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Published: December 25th 2006
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Pigs in Adelaide
I've always said people who leave their rubbish on the ground are pigs. Apparently someone agrees. I stayed for a couple of nights in Adelaide.
Impressions: Small city by day, quiet town by night.
On the map, it looks like it might have been similar to Canberra, with a north and south section divided by a body of water (the River Torrens). Only a much more condensed version with less traffic circles.
But Adelaide isn't trying to copy any other city. It's got its own charm that doesn't really compare with other cities that I've been to. What I liked about Adelaide is that it's very pedestrian friendly, full of old colonial style architecture, and it's really easy to get around to see all the sights in a day if you please. In fact, most of what a tourist might want to see is located all on the same street. How convienant!
And of course, I went to this street, North Terrace. I started at the Botanical Garden, wandering around there for a few hours. However, despite its beauty, walking around it turned out to be a mistake as it was 37 (98.6F) and very few clouds in the sky. And you know how it's advised to avoid the sun between 11am and 3pm?
Mackers
The prettiest Mickey D's I've ever seen (called Mackers here...). In the colonial style typical in Adelaide. Guess what hours I was wandering across vast lawns of flowers in the blaring sun?
So despite the fact that the gardens were beautiful, I had to find an air conditioned space. After trying to recover a bit in the shade so that I could make it to the next stop without collapsing from heat stroke, I ventured back out onto North Terrace and wandered down the street. I stopped where ever I could find shade and tried my best not to pass out from the heat and sun combination.
The next stop was the Art Gallery of South Australia. An interesting mix of colonial paintings and sculptures and contemporary Aboriginal art. The building was impressive as well, with grand columns, but I didn't take a photo because that required standing in the sun.
After touring the gallery, I wandered outside again, and decided it was still way too hot outside (isn't it supposed to cool off towards the evening?), so I ducked into the State Museum, where I found an interesting collection of stuffed animals from all over the world (I forgot how big a polar bear was!). There was also an entire floor devoted to the
Pretty unknown flower
At the Botanical Gardens Pacific island cultures; they also have a very extensive collection devoted to Aboriginal cultures. So I wandered around there until closing time, at 5pm, which I thought was way too early since sunset wasn't until sometime after 8pm. And it was still really hot outside.
Then I wandered down Rundle Mall, the main shopping area, stopping to see some random sculptures that I had seen the night before in my search for food. One sculpture was a sand sculpture...some poor guy had to stand guard all night to ensure no vandalism occured. I prefered some of the other scupltures on the street, such as the one with the pigs at the garbage bin.
Eventually I went back to the hostel, completely tired from the heat of the day. The next day was grey and the forecast called for rain, so my idea of taking the tram down to Gleneg to the beach was scrapped. So I wandered around again, passing by the river where I saw a moor hen with ridiculously large feet. And I passed by Festival Square, which seemed like a really cool place to have festivals. Too bad there wasn't one going on. Then I
Grafiti, bamboo style
At the Botanical Gardens did a bit of shopping along Rundle Mall, and it was time to gather my bags and head to the airport.
I missed a lot of things that South Australia has to offer (much like all of the other destinations I've been to...whoops). One in particular was
Kangaroo Island, which I'd really like to see. So I probably will try to go back at some point.
But I was off to Perth.
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