2001 Day 1-3 - Adelaide

Sat 1 Dec, 11:15am Perth time (GMT +8.0h) - Boarded Ansett Mark II plane AN342 to Adelaide.





4pm Adelaide time (GMT +10.5h) (written on plane) While the nice white fluffy clouds are great to look at, they become something of a drag after about two hours of nothing but clouds. En route to Adelaide. Ansett Mk II has been an interesting experience. The friendly lady doing regular rounds with plastic cups and bottled water is a relief, although I can't say much for the donated cricket and music videos. We got a cute little snack pack thingy too. After reading the Adelaide Advertiser onboard, I get the impression I'm making for a large country town, but who knows until I land. I'm Bored!!!

6:30pm - At Adelaide International Motel in Anzac Highway, Glenelg North, where I will be spending my next 5 days. We got off the plane *onto the tarmac*, which I thought bizarre and mildly comical. We're only 8-9km from the CBD but looks almost like a cleaned-up version of a Perth outer suburb (like Gosnells or something). I'm about to check out the sights around Glenelg. The motel room looks really nice, but has an old (i.e. 70s era) dial phone and an old TV.

10pm - Back from my trip all over the place. Went to Glenelg (which is basically a quite nice beach with a paved square at the top, and a long street coming out of it with restaurants and shops the way down) and tried to find an affordable restaurant, but failing to do so, bought a steak burger and chips at an overpriced cafe. An identified problem here is getting drinks at an affordable price - I seem to get dehydrated easily. The steak burger and chips was nice but didn't really thrill me, and a random person on the street told me to check out Chinatown in the city (one block from Victoria Square). I'm now glad I did, as I now have special fried rice and beef in black bean in two little containers. I got to check out the Glenelg tram, which is a restored 1929 tram and is actually an integral part of the public transport here (Note 3/12/01 - I found out today they used to be all over Adelaide but now only this one route remains).

I have two disposable cameras (one flash, one non-flash) with me at all times. God knows how the photos will turn out, but we can only hope.

Sun 2/12/01, 8pm Adelaide time (GMT +10.5h) - Well, I had a fun day. I only got 4 hours sleep, because they had a wedding downstairs with nightclub type music until 11pm, then at 3am the most spectacular lightning storm I've ever seen hit Adelaide. I wish I had better cameras - this was just awesome.

I got bored of being awake at such an early hour and phoned a friend in Northern Ireland, we chatted for a while and it was good hearing a familiar voice again. :) I went into the city fairly early on, checked out Rundle Mall (apparently Australia's oldest shopping mall) and found another good Chinese restaurant there in a food court. Checked out the State Library in North Tce and found out that in the parklands just outside, they have live local music all weekend. I wish they had that in Perth.

(Adelaide is surrounded by a belt of parklands about 800m wide - it's most obvious in this photo I took the following year from the west.)

For my own amusement I then caught an Adelaide train, which reminds me of the Melbourne ones except that they're much cleaner, much more comfy seats and only one carriage. That is to say (for those not familiar with Melbourne trains) that they're about 35 years old and only travel at like 40-50km/h, and have door handles so you manually open the doors to get on. The train stations were also reminiscent of Melbourne. Was going to go to Noarlunga Centre but was advised by several passengers it was a waste of time, so I got off at Brighton beach, south of Glenelg, and ate aforementioned Chinese meal. It was nice, and the weather was even good for the time. (Not for long, but at least I got a good photo of Brighton). I then headed back into the city, and caught up with another friend (Steven) on the phone, he was at the WACA watching Aust vs NZ and it was kind of fun hearing things at the time they happened. I got back to my hotel with very stiff knees and a headache, mostly due to walking a lot and the humidity.

Adelaide is a paradox. Its suburbs are like a reminder of some past point in time, clean, distinctly dated, and a lot of very old cars. The city centre (CBD) on the other hand has wide streets and is fairly bustling. I've almost been hit by cars a few times. They also have weird laws here about pedestrian crossings so it's possible for cars to come in your direction even if you have a little green man - this phenomenon only seems to occur in the city centre.

Mon 3/12/2001 - The main news is that I went to Hahndorf, the entirely German town 24km SE of Adelaide. Those in other Australian cities may be astounded that in Adelaide, once you get 4.5km East of the city centre you're in rolling hills and bushland on roads with hairpin bends in them (one called Devil's Elbow even) ... It was a very nice trip with an informative tour guide, and we got 2 hours in Hahndorf. I learned a lot about Adelaide and Hahndorf and the surrounding areas from him - however the stiff knee thing has become a real problem. I also got real strawberries from Beerenberg farm, which supplies Qantas as well as a number of major hotels with jams, sauces and other things. They even rode me right back to my motel (a big thing considering how far out it is).

I decided to leave the Adelaide Casino buffet for another night - I'm too full up to really get any value out of it, thanks to the wonderful food in Hahndorf (free scones, a chocolate eclair of the cake variety, and handmade chocolates - what more could one ask for?) I'm having an early night, then checking out Victor Harbor later (More on that later :) I've been told by everyone that I'll enjoy it, it will be more relaxing than the last two days.

Melbourne on Wednesday night ...