17 Dec

We flew to Adelaide on 14 Decemember and checked in at the rather

unsalubrious Blue Galah hostel - which had sounded ok in the Lonely

Planet and was bright with lots of facilities but has its downsides

too: noisy twenty-somethings coming in at 3am, small rooms, and a

kitchen permanently packed with Asian students who are there long term

and are nice enough but do LIKE to cook. All rooms are off a wide

central staircase up from the main communal area so it's always busy

and noisy. The plus side is that the mattresses are comfy, the bedding

clean and there are two huge balconies where you can catch a breeze and

watch the city centre activities below.

It's an ordered city - streets laid out in neat grids, people queuing

in precision formation at bus stops, ATMs, little green men. Just up

the raod from us along the North Terracelaces of interest line up like

a line of dignatories, scrubbed shiny, waiting to meet the queen:- the

festival centre, the museum, the state parliament, the library, the

Victorian botanic gardens (third oldest in the world).

The compact centre is part modern shops, but lots of balconied heritage

buildings too. There's countryside a tram-ride away, lovely hills

nearby - it's an idealised town. Hey, and guess what? We went to the

museum and turns out there's Australian dinosuars - giant prehistoric

marsupials, still roaming the earth centuries after the ones we've

heard of had lumbered off to their last resting places. Who'd have

thought it? But why not?

There's an art gallery too, but we didn't go in on account of the

dangers of being overloaded with art. You can't be too careful.