Adelaide

Adelaide - Nov 23-27
Ah Adelaide. Definitely a quieter city (or maybe I'm in a quieter hostel and haven't partied quite as much - which is nice once in a while). Last you guys heard on here, I was on a bus for six hours making my way up the southern coast to this city. It was actually a really nice bus trip as we drove through the prairies of Australia and I felt like I was back at home on some SK highway. I got into Adelaide around 7pm and walked my way down to my hostel. I'm glad it wasn't far because it sure isn't fun walking with a 20kg bag on my back in sweater and jeans when the weather is almost +30 and extremely humid. I couldn't wait to throw some shorts as when I travel, my bag is so full that I need to wear my heaviest clothes.

I've been sick for about two weeks down here. It all started with a sore throat and has now developed into a bad chest cough (can definitely blame hostel living for that!) If it doesn't clear up soon I think I might head to the doctor so to try and get better I took the 24th off and stayed in and booked some flights (to NZ) and my hostel in Perth. It always takes so much time to do all those little things, especially if I don't want to get stuck in some shady hostel like the one in Launceston! I also managed to sneak out for a bit and grab some groceries and hit up the Central Market - apparently it's the largest one in the southern hemisphere. Lots of good stuff but unfortuantely on a traveler's budget I couldn't afford anything but banana's and lettuce (the essentials).

The next day I was lucky to meet up with a German friend from my Great Ocean Road tour who kindly invited me out to a "shack" or cabin along the Murray River with a friend of his and another couple. I had no idea what to expect and was definitely surprised when the guy, Max, picked me up and turned out to be a 70 year old! Did I ever chuckle to myself, but it actually turned out to be a wonderful day. He is a retired principal and his wife is a retired teacher as well. They also spent several years working with the Aboriginal people down here who have the same issues our Aboriginal people face in Canada. We had to make a pit stop at the Doctor's office as Max had an appointment - unfortunately he has prostate cancer but they caught it early and are treating it with radiation so he drives in from his farm 3 hours away for five days and heads back home on the weekend. After that we headed to the suburb of Stirling and met up with Jergen (the German friend), Sanchia (his friend) and Penny (Max's wife). We had tea and cookies and then headed off to the River. We had to make another pit stop as Max's daughter had a duck with a prolapsed bowel so Jergen and I got to watch a duck get beheaded. Sad but it would have been even worse to watch the Duck suffer with her intestines hanging out.. After that we finally made it to the River and set up a glorious lunch outside on a stone table. We had an amazing meal with some wonderful Adeladian wine. It was also here that I had an encounter with the huntsman - a giant, crablike spider which is harmless but creepy! It was about the size of my hand and almost climbed up me. Thank goodness spiders don't scare me too bad.

After lunch Jergen and I hopped in the rowboat and went for a quick paddle down the river - the river is the main source of water for the city of Adelaide so they pump it there in huge white pipes you can see along the side of the road. It's also the largest river in Australia. Auz has suffered a drought the past 10 years and the water levels have drastically receded, but thankfully the drought finally broke this year and water levels have started to rise back towards where they used to be. Rowing was interesting, more work than I thought, especially with it being so humid out but it was a fun time. After that we headed back to Adelaide and spent the evening down at Glenelg beach watching the sun set and eating fish and chips. Although surprising at first it turned out to be a wonderful day and Sanchia was an incredibly hospitable host.

The next day I was SO excited - I was going to the zoo to see the two Giant Panda's. I'm 23, and yes, I will admit to still having several panda bear teddy bears in my bedroom - that is how much I love them! It was an absolute dream come true seeing them - and I was patient and stuck around to see them wake up from their afternoon nap and wander around a bit. I probably could have sat there all afternoon that's how much I enjoyed it. It was an extremely hot day and after 3 1/2 hours at the zoo I headed to Adelaide's botanical garden and checked out a beautiful rose garden and spent time reading a book under a tree. The tree next to me was quite unusual. I'm not sure what kind it was but it had beautiful red blossoms in it, and was FULL of parrots. There must have been hundreds of parrots in this tree - and the noises and chittering they made was so loud but funny. A really cool place to spend a few hours relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day.

Today is my last day in Adelaide. I'm keeping it fairly low key again as walking does get a little tiring and my chest cold still hasn't seem to have broken yet. I had scheduled a tour through Haigh's Chocolate Factory and was excited to go there. They are only domestic, having no international stores. They have six in Adelaide, six in Melbourne and 1 in Sydney. I thought it was going to be similar to the Cadbury chocolate factory but it was much smaller and the quality of chocolate was so much better! It was a free tour and you got to see the factory floor. All their chocolate is hand made and hand wrapped (obviously they have some help from machines too though) and I watched two women shape and make almond clusters. It is a family chocolate factory, being passed down for 4 generations now and the one son of the original founder actually moved to Switzerland when he was 17 to live with the Lindt family and learn the secrets to successful chocolate making. I wasn't going to buy any chocolate as my budget for the month is pretty much gone but once I tasted the chocolate - I knew I had to buy some! They also have a "seconds" section with cheaper chocolate (it's still expensive though) so I had to buy a chocolate nougat as well as another chocolate with toffee and nuts in it. So unbelievably delectable! As an example of how expensive it is, 100g of chocolate will generally cost you 11$AUD. A box of chocolates the size of pot of gold was 89$. I'm sure Haigh chocolate is purchased for many anniversaries and christmas gifts! The rest of the afternoon I read my book and spent some time responding to family and friends on Facebook. It's been great to hear from people so if you haven't yet, feel free to shoot me a message :)

I've also posted more photo's on facebook and they are up to date as of yesterday. I'm headed to Perth tonight and am going to spend a lot of time on the beach resting and soaking up the rays.
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Until next time :)