Wednesday 10 March 2010

Adelaide - Day 1

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The backpacker's hotel were we spent the night was included in the tour so we didn't book it nor did we know anything about it but it turned up to be the best one so far. Some of the other guys that came with us in the tour from Melbourne didn't like it very much but for us it was a huge improvement over what we had seen and experienced in the past month and a half. One day I'll try to make a post with some of our experiences in our chosen hostels...we could write a book about it!




The only thing I would critisise is the name of the hostel. It is called Cannon street hostel but it actually is in Franklin Street. Go and figure! Breakfast was good, you could even make your own pancakes! Which I obviously did. :-)'''  What a pity I had already sent the maple syrope to Spain.

After that fabulous breakfast we got together with some of the girls we had met in the tour we did from Melbourne (the great ocean road) and went all together for a walk in town.


By the way, Adelaide is also known as the city of the many churches. The reason behind this name is that the State of South Australia was a safe haven for people persecuted in their countries due to their religious believes so a lot of them went to South Australia and most of them to the capital, Adelaide, then over time some churches got "absorved" by some other religion or  the followers of that religion just faded away over time so in many places you can find a lot of offices and houses that used to be churches. Usually the roof is a give away.

With all the free buses and parks, free bike rentals etc... I'm not sure about the amount of money people pay as council tax here but it must be exhorbitant. It's such a nice, quiet and tidy place...

After about 1/2 we finished the tour! :-) There isn't that much to see in Adelaide. It remainded me a bit to Camberra, the capital. All the perfectly aligned streets, the strategically located parks, etc...very pleasant and easy to orientate and walk but not much in it though.
Except for this:


It looks like a spaceship, it feels like a spaceship, it talks like a spaceshipt but it is a talking toilet! You haven't lived until you try one of those. Going to a public toilet will never be the same again!!

I made a recording with the talking toilet but unfortunatelly it is too heavy to upload to the blog but esentially, after pressing the button  from outside, the door slides swiftly and lets you step into the toilet.

The sliding is similar to the one you can see in the doors of any Startrek episode, it really makes you feel like you are on the 21st century!. Once you step in, the door closes after you and a voice tells you you have 3 minutes to do whatever you need to do and get the hell out of there (with a nice and very polite voice of course), after the 3 minutes the door will open by itself, then some classical music starts playing generating a nice and relaxing environment where you can do your business. Finally, the toilet will not flush until you wash your hands. How's that for a toilet!!


After all the excitement we stopped for a break and to decide what to do next.



From right to left: Ofelia (from France), Olivia (from the Ukraine) and Aída.


Next stop was the main street where most of the shops where.


I just couldn't resist this picture... I would have sweared the pig was calling me to get my picture taken with him! :-)

Not sure whether it is the same every day but today there was a market!



So we decided to try some of the local specialities. :-)



Curly potato with chilli and a double  hot dog. It's the first time I try one of those curly potato chips. Really good!


We agreed to meet up with all the others for dinner, so the rest of the  day we just took it easy, caught up with our email, blog, facebook, etc, tried to recover some sleep, relax and chill out esentially.

By dinner time we stumbled across a pretty good chinesse restaurant, cheap and cheerful. :-)



It was too much food, and it was really good. Totally recommended!

After that, we all went back to our respective hostels, some would go to the excursion to Alice Spring, others, like us, shall go to Kangaroo island so we all have an early start tomorrow.

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3 comments:

  1. FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS. JAVI

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  2. Adelaide is best palace for the vacation and it is expensive too. We have planned to book units for rent in Adelaide at the backpacker’s hotel. I have heard it has good service with other facilities. I hope we will have good time with my friends there.

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  3. It's hard not to have a good time in Australia. Adelaide doesn't have much to offer in terms of touristic attractions but you can do some excursions like Kangaroo island which are trully worthy. Avoid the Barrossa Valley one day trip at all cost though!

    That was the most dissapointing trip I did in Australia.

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