Adelaide

The overnight bus was horrible. Well wait a sec, let me preface the negatives with the one positive: we had sweet seats; it was a double decker bus and we ended up with the top front seats, right above the driver. It was like we were in a very low flying aircraft. Okay so the negatives: I think part of it was because we left earlier and arrived earlier than the last one. The part was that there was a man sitting across the aisle from us whose phone kept ringing VERY loudly and he was sleeping right through it. It rang at least 5 times before he noticed it. The final part was that it was freeeezing on this bus. Luckily it was warm in Adelaide and I warmed up quickly. We got to the Adelaide bus depot right on time at 6am. We could see our hostel from the bus depot but reception didn’t open until 7am. After killing that hour we headed over, about 50m, and went inside. Of course they couldn’t check us in yet because they were booked solid and our beds wouldn’t be available until after 10am check out time, but we could put our stuff in the storage room, have breakfast, watch TV, hang out, etc. Fair enough. We went to check out this free breakfast they’d advertised for on the internet. It was white bread for toast, 3 kinds of jam, “spread” (think sort of like butter), powdered coffee, tea, full cream milk, fresh fruit, and pancakes. The pancakes were not what I envisioned, which was a cheery hostel worker in front of a griddle creating magical, fluffy pancakes for all until the batter ran out. Instead it was just a jug of batter and we were to make our own. I tried but it was tough without a non-stick pan or oil/butter. In the end I had some sort of pan cake type thing. After that we headed over a block to the Central Market, on 5 days of the week, and bustling with activity. There are fruit and vegetable stands, cheese, baked goods, the usual, at this market. Kate had read somewhere that this was the biggest produce market in the Southern Hemisphere, but we both thought that was very wrong; the market in Melbourne was much bigger. We both made a few purchases and then head back to the hostel. At this point we were both sleeping on our feet. Keeping my eyes open was the biggest struggle of all time it seemed. We went back to the hostel and waited another 1.5 hours before getting our beds. Then I slept for 3.5 hours. I could’ve slept all day. I forced myself to get up and walk around town. At first it seemed like a ghost town, especially coming from big and busy Melbourne, but then I got to Rundle Street and the city came alive. There were tons of people and buskers all over. The city definitely has that small city feel to it though. I wandered for a few hours and then came back for dinner and free apple pie (another feature of this hostel). It was not bad for being free. We were going to go out, or at least check out the hostel bar, but Kate feel asleep pretty earlier and I didn’t protest as I was pretty beat as well.
Somehow, we both managed to sleep at least 11hours. I got up and booked my Bali flights! Three weeks exactly, I am so excited! Then I head into town and checked out the Sunday Rundle Street market. It was small and seemed over priced to me. I am turning into a market veteran. Then I strolled through the Botanic Gardens and along the Torrens River for a bit before realizing I was still tired (probably from too much sleep) and a little bored. I went for a run later and that woke me up a little, but otherwise all I want to is lay about like a bum.
Today was Beach day even though I woke up feeling yuck. I finally got out to Glenelg around 1pm and headed straight for the beach. It was great: there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean, the sky was blue, and there were hardly any people on the beach! Kate joined me later and we went to get 2-4-1 ice cream at Andersen's (not Coppenhagen, haha). Then I went back to the beach, fell asleep for over an hour, read some more and then decided to start heading back towards the tram to the city. That's when I had a seashell overload! I was just going to dip my feet in the water and walk along the beach, but then I saw the shells and went a little bit nuts! haha I made myself go quickly but still managed to end up with 2 handfulls. I sat on some rocks at one end of the beach and sorted through them, taking only the most beautiful of course, hahaha.