Adelaide

Well, I spent several days in Adelaide again, visiting some different friends this time around, and I did not appear to get around writing a single blog entry, so I'll try to make up for it slightly here. At least the camera did still get to see the light of day.

After it had just been starting to get rather cold at my departure point, it was a welcome relief to be able to still enjoy a few days of summer in Adelaide. And where else would you want to enjoy the warm weather out here than on one of the west facing beaches, watching the sunset over the ocean. After then having a Stand Up Paddle board going through our view, we made sure our plans for the next evening involved us being on one of those. After all, if someone can manage it with their dog, surely we could manage it too.

Okay, so our actual theory was that if we fell off 300 times, we'd eventally learn to stay on. With a stroke of luck, none of us actually ended up falling off, though there were several close calls (including an "accidental" ramming). At the halfway point of our enterprise, we turned around and started paddling back. The further our time ran out, the faster we started paddling, and we still didn't seem to be able to find the house from which we got the boards. The sun was well and truly below the horizon by the time that we finally found the place again. But the view was worth it to just stand there, swaying with the waves, watching the sun disappear on the endless ocean.

Adelaide also spoilt us with a beautiful night view over the city from Mount Lofty (a mountain with a flat-rate $4 pay parking lot, even at 11 in the evening). The city lights were definitely worth it on the wonderfully clear night that we got. It also gave us a beautiful insight into the city planning: everything seemed to be built in grids.

A wildlife park was also on the program, with Koala cuddling sessions. The queue for this was popular, which meant that everybody seemed to get to hold the Koala for the 125th of a second that the camera took to expose before being handed back, but it was adorable how they actually just let themselves be freely handed back and forth. And they do also help to hang on as opposed to just making themselves dead weights. I then also noticed the claws which with they hold on with, and decided that I’d rather be photographer than victim.

As we were visiting Adelaide over the weekend, a Sunday was involved. And that was the day we tried to explore the CBD a bit. Now, I will remind anyone not familiar with Australia, that Adelaide is the capital and largest city of south Australia. And Sunday morning could only be described as a ghost town. Nothing opened before 11. Most thing didn’t even bother at 11. While cars were present on the street, they were present in the “I can see one on the horizon” kind of way. To make life even better, it then also decided to start raining, so we hid under a bridge and tried to enjoy a view of the river.

These were of course not the extent of the adventures, but it does cover some of the more memorable bits. I’m just waiting on my flight back (so not used to flying domestic) and then continues the life of someone who needs to get permission before being allowed to go on random trips.

twiddles thumbs waiting for plane