Mimosas, fruit, ect. All the girls looked great in their dresses and hair but we couldn't wait to get to the actual races.



So apparently at the races, no one actually watches the horses race. They just drink and socialize with the everyone they haven't seen since the year before at the races. I can see how this would be 'the best weekend of the year' for people who lived here and got to catch up with all of their friends. It was still a good time for Kaitlyn and I. As the races came to an end, a DJ came on and it turned into a dance sesh that later continued down at the bars in Clare.

It ended up being one of he best day/nights we had had in Australia to date and were really happy that we had Sunday and Monday off to hang out and relax after an action packed Saturday.

Easter here is a lot different. It is always a 4 day weekend with Good Friday and Easter Monday as the main holidays. Sunday the actual day of Easter isnt really a big deal here which seemed really odd to me. I guess thats part of traveling and living somewhere new, you get to experience holidays in a new way that has parts that are better (4 day weekend) and others that you miss (celebrating Easter).