Saturday, November 01, 2008

First post of November

This post has no rhyme nor reason other than to bring in the new month.

Tuesday is Melbourne Cup day and I will be returning from a short interstate trip that evening. At work I entered the cup draw/sweep thing and got whatever horse will be in barrier number 2. As far as I know the barriers haven't been drawn yet. I really am not at all interested in horse racing or gambling but thought I may as well go in it. I'm in the $5 draw which has a first prize of about $75 (there are also a $1 and $2 draw). As they say, you have to be in it to win it.

My interstate trip is to Adelaide of all places. It is not quite Australia's least favourite holiday destination, that honour goes to Canberra. when I booked the flights about 6 weeks ago I was trying to get a good deal to Queensland, but all the really cheap flights were already sold. So instead I picked somewhere I hadn't been in a long time. That place just happened to be Adelaide.

I last graced (if you could call it that) her wide streets (I believe King William Street is the widest CBD street in Australia) in 2002 when I did a triangular rail journey from Melbourne-Adelaide-(Broken Hill)-Sydney-Melbourne. I stayed in the YHA hostel in Adelaide and met some interesting people, strangely most people in my room were Australian. There were this young English couple though who I got talking to. For some reason they told me that I was the friendliest Australian they had met on their trip, and that up until that point they thought Australians were stuck up. Mind you they had only been to Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne, and I still wonder who exactly they had been mixing with until that point (perhaps I was the first Australian they had really talked to), or if they were trying to butter me up for some free accommodation or something.

This time however I've opted for more luxurious accommodation, a 4 star hotel no less. Although if the reviews on trip advisor are anything to go by the place should be condemned. The hotel is in an excelent location and has recently been refurbished, so I'm actually looking forward to it.

While in Adelaide I plan to ride the tram to Glenelg and perhaps some of the train lines too. Other than that I'll probably wander around the CBD. Oh I always forget about the O Bahn bus, I should go for a ride on that too. I should try and find some more places to go before I leave.

The first few days of November will be pretty busy for me, but I have no idea what the rest of the month will bring.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would not mind a week in Adelaide to see how much it has changed and their trams are just like Melbourne's Combinos, inadequate air conditioning.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather go to Tasmania than Adelaide. It'll be less hot.

Ben said...

I don't mind Adelaide, the city itself actually has a nice feel to it. I imagine it was even better when all the trams were still running.

I checked the weather, it looks similar to Melbourne over the next few days. Low 20s, overcast and a few showers. Yes warmer than Tasmania.

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