Of Trains, Chocolate, and Knitting - Adelaide

The easiest and quickest way to get from Melbourne to Adelaide is to fly. Simple. But we didn't. When I was looking up my travel options before I left on my grand adventure, I discovered a website dedicated to the greatest trains Australia has to offer. And I had a bit of a Sheldon  moment (Big Bang Theory reference). The Overland takes 10 hours to reach Adelaide from Melbourne, with a couple stops along the way. You sit in large comfy reclining seats with quite a bit of leg room (at least compared to British trains) and completely relax. For the first 6 hours I was quite happy to just sit and look out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of kangaroos (there were none) and other wildlife (saw a couple foxes...) and chat with my Dad. The last 4 hours... well... I told my Dad he better provide some entertainment. So he handed me his new Tablet gizmo and I played Solitaire for a very long time. A very very long time. But still, it was more relaxing than driving, at least for my Dad who would have done the driving, and I wasn't quite ready to step back on a plane and prepare another unnecessary eulogy for myself. We passed towns in the middle of nowhere (in Australia they are seriously literally in the middle of nowhere), massive farming stations, and fields and fields and more fields. I hadn't seen fields for a long time to it was quite nice actually.

Once in Adelaide, our taxi driver completely freaked us out by telling us we'd picked a hotel in the most dangerous part of Adelaide where shootings and fights were not uncommon. Fabulous. Once we'd checked into our hotel, we asked the receptionist if he'd been telling the truth and she giggled nervously, then said "Erm, when you come out of the hotel, just turn right and you'll be fine.... just don't turn left. Especially at night." So I don't know what was on half our street, because we never turned left. (We stayed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor on Hindley Street, by the way. Very nice hotel, and we got a free room upgrade. There really weren't any incidents while we were there either. Adelaide is not quite a crime ridden as they made it seem... but we still didn't turn left).

That night, I was incredibly sea sick. I was very confused by this, because I hadn't been anywhere near the sea, and I never ever get sea sick - but mostly because I hadn't been near the sea. I felt the rocking sensations after the Great Barrier Reef trip but other than that I was fine pretty much. Apparently 10 hours of being on a train, which rocks more than the more modern trains in the country, gave me the same rocking sensations as my snorkeling trip except this time I felt really quite awful. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner on Rundle Street (not the most exciting street for restaurants just as a heads up), and I chose the plainest thing I could find on the menu and ate very very slowly, which is unheard of for me. On the way back to the hotel we passed through Rundle Mall, which is Adelaide's main shopping area, a bit like Westfields in Sydney in terms of it being an outdoor Mall, except it was, well, a little run down, shall we say, and nowhere near as glamorous. Dad was rather suspicious of all of it and kept looking at me like "why the hell did you choose to come here," but I was optimistic and thought perhaps it would all look better in the daylight hours.

The next morning Rundle Mall was better, but admittedly still quite the "Stevenage" of Australia, which if you've ever been Stevenage, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, well, let's just say Rundle Mall is not Sydney's Westfields, or Melbourne's Bourke Street Mall, or Brisbane's Queen Street Mall. If you haven't been to any of those, well, I can't help you. After a quick nip around the shops, which I can never resist, and Dad had to do his fatherly duty of just sitting outside and waiting for me, we got on a tram to Glenelg.

If you happen to be in Adelaide and you get the same slightly disappointed impression that we did, go to Glenelg. It is right on the coast and a really lovely area, kind of like a smaller version of Manly. It has a nice stretch of beach (although it was too cold for Dad to persuade me to go anywhere near it) and has a very nice main street and square by the beach with the usual restaurants and shops. Really cute, and worth a visit. Dad started to think that maybe Adelaide wasn't a lost cause after all, which was nice of him. Also, 'Glenelg' is a palindrome. Oh yeah, I paid attention in my English classes.

After lunch we took the tram and a bus to North Adelaide. I'd seen on the map there seemed to be a noticeable and visible separation of Adelaide into North and South (or North and Main) and I was curious to see what the smaller Northern part looked like. Turns out North Adelaide is really quite nice too. Far more residential but very relaxed and small townish even, and we had an ice cream in an absolutely beautiful cafe/restaurant called Blanc Bistro on O'Connell Street, and then a walk up and down to see what the area was like. Adelaide city, and the Northern part, are not very touristy places. They function very much as a place where you live and work. But it was nice to see what it might be like if you lived there.

The next day we started the day the best way one can, with a free tour round a chocolate factory. Haighs chocolate factory, to be exact. Haighs is a chocolate brand only sold in Australia, so if you live abroad and haven't heard of them (like me) then that's why. Haighs has a distinctive taste, as does Cadbury and Hersheys, except Cadbury is wonderful and just a step off from Milka and Galaxy, and Hersheys is just awful. Haighs is more up there with Cadbury, although I'm still partial to a Dairy Milk bar. We were told how chocolate is made, saw the factory workers in action roasting the cocoa beans and decorating the chocolates, and had tastings like the Cadbury tour in Birmingham. Anything to do with chocolate is fun for me. They give you a 10% off coupon as well! They knew how to sucker me in.

We then took a bus to Port Adelaide (the long way round, who knew?). Shouldn't have bothered. Not really sure what it's for. Apparently there are dolphins, although, despite Dad's impressive dolphin calls, we didn't see any. And some of the town in knitted. But other than that... there's nothing there. So we had a brief look round then escaped back onto the bus.

The useful thing about Dads is that they hire cars. Which is what mine did for the next day, so we could see Adelaide a bit further afield. I'd read a few things online that said the villages in the Adelaide Hills were really quite nice, and Dad wanted to see a koala. We stopped for breakfast in Stirling which is definitely a lovely little village with quite an American feel to it. And then we went to Warrawong Sanctuary to find a koala. We didn't find one. We did make a friend in a weird little bird thing I named Alfred who walked along beside us on the path for a good 10 minutes, and I stroked a number of kangaroos and wallabies. We walked round the entire sanctuary, which is not laid out like Lone Pine or a zoo, it really is just an open space where you have to find the animals on your own. But no koalas. They have apparently developed extensive camouflage.

We then drove to Hahndorf, an incredibly German town (clue is in the name) that was quite touristy in some respects. It was a lovely town with a German restaurant where I ate German sausage and sauerkraut (got to be done, love sauerkraut) and then we went down the road for a pretzel doughnut. It was interesting to find a sweet shop that excitedly boasted "Now selling British sweets" to find all our usuals in there at high prices. I didn't realise, I could have made a fortune! When I came back to the UK our local sweet shop said "Just In: Australian sweets."

Mt. Lofty is right next to Koalaville, or Cleland Wildlife Park to use its proper name, so nipped up there to look at the view down to Adelaide. 'S'alright. If you can catch a glimpse through the trees there are some very pretty valleys. But there are a lot of trees. A lot. So we moved on to the Wildlife Park. Lone Pine is the best place by far for Koalas, but Cleland is the best place by far for bandicoots. There were millions (might be an exaggeration but it was pretty close) and I'd never seen one before. They are like cute looking rats. Yeah, that doesn't sound very cute, but they were cute. And very interested in humans, probably from a food perspective (as in we feed them, not that they nibble us).

Joy of joys, I spotted a wild koala on the way back to our hotel! So they really do exist out there, I'd been beginning to wonder if Australia had actually just always imported their animals and not told anyone. Well, I also saw a wild wallaby in Brisbane. It's good to know that not all of Australia's famous animals have had to be herded into wildlife parks and sanctuaries to keep them alive.

So my overall view of Adelaide is that it is a very strange place. Looking back at the trip I could have skipped it really, but I didn't know that at the time, and I'd probably suggest that for anyone else planning a trip, except not only did I want to see as many cities as possible, I also wanted to get The Ghan train to Alice Springs, which leaves from Adelaide. Still, I'm pleased I saw it if only so that I could rule it out as a potential place to live when I manage to emigrate.... eventually.

Of Culture, Family Outings, and All That Glitters - Melbourne

Hey there, it's been a while. How have you been?

Yeah I know, blog fail. But let me tell you, when you're travelling, internet is surprisingly hard to come by. But I'm determined to complete my travel diary. And then I can end the narration of my Aussie adventures by beginning my American adventures, which start in August! Might have to change the name of the blog though...

Some of the Great Barrier Reef from the plane window

The plane ride to Melbourne was my best yet. Not as much turbulence as the previous ones, which is a factor which, as I get older, more frequently brings on morbid thoughts of imminent death and silent run throughs of my goodbye speech. If you ever do get on a plane from Cairns travelling south, make sure you get a seat on the left side of the plane for fabulous views of the Great Barrier Reef. I had thought that the Reef was one big joined up line, but it turns out it's a series of roundish smaller reefs. Who knew? Maybe everyone.

After touch down in Melbourne it's a 10 minute bus ride into the city itself. I met an old friend at Flinders Station, and took the tram to Toorak where she lives. I love meeting up with people who actually live in these places, so that I can catch a glimpse of what it would be like to live there. My friend Danielle cycles into work, which I would not do as there are too many inclines for me, been there done that almost had a heart attack. Her apartment is great, unlike anywhere I've lived which is either a bit run down or has lots of borrowed furniture, so it always feels temporary. We went to a restaurant on the corner of Cliff Street and Chapel Street for dinner and ate our pizzas off a space invaders arcade game which doubled as a table, fantastic!

Now, you're vacationing in Melbourne, where do you stay? The Travelodge on Southbank is where we stayed, and it is fantastic for accessing the city. It is directly next the the Eureka Building, the tallest building in Melbourne (great landmark for finding the place) and you have the Southgate Precinct right on your doorstep for really nice restaurants (I mean really nice, and pricey, but then they are right next to the river overlooking the city skyline. The Darling Harbour of Melbourne really). Oh yeah, I said "we" stayed there. That's because my dad flew in to join my on my Aussie adventure at this point! A lot of people have said to me "you're holidaying with your dad? I could never do that with my dad." Well, my dad is awesome, and we like the same things when it comes to holidays, and he didn't want to stay in any hostels which suited me fine since my Cairns experience so it was hotels all the way from there on (well, one exception, but we'll get to that).

On my third day and his first, we took the free circle tram to the opposite side of the city, where we decided to jump off at the Melbourne Gaol (which I always pronounce 'goal', can't help it) which is pretty interesting, seeing as we easily spent 2 hours there, reading about some of the convicts and why they'd been there, and learning about Ned Kelly who I'd heard of but knew very little about. The top 2 floors (there are 3, it's quite big! And not all of it is still standing) had some rooms dedicated to art.... which was sometimes nice, and sometimes a bit weird.


Something you might not think to do but you should is go to the Public Library and make your way up to the exhibition landings (they are landings really, not rooms). The view from there into the library itself is fantastic, very NY I think, and the exhibitions themselves were definitely interesting with some original pieces like drawings and letters and books. We then hopped onto the tram again and did an entire circle of the city. The free circle tram tells you what is interesting at each of its stops, so if you like something, you can just get off and explore. Pretty snazzy, London needs a few of them!








The next day we went on a tour of the State Parliament building. I know, suddenly my trip has gone very cultural instead of lazing by a pool and just eating all the time. The tour was really good, it occurs whenever Parliament isn't sitting so it's good to check beforehand. Parliament had been there the previous day, and so we managed to fit it into our last day. The talk was great, and our guide was very knowledgeable, answering every question we aimed at him (sounds a bit aggressive that, but we were nice, promise). It is a very grand place, although not on the scale of the Houses of Parliament in London, but maybe that's more akin to Canberra Parliament houses? Not sure as I didn't make it there. I even got to sit in the speakers chair.

Back in the city, we wandered around the streets, through the Arcade which has some fantastic cafes and restaurants, down the graffiti alley which dad actually liked after he was convinced that we weren't going to get caught up in a load of drug deals. And then we took a tram to St Kilda. If I were you, mystery vacationer stranger, I wouldn't really be bothered with St Kilda unless you wanted to go to Luna Park or desperately needed a beach. Especially in winter, it's nothing special, it was only that Dad had the opportunity of coming to work in Melbourne a few years ago and as he and mum had flown over to check it out, he was keen to show me around the suburbs they'd seen and get my approval for having turned Melbourne down. It's always hard to turn down a dream, but yes, Melbourne doesn't seem to have the suburbs of Brisbane or Sydney so in terms of where to live, I wouldn't completely rule it out, but it wouldn't convince me to come over without having another good look round first. I still remember watching the tv program Wanted Down Under and the only episode I actually saw where the entire family didn't like the place was the one where they went to Melbourne. I loved the city, because I liked cities, but I couldn't afford to live directly in it, so it loses the appeal. But St Kilda does have some lovely bakeries, and I do love my pastry, so....

I digress, after lunch in St Kilda we took a tram and a train to find the stretch of beach huts which are always on postcards. And they are quite confusing to find if you don't know where they are as there are no signs, so here's a clue. Once out of the train station, walk to the right along the coastline, and eventually you'll see them. In the distance. And then you have to get over there, which is a bit of a walk. Probably a nice walk if it was nice and sunny and warm, but Melbourne was cold and windy and rained on and off the whole time we were there so I just used the zoom of my camera to make it look like we were right beside them.

Once back in the city, we finally headed to Federation Square which I'd been aiming to do but never got round to doing. It would definitely be a place I'd like to sit around with my friends in the spring or summer, and the buildings are definitely interesting. Still, anything outside is quite difficult to truly enjoy when it's cold. I definitely travelled at the wrong time for Melbourne. That's not to say my overall impression of the place was a negative one. I definitely do like Melbourne, it has an interesting history and the cultural things are worth a visit. The coffee is fantastic, according to my dad as I don't like coffee, and the views from the Eureka Skydeck of the city were fantastic. We went at night when the whole city glittered, and it was stunning. Perhaps a city worth another visit, when it's a bit warmer.

Taken with my dad's camera, not a stock image :)

TTFN!

Next up: Adelaide