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Published: June 29th 2013
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You know you've seen and experienced a lot when you have to split your weeks blog into parts! The past 7 days have been amazing; the type of experience I've never had before. I've explored a new city, middle of nowhere towns, the outback and crossed 2 states. If I was to write about it all in one go it'd turn into a full on travel book. Thus I've split it into parts (and subsections) for your reading convenience. Enjoy :-)
ADELAIDE
I touched down in Adelaide, South Australia, 18/06/2013. It wasn't until I got there that I realised I was ready to leave Melbourne. It was great being somewhere new. It reminded me why I was in Australia and of my love of travel. Adelaide is a very small city; known as the 20 minute city, as everywhere can be reached by car within such time. I spent my first day wondering aimlessly; I generally find I stumble across the best things that way. My first stop was the South Australia museum. I learned a lot about aboriginal arts, culture and lifestyle. SA has a large aboriginal population and history; settling in the country centuries before it was
discovered by Europeans. It was interesting to learn a little of the people, but highlighted my ignorance. I made it my mission by the end of the week to learn as much as I could about the aboriginal way of life.
After the museum I headed down North Terrace , taking pictures of beautiful buildings and statues, before coming across the botanical gardens. They were gorgeous. It was so peaceful in there and I was surrounded by lakes, palm trees and other beautiful plants. There was a giant glass pyramid housing a miniature rainforest, which was pretty cool. As I wondered towards the exit from the gardens I noticed a wonderful place - the National Wine Centre. I didn't hesitate in running over and going inside. I learned more about different grapes and harvesting techniques, as well as the brewing process itself. I love Australian wine and around Adelaide they produce world famous reds and whites. All I needed was some Brie, crackers and quince paste and I would have truly been in heaven. Mmmmmm.....
After a pretty packed morning and early afternoon I walked into the city centre. Back in Melbourne I met some people who have
since moved to Adelaide. We'd decided to meet for a catch-up. I met my friends Rosie & Kate and we headed straight to a bar to sample some of that famous Australian wine. It was great chatting about everything we'd been up to. We're all travelling from the UK and so we swapped tips and recommendations. My list keeps growing! We went to another pub, had some dinner then headed home. Or, in my case, the hostel.
My hostel was one of the nicest I've stayed in. Being winter, there weren't many travellers in the city, thus it was pretty quiet. The rooms were big, there was a beautiful reading room, 2 TV rooms, good kitchen and a games room. The best bit was the free pancakes & maple syrup every morning. Free! So awesome.
Good first day in Adelaide! I collapsed into bed exhausted, excited for day 2.
I spent the second day in Germany! In Adeliade. Hahndorf is the oldest German settlement and is still very German. Largely for the tourists probably, but it was still cool. German houses, German pub, bratwurst everywhere, sweet shops, cuckoo clocks and lederhosen gift shops. I had the best
baileys fudge there (so much of my blog is about good food and drink!) It felt a bit Disney-German, but was a fun way to spend an afternoon.
That evening I went and met up with 2 friends at a chocolatier cafe (food & drink again). Cup of tea and chocolate truffle cake for dinner. Not exactly nutritious, but I'm on holiday right?!
My 3rd and final day in Adelaide was awesome! In all I have 7 friends in Adelaide and we thought it'd be fun to all do something together and go somewhere none of us had been before. We hired a car (I drove) and we all piled in. We drove 45 minutes east to The Gorge Wildlife Park. It was so fun! I hand-fed wallabies and kangaroos, got jumped on by hungry goats and cuddled a koala. Turns out kangaroos enjoy Arnetts coffee biscuits. Who'd have thought?! The weather wasn't great so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves; I loved being able to get up close and personal with some indigenous animals. After spending money in the gift shop we head back to the city via, of course, a pub for lunch.
Once back, we headed to a bar for obligatory Friday night jugs of cider. Was so good to catch up with the guys after not seeing them in 3 or 4 months. At the end of the evening I said my goodbyes, for first thing in the morning I was heading off on a tour of the central Australia. 7 days of exploring and adventure. How exciting! But you'll have to wait for part II for the tale...
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