Into the City

Today I got my first experience of the city of Adelaide!  Blackfriars is about 2 miles north of downtown Adelaide, and today I ventured into it.  There was a Year 10 (or 10th grade) photography class going on an excursion there to take pictures, and I was invited to tag along.  It was really a fun time!  I joined up with a group of 3 boys, and so I got to see everything from with the help of 16 year old tour guides.  They were really a great group to hang out with -- very friendly and certainly entertaining.  We talked all about the differences between Australian and American culture, and they cued me in on some of their popular slang terms.  The two biggest ones are “heaps” and “cheers” and some of the others I probably shouldn’t mention on this blog…I also learned that American music and TV is even more popular here than it is in the U.S. – 10,000 miles away, and I can’t escape Lady Gaga!

"Planking" -- it's the thing to do in Australia

We started off our tour of the city at the Rundle Mall, the major downtown shopping center.  It was  a really cool area with plenty to see and do – sort of like Faneuil Hall in Boston but “heaps” cooler because it’s in Australia.  I didn’t go into too many of the shops but I will be sure to visit it again before I leave – there’s a really famous chocolate shop there, and plenty of Australian souvenir stores.

Adelaide is actually a pretty clean city

That artwork kind of disturbed me...

Apparently it's a famous landmark in the city -- "Sydney's got the opera house and Adelaide's got the balls" according to one of the boys

 

After that, we made our way over to the Adelaide festival center, where they have two big theaters, an open plaza, a grassy area, and a fountain by the River Torrens.  Some of the boys enjoyed throwing bread to the geese, and I was just amazed at how long and bendy their necks were!  They’re definitely different than our geese back home. 

For the first day of Australian winter, the weather was beautiful – sunny and 65.  People don’t believe how different the winters are by Boston!

Around 12:30 we headed over to the Adelaide Botanical Gardens, which were really cool.  Australian plants are so different from anything I’ve seen before, and the gardens were a great place to see them.  I spent about half of my time with some of the boys, and the other half just wandering to my heart’s content, which I always enjoy.  I’m still amazed every time I see a palm tree, and the birds down here sound so cool!  I got to see a pretty rare one that was perched in a nearby tree, which really made my afternoon.

 

Getting a taste of Adelaide today really made me all the more excited to check out other places around the area.  I’m already working on plans to get to some wildlife parks and a nearby island, and so I’ll be sure to update you on all of my South Australia excursions!