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Published: August 6th 2007
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Roaming Adelaide We left the Barossa wine region pretty early and set off for Adelaide. Since we hadn’t had internet access in a while we had no idea where our next hotel was and actually didn’t even know the name of the hotel. Thus, our first priority was to find internet access and some food for the day as well as some other necessities.
While on our way back to Adelaide going south down the Main North Road we came across a mall that we figured might have some of the things we needed for the day. Luckily the mall had a public library in it that had free internet access which might take care of our hotel location needs.
Inside the mall we were once again confronted with the subtle differences between societies. You might think that every mall in the world is the same, but this one proves you wrong. While the layout is the same as anything you’ve seen before the shops are different. On top of the usual shops there was a butcher shop, a fish market, and two grocery stores. How often do you see raw meat right next to your
Sunglass Hut?
We took a quick stop to get some groceries and got our internet needs out of the way and then stopped at Subway for lunch. Funny differences about Subway: American Cheese here is called English Cheese, red and green peppers are called capsicum, and some of the toppings you’re used to aren’t available. Everything is an adventure!
Twenty minutes later we checked into our hotel in downtown Adelaide. We dropped our stuff off and set out to explore downtown. Since it had been raining on and off throughout the afternoon we decided to drive closer to the happening part of town. We had decided to get some more stuff for our journey including an FM transmitter for our iPods for the long stretches of road with no radio and a bunch of maps. So we started out by finding an electronics store that had what we were looking for.
While in Germany we were lucky enough to use a Tom Tom GPS device for getting around the roads and navigating through cities. Unfortunately the price for GPS rental here in Australia would have more than doubled the price of our rental car so GPS was
out. While in the electronics store we contemplated purchasing a GPS unit which was actually less than renting one. The price for a new unit that might meet our needs worldwide was still really expensive. We decided not to get a unit and instead fall back on the tired and true method of yore. This means that Kel gets to return to her navigator roots and use a bunch of paper maps for getting us where we need to go.
Right in downtown Adelaide is a shop that specializes in maps. As a business that offers only a specific product that isn’t used in normal day to day life, a shop like this must provide service as their differentiator and value. This shop was definitely a full service place. After half hour of perusing maps and talking to the people who worked there we settled for a couple of books of maps and some more specific information about the rest of our Australian journey.
From the map shop, we decided to walk around downtown for another hour or so before heading back to the hotel to figure out dinner. Downtown Adelaide is very similar to our home town
of Richmond in its design. There are few really tall buildings but a ton of walking areas with two and three story buildings filled with funky shops and restaurants. The downtown pedestrian area is a pretty short walk but is always full of people, street performers and fun.
When done with our quick perusal of downtown we headed back to the hotel to figure out dinner. After looking through the Lonely Planet for a while Kel discovered a restaurant she thought would be nice in Glenelg, a sea side suburb of Adelaide. After some rest we took the drive to Glenelg and had a wonderful dinner at Scampi, a seafood restaurant right on the coast. When I heard the name of the restaurant I immediately associated it with something like shrimp scampi which is a type of food preparation that’s pretty common in the United States. Turns out scampi in Australia is a shell fish which is bigger than a shrimp but smaller than a lobster. Strange huh? You never know when you are going to run into a difference that is unexpected when you re traveling abroad.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at
a grocery store and bought some cookies. We then returned to our hotel and had a smorgasbord of cookies and tea before bed while enjoying some American TV. W love the fact that we can watch American shows again. Yeah for Criminal Intent and SVU!
Downtown and Port Adelaide The next day we decided to spend the morning in an internet café in order to post some blogs and get some emailing done. By time we had finished breakfast and our time in the café it was well past noon. It’s fun to catch up with the email when it’s been more than a week since you’ve been in touch. Keep the emails coming, we love hearing from home and are really good about responding!
Kel and I decided to separate for a while so that I could run around town and take some pictures while she looked at clothing. Kel has missed clothes while we’ve been abroad. It’s surprisingly difficult, as a woman, to live with only two outfits for a year without fantasizing about new clothes. I’m sure the women at home understand while the men at home just shake their heads. I completely
understand and have to say that Kel has been really good about looking but not buying. It can be really hard to be close to something beautiful you might have bought at home and just look at it and walk away.
While she fantasized about fabulous clothes and tried on a few, I walked around the University of Adelaide and took pictures. Universities in general can have some really beautiful buildings. In this case the main church at the University was really pretty as was the riverside landscape out behind the campus. (I always laugh at little bit when I hear people here talk about University or College because they refer to it as Uni. Using the word Uni feels just a little demeaning of higher education, but hey, Australians love their abbreviations.)
We met again in the center of the pedestrian area of town and were at a bit of a loss what to do next. We had left the Lonely Planet in our room and weren’t really aware of anything cool to do. So we did what we do at home when we’re bored, we picked a direction and started driving. In this case we headed
Fountain with Hoodlums
These kids had just put soap in the fountain. They wanted me to take a picture with them and their handy-work. Kids are dumb all over the world! north west towards Port Adelaide. We both thought it might be cool to see boats and the seaside.
Turns out that Port Adelaide is not really worth the time. Thankfully it was a pretty short drive or it would have been a real let down. There weren’t many boats, the place was almost devoid of people and the small square was just that small. I guess you can’t have excitement at every turn when you’re traveling this long. After about 10 minutes at the port we jumped in our car and returned to the hotel.
After a few hours of resting, watching TV and writing blogs we headed back out on the town for dinner. In this case we walked to the market area of town which is lined with tons of restaurants. We had our eye on an Argentinean steak joint which was close by but we were shot down. The place was fully booked for both Friday and Saturday nights. Instead we walked up and down the street and found a nice little Italian place that was really nice and cheaper too.
With our bellies full we walked home and watched some reruns of American
Pigs in Downtown Adelaide
Funny Pig Statues in Downtown Adelaide TV shows before bed and then passed out because of the wine from dinner and the tiredness of walking around most of the day.
Hope you are all doing well back home. We miss you all and love hearing from you. Drop us a line when you get some time!
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