Our Time in Adelaide

It seems like forever ago that we first set foot in Adelaide, but in reality it was only just over three weeks.  When we got to town after our road trip through the Outback, we hadn’t booked any accommodation because we’d been traveling for a few weeks and I failed to make it a priority.  Normally this wouldn’t have been a big deal except Uni Games were being held in Adelaide that week (Uni Games happen once a year in Australia and every major university brings all their sports teams – literally all their sports teams, boys and girls… soccer, lacrosse, rugby, netball, you name it – to compete in tournaments with all the other schools) so there was literally nowhere to stay.  We were fortunate enough to get a shared room (I honestly can’t believe I just said we were fortunate to get to sleep in a room full of bunk beds with total strangers) at the YHA for the first few nights but were forced to get a ‘real’ hotel room for the weekend because the YHA was full.  In a sweet surprise, Alex booked us into the Rendezvous Grand for our last two nights and you’d have thought neither of us had ever stayed in a nice hotel before given our reaction when we walked into our room.  We stood awed by the luxuriously fluffy king size bed and travertine bathroom with a shower AND spa tub – it made us both laugh to realize how quickly (and how far) our expectations had lowered since we began this trip.

We spent our days wandering around the city, enjoying all the public parks and outdoor cafes, and our evenings dining at the tastiest Asian restaurants, which could be found in abundance at every turn and were very reasonably priced.   The Botanic Garden was one of my favorite spots in town and we visited it a couple times.  They had several special houses built for particular fauna and they were spectacular.  Here’s the Palm House, which was essentially just a huge glass greenhouse, but a very architecturally cool one in my opinion, flanked by desert plants.

They also had a house dedicated to these water lilies which had flowers I didn’t think were anything special but the hugest lily pads I’d ever seen.  They were vicious looking things with sharp barbs along the bottom of the pads as well as their entire stems to protect them from being eaten by fish – naturally I had to touch one to see if it was sharp, and it was; I barely poked it and it drew blood. 

 

There was a rainforest dome that sat behind a large, wonderfully fragrant, rose garden.

And I just loved this pink flowering tree in full bloom.

Outside the gardens there was still a ton of public green space and beautiful art installations all over the city.  My favorite art, anywhere in Australia so far, is this pig climbing on a faux trash can in one of the outdoor malls.  I don’t know why but I think it’s hilarious and whimsical. 

These origami boats in the river were pretty cool to see too.

 

One of the highlights of Adelaide was getting together with my Mom’s cousin, Rod, and his girlfriend Elizabeth, while we were in town.  I know that it’s a small world but I still couldn’t believe it when my Mom told me that someone from our family was living in Australia (most of the fam. lives within 20 miles of each other back in IL and not everyone shares my enthusiasm for travel and adventure).  Rod is clearly an exception and he & his gf were kind enough to let us store some of our luggage at their place while we’re traveling around the next few weeks so we met up with them for lunch and drinks one afternoon.  It’s weird because, though I’ve met Rod before, it was only briefly, so I don’t really remember him.  But it was really nice just to see a friendly face and have a chat with someone who knew home.  He and Liz were lovely, catching up with us for hours as we all watched the first of the Rugby Grand Finals that weekend.  I wish I had thought to take a photo but we’re going to see them again in a few weeks when my Mom & Becca are here visiting so I’ll have to remember to get one then.  

At the end of our five relaxing days in Adelaide, we left for Perth on a Sunday evening on the Indian Pacific Railway.  After our disappointing trip on The Ghan from Darwin to Alice Springs, we were hoping the Indian Pacific had nicer train cars.  But alas it did not – it had the exact same cars AND crew as our Ghan trip a few weeks earlier!  We toughed it out again (haha, yeah I’m becoming a real trooper on this trip) and arrived in Perth, sleep-deprived and cranky, two days later.