The airport was an interesting mix of people either looking wide awake and caffeine buzzed, or like zombies continuing their New Years celebration a bit too late in the morning. Our flight was practically empty and gave us views of sprawling rocky mountain terrain, dry farmland, and very little of anything else. The inhabitants of our hostel didn’t seem to be in any better shape than the airport zombies, with even the front desk staff trying to stay awake, apologizing for his hoarse voice and clouded thoughts. We entered our 8-bed room to find the hostel boss asleep on one of the mattresses with his fat stomach rolling out of the bottom of his shirt and his deep snores rumbling through our whispering. How professional.
We tried to shower and unpack as quickly as we could to escape the sleeping mammoth in our room.
We tried to follow a self walking tour printed in a tourist brochure, but it was terribly done, so we just ended that and wandered around. Strike one. We found ourselves at Rundle Mall. The giant pedestrian road was lined with designer shops and grocery stores on either side. We found an info desk for tourists and decided we were going to walk to the free bike pick up to tour the city and give our feet a rest. After a foot blistering walk to the bike shop, we found a sign on the door saying they were closed on New Year’s Day. Great, strike two.
Next we walked through the botanical gardens to the National Wine Center with tastings and a museum. It also had a “Closed” sign on the door. Strike three.
We gave up on trying to do anything productive, went to Mcdonalds for dinner and headed back to the hostel for bed.
The next day we knew it was going to reach 108 degrees, so we tried to plan our entire day based off of how cool we could be. The free team took us to the Central Market (air conditioned) where we walked past stalls of meat, fruits, baked good, and our breakfast selection of yogurt.
Another bus took us from the market to the South Australia museum (air conditioned), where we learned all about the aboriginal culture’s history, way of life, and present day challenges. Fun fact: aboriginals used to use plants to poison the water that the animals drank from, making the animal dazed and easy to hunt.
Byron and I have a short tolerance for museums, so after learning about aboriginals, we headed to the National Wine Center (also air conditioned). We learned about how the grapes are selected, pressed, stored and bottled, but that could only hold our attention for so long and it was time to find our next activity to stay cool. Glenelg Beach offered refreshing ocean water and shade underneath a pier that jutted out into the water. Without any motivation to move from our sanctuary from the heat, we lazed around all afternoon reading, swimming, and enjoying a beachside beverage while watching the sun set.
