Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We woke up early today, due to the time difference - Adelaide is 2.5 hours behind NZ, an extra half hour behind Sydney - we're so confused about what time it is at home now!
We dressed in summer clothes (no more jeans and fleeces!) and headed out into the city. It was quite busy as it was just after 9am, so people were going to work. We stopped at the transport info centre to pick up a few timetables, and then headed to the famous indoor market. The LP said it defies anyone to come out without eating anything or buying some food, and it was right! There were so many stalls selling all sorts of lovely food, along with cafes and shops selling all sorts of stuff.
We stopped at a café for breakfast, and bough olives, cheese and bread for our lunch. The food was so cheap in the market compared to the prices in NZ - we'd never been able to afford cheese in NZ! We both decided we want to live somewhere with a big market like this!
After the market, we caught the free loop bus to the other side of the city, heading towards the free museums (we like our free stuff!). There was a road closure, so the bus was diverted, and we ended up walking up Rundle Mall on the way. The mall is the main shopping street in the city, and is pedestrianised. There were lots of Christmas decorations up, as it is the huge Christmas pageant tomorrow, and on the side of the building of David Jones department store, stood the biggest Father Christmas we've ever seen! It still feels too hot to be Christmas though!
Heading towards the museums, we soon found out why the roads were closed - it was 11th November, and it was approaching 11am. There was a service taking places at the War Memorial and hundreds of people were crowded around. We joined them just in time and observed the minutes silence.
Just across the road was the Migration Museum, our first free museum of the day! The exhibitions were very interesting, telling the stories of many people who emigrated to South Australia, and where they consider themselves to 'belong'. In the 50s and 60s, free passage to Adelaide was offered to people in the UK with certain occupations, and one of the main selling points was that no convicts were being sent there! There was also information about the child migration schemes, which led to a formal apology to be made a few years ago by the UK and Australian governments.
Futher down the road, we visited the South Australia museum and had our first sighting of a kangaroo - although it was stuffed! We had a quick look around the other exhibitions there, but didn't stay that long.
For lunch, we walked to the Botanic Gardens and had a pic nic with our purchases from the market. The sun was shining and it was starting to get very hot. There were people setting up chairs for what looked like a wedding - wonder what they would think of having 2 English tourists in the background of their photos! We left before anything happened though, and headed back to Rundle Mall to browse in some of the shops.
We went back to the hostel for a few hours, and ate tea there, then headed out to a pub Dave had read about, The Grace Emily, which had 2 bands playing that night - The Cherry Pickers (folky Mumford and Sons esque) and Hills and Trains (REALLY good, a bit like Ryan Adams). We spent the night there having a few drinks and watching the bands - I forsee big things for Hills and Trains!
- comments