3:30am alarm, 4:30am shuttle bus, without food bag but with Tea
Flying Hobart to Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide
Wrong J1 bus down to the beach, morning there
Tram into town with traveling Aussies
Hostel, wee nap
China town
Russell Mall
Botanic Garden
University
River
Early to bed
Distance:
Total Distance:
What a day this was!
So, I started at 3:30am. I've learnt to wake an hour before the time I have to leave anywhere. Most people probably need half an hour max, but I need an hour. It takes me the first half to down about a litre of water and rehydrate enough to be human. This get me into the state where I can do sensible things like pack, dress, and find breakfast. I'd packed my bags enough to be able to drag them out of the room and finish up in the corridor. I can't stand people who mess around whilst others want to sleep. I'm not becoming one if I can help it!
One mistake I'd made, however, was forgetting that the kitchen is on lock down from 11pm to 6am. Not only "Boo hoo, no breakfast" but also all of my snacks, coffee, and vegemite were in there! Ah, crud. What about the Yorkshire Tea? Fear not! After the thieves of Tassie Backpackers my tea had been safely stored in my backpack. So I fished out some ratty cereal bars from my bags (always carry emergency supplies!) and had another litre of water.
4:30am, shuttle bus
6:05am, fly to Melbourne (fell asleep for most of it but the nice man next to me saved an inflight breakfast for me)
Fly Melbourne to Adelaide- only a few minutes to change over, but my bag made it across too, and I got a 3rd breakfast on this plane.
Adelaide airport, get the J1 into the city.
"I want to get into the city. Is this the right bus?"
Airport information guy "Yes, here's a ticket, get on this bus"
"Ok, thanks"
On the bus "So you're going to the beach too"
Ah, crud.
Turns out I'd got the wrong bus and was on my way to the seaside township of Glenelg! Which was lovely, actually. The sand was white and the water clear. I'd have loved to have been able to stay there longer. Taking the opportunity I wandered up the pier where numerous people were fishing whilst a small group next to it tried to learnt to surf without any waves. The buildings are all sandy-coloured and small playgrounds, kiosks, and sculptures appear along the shore at irregular intervals.
I made my way to the tram my bus driver had told me would take me into the city. On my way a young guy wearing a school uniform asked me if I would be prepared to take part in a survey- obviously a school project. Given that I had nothing else truly pressing I decided to go with it.
"So, erm, what brought you to Glenelg today?"
Instant regret. How do I explain that I've been up since 3:30am and got the wrong bus here, to a place where I'd actually wished I'd organised to come? I made up something, partially incoherent, said the place was really nice (not mentioning I'd been here for only 15 minutes), finished the survey, then went on to find a tram.
There was only a middle aged couple on the tram when I got there.
"Excuse me. Sorry. I've been up since about 3am. Is this the right tram to get into Adelaide?"
"There's only one tram, and yes, it takes you into the centre of Adeilaide."
"Oh, thank God"
I collapsed into a seat opposite them. We chatted our way into the city. They were Aussies on holiday, staying at Glenelg and visiting Adeilade. They'd been to Yorkshire about the same time as when I was leaving. We chatted about the Dales and the places they'd been, such as Hawes and the James Herriot Museum. They got off at the market and a stop later I disembarked to go find my hostel.
At Shakespeare's Hostel I got the run down from the very professional, knowledgable receptionist. He knew exactly what I would be doing the next day, where I needed to be and when. He gave me full list of sites and streets to see in Adeilade, and wrote it down on a free map. Sorted. Instructions. I can do that. Even on minimal sleep. Time to go see Adeilaide in half a day!
Let's start with China Town because, despite 3 breakfasts, cereal bars and banana bread just don't cut it. I found the food court, which was utter chaos! Everyone was there from white businessmen in suits, to mothers with children, to old Chinese men, and even a few school kids. The place was bustling and I could have happily eaten anything there (though there weren't any Bing stalls. Love a good Bing.) As the chaos grew, it getting into the lunch hour, I just picked something filling- a form of spiced noodles that I could pronounce just about well enough to look like a white guy who likes Thai food. I then got to feel really smug as I took up my chopsticks- only to realise it's been quite some time since I've used them, especially with slippery noodles! After a few moments I got back into it though. I like chopsticks. There a nice, challenging, change from the stab n grab that I practice with a knife and fork.
Full of food I perused the rest of the marked, finding the usual array of spices, fruit and vegetables, weird "wholesome" stuff, and the odd stall of crap.
Afterwards I walked out onto Victoria Square. The Queen still presides over the square, though here present view is one of construction work as the square is upgraded and renewed. To one side I found the ancient looking St Francis Xavier's Cathedral- it still amazes me that the churches in the Southern Hemisphere are nearly all gothic. The Catholic Church in particular has worked hard to make an architectural impact. Inside the orange sandstone gives the place an interesting, orange glow. After Palm Sunday the pillars either side of the aisle have been decorated with palm leaves and the religious statues have been covered with cloth. It somewhat reminds me of the churches of the Middle East shown in Kingdom of Heaven.
Next up was the shopping centre of Adelaide's CBD (Central Business District, aka City Centre). In a line, West to East, run three streets. Hindley Street is where all of the night clubs, pubs, and take always are. Rundle Mall has the most shops per square metre than anywhere also in the Southern Hemisphere (probably). And finally Rundle Street- which is supposedly full of up market bars and restaurants, though the singlets I saw worn on the street say otherwise.
Rundle Mall is the main area of interest during day light. The street is wide, having been pedestrianised. There are a number of sculptures along the street, including 4 pigs which I, stupidly, failed to take pictures of! Silly Wingham. Did get a picture of me inform of two very shiny metallic spheres balanced upon one another though.
The CBD is lucky enough to have retained a completely enclosing wall of greenery around it. After wandering through Rundle Street I found this at Rundle Park. From here I took the two step north that put me into the Botanic Garden. Yes. Another one. Every decent city in Australia and New Zealand has one. Some have become too big to be a garden, merging into a park instead. Some are small but lovely, like St Kilda's. Adelaide is much like Christchurch, having a large garden- but seems to have managed to find the funding to make good use of the space. Each area is something different, a well used space with a variety of plant species. I found the Victorian glass house, the rose gardens, a modern wetland recently built, and the slightly older rainforest greenhouse. As well as this are the various acreages of a myriad of plants- complete with canoodling teen couple trying to hide behind a tree whom I tried to ignore as I walked past.
The modern green house was amazing. They even have a specimens of one of the world's smelliest flowers- but it only flowers once a decade, so presently it's showing off the world's largest undivided leaf. It looked like a mathematically (in terms of fractals) perfect tree, all in green, with intraconnected leaves running along each branch. Oh, and enough signs telling you not to touch it for the thing to look like Chenobyl. For once I restrained myself and left it be where it was.
The central information centre was nearly shut when I arrived. Given how I've found Asutralian museum to be so far I wasn't too bothered about learning the history of the place anyway. Many of them seem to be like British museums were 10+ years ago- full of information you could skim read without really learning anything important. The Kiwi, Moari, and Aboriginal ones have generally been better. I guess "Veni, Vedi, Vici" doesn't make for that interesting of a story when it was so quick. "That's what she..." "Shut up".
Alongside the information centre stand a cafe, a store from which they sell off spare cuttings, and a greenhouse which incorporates a huge pond. Here they house a few species of lily, including some with leaves around 2 metres across.
Having run around most of the gardens I left via the "Friends Gate" and made my way towards the Torrens River, which broadens out by the CBD to be the Torrens Lake. On the way I found the University of Adelaide which sits on the North East corner of the CBD. I look a short walk though the grounds to get to the river. Seems like a nice place.
I walked along the river until distracted by the Adelaide Oval and the St Peters Cathedral, both of which are north of the William Road bridge. Walking across the bridge I looked out towards the glass footbridge I would take on my return. Renovation is going on around the Festival Centre. There are modern sculptures in the park. The University rowing teams were practicing in the lake. Everything was bright, the sun shining down on green grass, polished steel, and glass. It looked like a picture of the near future- as if all of those architecturalists dreams had come true. The world is fit and healthy, weather perfect, the city beautiful and clean. Sydney feels a bit like this, at times. Melbourne too. Maybe it's the amount of space they have. Or the money. Or just to forward thinking attitude, ignoring all the NIMBYs and naysayers. Whatever, it looks cool.
Having walked around everything I could see there I realised how tired and hungry I was. I wanted to go back to China Town for dinner, but I had been awake for about 15 hours now and really wanted to just sit down somewhere. Hungry Jack's was just down Hindley Street, so I decided to give it a try.
Some of you probably know the Hungry Jacks is what Burger King is called in Australia. The reason for this is there was already a small burger place somewhere here called Burger King. BK offered the owner millions for the rights to the name. It was hailed as a great victory for the little man vs the giant corporation. BK had to become HJ. Then, years later, the guy who owned Australian Burger King went bankrupt. But, rather than the rights going to BK, McDonalds stepped in early and offered him millions for the naming rights. So now their greatest competitor owns the rights to BK's name!
I have to say, for the same price, Hungry Jacks is better than McDonalds- there's actually veg and flavour to the burgers- though it's no Thai noodles.
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