Sunday
Unfortunately, despite loving the city and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, Perth had felt slightly rushed due to the accommodation issues. Still there was nothing we could do about that and we were preparing ourselves for our slightly confusing flight to Adelaide. Our email told us it would take 3 hours but the arrival time just didn't match up to what we thought it should be. Anyway, we were up early, waking everyone else in our room while we sorted our things out. We checked out and prepared ourselves for the short, yet sweaty walk to the CAT stop; it was due to hit 42 degrees in town over the next couple of days. We didn't have long to wait before the bus turned up and it was only a couple of stops to the main bus station, to connect with the bus to the airport. We changed platforms, hopped on the bus and, despite the initial confusion about which terminal everyone was going to, were soon on our way. Despite being a domestic flight, we needed the international terminal, as that is where all of Virgin Australia's flights depart from. We rattled through the suburbs and reached the airport in about half an hour. After checking in ourselves we still had an hour and a half until departure, so we treated ourselves to a cup of coffee in the departure lounge. The time flew by and before we knew it we were taking off into the clear blue sky. Normally, I would write about short journeys but the views from the plane were great (unfortunately, we didn't get any photos). It was so clear, we could see the yellow, sandy beaches and the incredibly clear sea washing up in them as we flew over the Great Australian Bight. We started seeing clouds as we approached Adelaide but they were fairly sporadic. As we were coming in to land we flew directly over the city centre and could easily pick out the Adelaide Oval sports ground from our window, before arriving safely at the airport. This was when our confusion about timings was finally cleared up. We had convinced ourselves that Adelaide was 1 and a half hours ahead of Perth, so +9.30 from UK time. The pilot announced the time was actually an hour later than what we thought it was, so in an instant, we lost an hour of our lives. But, the time issue was sorted out and we were +10.30 from UK time. We piled off the plane and headed out into the warm, sunny evening to find the bus that would take us into the city. It was fairly easy to find, however, the pricing system was rather complicated and the grumpy businessman standing st the bus stop did little to help us. We decided to leave the ticket purchasing for the bus and when it pulled up we asked the bus driver. She was just as grumpy as the businessman but we did manage to get a couple of tickets from her. So far, the hospitality of South Australia wasn't really holding up against the happiness of the people we had met in Western Australia. She didn't even tell us what stop we needed to get off at. Fortunately, Charlotte had done her research and could see the stop numbers as we passed. We hopped off and walked the short distance to our hostel. At first glance it seemed more like a pub, or it had at least been one in a previous life. We headed to our room and then wandered out to have a quick look around town. We did one large rectangle around our hostel, in the hope we would find somewhere to buy some dinner but everything was closed (we didn't find a supermarket but all the other shops we found were shut) and the streets were deserted. It was 7 o'clock on a Sunday evening, so we weren't particularly surprised and suspected Australia might have similar Sunday trading laws to back home. We returned to the hostel defeated and resorted to asking at the reception to see if they could help us. They confirmed our suspicions that we would be able to find one open tonight but they did point us in the direction of a 24 hour petrol station that was just a block down the road. We walked down and were pretty pleased to find it contained a Subway, so we instantly decided to eat there for dinner. We walked back nice and full and spent a long evening Skyping home.
Monday
We'd had quite a late night on Skype and the 2 and a half hour time change hadn't helped with getting to sleep. To counteract that, we decided to skip the free breakfast for a morning and wake up naturally. We stirred around half 10 (which makes sense, as that would be around 8am where we had been) and freshened up ready to have a look around a hopefully livelier Adelaide. On the way out the door, we stopped by reception and got the receptionist to book an appointment for one final blood test for the following day. Just to make sure that the Dengue had cleared up completely. It may have been 42 degrees in Perth but it was pretty toasty where we were and we definitely didn't regret slapping the sun cream on before we left. We walked in the same direction we had the day before but saw a lot more life than we had done. We hit King William Street which seemed to be the main road of the city, with the tramline running along it. We were heading in the direction of the Adelaide Oval, which we had seen flying in, home to The state cricket team and the local Aussie Rules Football team. It was a pleasant walk in the sun, across the River Torrens. We found the stadium but it was in a similar state of closure we had found the WACA in back in Perth. The area was very quiet and there was obviously nothing happening in the stadium any time soon. We did notice a large statue of legendary South Australia and Australia cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, so I took the opportunity to get a snap with that. I bored Charlotte yet again with some cricketing trivia about Don Bradman as we moved in through the park that surrounded the ground. Up next was a small statue/fountain in the shape of an Aussia football. The only thing marked on our map past the ground was St.Peters Cathedral, which was on the other side of a road just outside the park. It was an impressive building that wouldn't have looked out of place in Paris or Rome. That concluded our tour north of the river and we circled round the stadium past the practice pitches and crossed the river back into the city. As we were on the bridge, a large red Greyhound Australia bus chugged past us, something we would become very familiar with over the coming month or so. We turned on to Hindley Street, which our map told us was one of the main restaurant roads in town. It also seemed to be the seediest road in town thanks to the number of strip clubs down it. We walked on by and eventually hit Rundle Mall, which is a nice pedestrianised street with shops, souvenir places and cafes. It's only problem is that it runs East to West and gets so the sun all day during the summer, leaving very little shade to hide in. We went straight for the souvenir shops and picked up an Adelaide pin badge to stick on our ever growing piece of card. With that done it was time for some lunch and we found a Woolworths further down the mall. We picked up some wraps, cheese, ham and a cold drink, and found a precious piece of shade to relax and eat. We had gone for bulk buys of cheese and ham in the hope they would see us through numerous lunches for the rest of Adelaide. After lunch we popped back to the hostel to drop off the perishable foods and contemplated what to do for the remainder of the day. We had nothing on our list so wandered back into town in the hope of finding a cheap sleeping bag for a tour that was coming up but we had no luck. Everything we found was either unsuitable or far too expensive. With nothing left to do we picked up some dinner, which consisted of flavoured chicken fillets, rice and veg and walked back to our hostel for the evening. The kitchen was very busy and very small so we relaxed in the room until later in the evening and it quieted down a little bit. Dinner was still a nuisance to cook as the long termers seem to think they own the place and whinge when their pots are moved in order to make some space on the hob. Dinner was fantastic and a nice big portion to fill us up for the night.
Tuesday
We were up fairly early this morning as I had an appointment at a local clinic to have one final blood test. It was nice and easy apart from the doctor who seemed slightly sceptical about whether or not I needed one. The doctor, who was originally from the UK was very critical of the way we had been advised while receiving our jabs. Dengue had never really cropped up as a genuine threat and we had only been bug spraying for the evening, while the Dengue mosquito bites from dawn until dusk. It was pretty clear to see where we had gone wrong. We asked him about the risk in Australia but he told us it was very low and almost unheard of, which was a relief. We went downstairs and a slightly eccentric nurse took the blood sample, we left and awaited the results to come via email. We had a relaxing day around town for the rest of the day, picking up some food and just browsing, as Adelaide didn't have a huge amount to offer. We did however have a good evening as the hostel put on a free BBQ, along with large amounts of free salad and bread to go with it.
Our plan for today had been to rent bikes for free from our hostel and cycle along the river to the beach. A quick look at the bikes did put us off though. Like the ones we rented in Siem Reap, they weren't in the best repair. Most of them had flat tyres, leaving only a couple of rickety ones available. We decided to rely on ourselves instead and walk the river. We prepared our packed lunch in our newly purchased insular Coles (Aussie supermarket) bag. A couple of wraps, some grapes, carrot sticks and a cold orange juice each. We had to pass through town and walk up to the cricket stadium in order to reach the park running alongside the river. It was a pleasant walk that runs for about 12 and a half kilometres from Adelaide city centre all the way to the beach at a place called West Beach. We didn't go the entire way as it was a very hot day. Just before we were going to stop for lunch, work on a bridge meant we had to make a rather large diversion through a residential area and join back up with the river further along. After only a few hundred metres we found a park that had a number of shaded benches under which to eat our lunch. We ate pretty well despite dropping half of it on the floor and attracting a huge colony of ants that came to claim the food. The park we were in was part of the residential area we had walked through earlier and was a great little spot to relax. Our only worry was the deadly spiders that we were convinced were loitering up in the rafters of the shaded areas. We didn't get attacked fortunately and returned to the river to wander the 4-5 miles back into Adelaide. We were absolutely gasping by the time we made it back to the city and found a supermarket where we could buy a small supply of cold refreshing drinks. We'd seen on our map that there was an independent map shop in town and we were in need of a Tasmania road map to plan our trip there at he end of March. We found one by Lonely Planet that had more information and was much clearer than one we had found in a bookshop the day before so we picked it up for a similar price. We had one more stop for the day which was Adelaide Central Market a few blocks down. The fruit was hard to resist at such a good price, so we picked up some Plums, Mandarines and a couple of Nectarines to cover us for the next couple of days. After that, it was a short walk back to our hostel for a relaxing evening. To miss the chaotic kitchen, we got there early and had a fairly easy time of it, although it meant we had a fairly early dinner. We couldn't complain though, the rice and veg was simple but really good and the fruit afterwards topped it all off.
Thursday
This was our final day in Adelaide, from 5 nights that seemed to have flown by. Having not made it to the beach the day before, we were determined to get there today. We decided to make use of the tramline which goes all the way to the town of Glenelg, located on the coast. It was a 20 minute trip and we were dropped off along the Main Street of the town. It was lined with shops either side and Charlotte managed to pick up up a new pair of pineapple emblazoned flip flops to replace her worn out old ones that she ditched in a bin along the street. In a matter of moments we hit the beach that had turquoise blue waters and bright yellow sands. We wandered along the short pier, where a few people were fishing but not catching a great deal. To our right the planes were taking off every 5 minutes from Adelaide airport. The noise was a bit of a nuisance but it's hard not to find aeroplanes taking off fascinating. We walked along the prom for a while to pass the time before lunchtime came around. Being by the seaside there were a few fish and chip shops to choose from, so we picked one out, found a shady seat and tucked in to a not great but acceptable portion of fish and chip. It was nice but compared to what we can get back home it didn't hold up. After lunch we treated ourselves to a big, fat ice cream and took it down to the beach to enjoy the view while we ate it. For the afternoon we decided to test out the water, trying to avoid the large group of Japanese people screaming, like they had never been swimming before. The water was much warmer than our quick dip in the Indian Ocean at the West Coast and we walked up and down the beach a few times, enjoying the gentle waves lapping against our feet. I tried to go in fully but it did get slightly chilly and with no towel it didn't seem like the best idea. The afternoon had flown by and we wandered back into town and had a casual nose through some of the souvenir shops looking for a wide brimmed hat for a tour that was coming up but we left empty handed. The time had come to head back to Adelaide, so we hopped back on the tram and went all the way to Rundle Mall in order to do a small amount of hat hunting and finally a quick bit of supermarket shopping for dinner. We had a little treat tonight, a curry with some poppadoms to have on the side. We were watched like Hawks while we were eating outside by a large group of colourful Australian Ringneck Parrots.
James and Charlotte
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