Adelaide

My first day in Adelaide was spent with Esther just walking around the city. Adelaide is small and green. The Central Business District (CBD) is surrounded by parks in a sort of square shape. The main shopping area of Rundell Mall had a tourist information centre where we could pick up some maps and leaflets and then went on a little walk the lady had recommended - across the bridge to the northern part of the city, passed the Adelaide Oval up to a viewing point and then back down along the river. It was really nice and chilled out, not feeling like a big city in the slightest. We decided it was too hot to go into the Adelaide Zoo today so made plans to meet up again later in the week before I headed back to the hostel to meet the locals.

My hostel was amazing. It was tiny and homely, with most of the residents having lived there at least a month if not longer. They gave us a free breakfast of fresh-made pancakes every morning!! Everyone was very friendly and my first afternoon I went down to West Beach with two Irish guys and two English guys for a swim and a kick around. Had a mild heart-attack after seeing black fins in the water but thankfully they were just dolphins. The difference? Dolphins go up-and-down while sharks just go straight (and you'll probably never see the shark until it bites you - isn't that comforting?!).

The next day was St. Patricks Day and with a strong Irish presence at the hostel it was also an interesting day! A group of us tried to get to the beach with four of us squeezed in the back of a car only to be pulled over by the police and escorted back to the hostel before we'd even driven five minutes! With that plan scuttled we ended up sitting out the back of the hostel with a couple of beers until going on to an Irish Pub that evening. The Australians do love their St. Paddy's Day here! The place was packed with people dressed in green and drinking Guinness. It was a fun evening.

On the Thursday I met up with Esther again and we went to the Zoo. They've just going two pandas in - Wang Wang and Funi - who are incredibly popular and have been made into cartoon characters. Got creeped out in the reptile house (nice to see all the lovely things that can kill you) and tried to spot the tigers but they were hiding. The monkeys were pretty funny though and there was the tiniest baby meercat ever! Talk about aw! The following day the two of us caught the tram out to Glenelg - the beach town near Adelaide. The weather was overcast but still warm, even if the breeze had a slight chill to it. We swam in the sea and snoozed on the beach - lovely and relaxing! For lunch we had a Nandos. Yes, they do have them here. Wasn't as good as the UK though but still pretty tasty. That night Transformers was on tv. It's based on a true story, y'know. Or at least, that's what we tried to tell the Kiwi guy. The guys ended up having a big night that night, proved when we woke up the next morning to find the Kiwi passed out on the sofa hugging a bottle of scotch, with no trousers on. We laughed at him. A lot.

For those of us sober/not hungover (two German girls and a couple of English guys) it was back to the beach. We cycled there as Adelaide City Council does free bike hire. They were bizarre bikes - old fashioned looking black ones with a basket on the front and to brake you had to pedal backwards. But we got down to Glenelg fine and all of us fell asleep on the beach! On the way back one of the girls got a flat tyre so we had to walk over the half the way but it wasn't too bad. Just very hot. That night everyone in the hostel (practically) went out for a pub crawl led by the Aussie guy that was staying there. It was a fun evening which ended with a few of us in 'Hungry Jacks' - basically Burger King but there was already a brand out here by that name and they refused to sell to the American company. We were in bed by 3am.

The next morning I had breakfast before being dropped off at the train station by Monty, one of the Irish lads, to catch The Ghan up to Alice Springs. Was a little late but made it! Woo, another overnight train journey begins.