Sunday, November 02, 2008

Adelaide - Day 1

(Backdated to the day it happened.)

I had a noon flight out so took it easy in the morning. Strange for a Sunday in that there was a traffic jam getting on to the Greensborough Bypass from Grimshaw Street. Some smart alec had set the right turn arrow to only show for about 1 second before turning yellow and then red, it took at least 4 sequences to get around! The rest of the run to the airport was the usual drive along the Northern Ring Road and Tullamarine Freeway.

Having just flown around a mass of cloud

The flight was fun, there were lots of big cumulus clouds around and we were dodging a few larger ones for a good 10 minutes over western Victoria. This was at our cruising altitude of 33000 feet, with the heads of some clouds extending at least another few thousand feet above us. The seatbelt sign got turned on when the turbulence became a bit stronger. As I said it was fun.

My trusty steed, QANTAS Boeing 737-400 "Strahan"

Soon enough we flew over the Coorong, Lake Alexandrina, the Fleurieu Peninsular and over the Gulf of St Vincent to line up for landing at Adelaide airport. After snapping a photo of the plane and collecting my bag I set off to find the the JetBus bus stop. This proved to be more diffucult than I imagined as there was no signage at all. Eventually I found it hidden away at the end of the departures level. The bus gave it away. As I only had a $50 note which the driver wouldn't change for me, I had to go and buy a drink to get some change and wait for the next bus in 15 minutes.

After a quick 15 minute trip to the city I was navigating on foot to my hotel in North Terrace opposite the railway station casino. Called the Mercure Grosvenor, it was an older hotel that has been recently refurbished (I have since found out that my mum stayed there years ago). The room was small but more than enough for my needs, it even had an LCD TV with a selection of Foxtel channels for free plus the usual crappy pay through the nose per view movie channels.

Yes I had been laying down on the bed before I took this photo.

Having settled in to my room I decided to hit the town and grab something to eat. I made my way to Hindley Street and then on to Rundle Mall. Rundle Mall is much like Melbourne's Bourke Street Mall, only it is about 3 times as long. Along it were all the usual shops that you find nearly anywhere else, not really that interesting. By the time I got back to the hotel I was hot and sweaty and decided to have a shower and then relax for an hour or so. I ended up watching episodes of Ren and Stimpy, Sponge Bob Squarepants and the Sarah Jane Adventures on Nickelodeon.

Some pigs who just can't help themselves...
Rundle Mall at night

It was getting past dinner time before I decided to go looking for a meal, but didn't really like the offerings and ended up going on a massive walk through some of the seedier parts of town. Being a Sunday night however all the strip clubs were closed (not the reason I was there, but an interesting observation none the less). In the end I bought a Pizza from a shop around the corner and took it back to my room. Nothing like eating pizza in bed!

3 comments:

Daniel said...

So they haven't fixed the Jetbus signage then? It was almost invisible last year when I was there.

Anonymous said...

Seedier parts of town? You went to Northern Adelaide then?

Worst than King Street?

Ben said...

No Daniel, not at all. It is such a shame that such a good bus service for the airport is not given more prominent publicity and signage at the airport.

No, nowhere near as bad as King Street Reuben. It was Hindley Street in the CBD. It is really a motley collection of bars, night clubs and one or 2 adult stores and maybe one strip club(that I saw anyway), and being a Sunday night it was all closed. Perhaps I was embellishing a tad...