Touchdown

I think I am ready to find a job as real estate agent in Adelaide. But let me start from the beginning of this rather lengthy story. 

Elvira and myself arrived in Adelaide two weeks before commencing studies and work respectively. This would give us enough time to find an apartment, move in and set up our "base camp" - that was the theory anyway. With hindsight this was a rather naïve plan. 

Firstly we were only looking for a six month lease term - not good! Aussies like to rent out for 12, so if anyone applied for a year we were out. Period. Secondly we needed something furnished - even worse. Finding an affordable flat in Adelaide is like looking for a grass patch in the Sahara. Wanting a fully furnished apartment is asking for the blades to be lush green rather than brown. Not very probable. And last but not least we did not have an Aussie -> English translator with us. Otherwise we would have known that "you'll hear from us on Friday" means that the very earliest time to expect a call is Monday (althogh that is a brave estimate - Tuesday might be more like it). I don't have a problem with that but having this information is vital to plan accordingly.

Clearly were not moving in before the two weeks went by. But we did have a promising application in the pipeline and on Friday (21.09) the real estate agency confirmed that we could relocate on Tuesday (25.9). Since I did not receive a call to pick up the keys (confirmation in Aussie is a synonym for a vague statement) I phoned the agency on Tuesday morning - only to find out that they were very surprised by my call. Their plan was handing over the keys on Saturday 29.9 (definitely translation issues!) - and we had checked out of our hostel already. Argh!

Not taking the risk of further Aussie -> English misunderstandings I went to their office and was not going to leave without the keys. They were handed over to me with the comment that we might not have electricity... WHAT? Availability of electricity obviously isn't a prerequisite for a "move in ready" apartment in Australia. 
Jumped on the phone and rang the electricity company whilst picturing how the two girls (especially Inessa but also Elvira) would react to the proposal of a lukewarm, candle cooked soup and brushing teeth with headlamps on... 
Surprisingly the electricity company was very speedy - at 16:55 we were officially on the grid. The girls were cheering as if they were Thomas Edison demonstrating an effective light bulb for the first time. And I was happy about not having to sell them the whole scout thing as something romantic and unique (although that is exactly my opinion).

So yes, we have moved in and we like our little flat. A big step towards feeling at home. And if anyone wants to move to Adelaide in the next few weeks / months: drop me a message for translation services or other hints. Office hours are from 9 am - 5 pm...;)

Clockwise starting from top left: Entrance, light well in front of the flat, one of the bedrooms and the kitchen

This left doesn't feel right...

...or "we officially have the cleanest windscreen in South Australia". I could not decide which one of those titles I wanted to use since they are both equally fitting. You can probably already guess why - if not then you’ll know by the end of this post.

Last Sunday Elvira, Inessa and myself were accompanied by Tycho - a very relaxed, cool and likeable Dutch guy who had a few stories up his sleeve. Not surprisingly after eight months of travelling in Australia. 

We chose to drive to the Adelaide Hills which is a lovely, rolling landscape, very green with lots of trees, supposedly reminiscent of NZ. If that is the case Elvira and myself might need to alter our travelling plans and visit New Zealand before departing for Asia… Anyhow there are a few things to see in the hills like Mt Lofty (great view over Adelaide), the toy factory with the "big rocking horse" (we didn't go there though), wineries and several wildlife sancturaries with the typical flora and fauna of this area. We chose to visit the Warrawong wildlife sancturay because it was on our route and, as a bonus, free of charge. Then there is Hahndorf - touted as a "German" town but overall rather disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it is a lovely place to see - but nowhere close to any place you'll find in Germany or even "Europe" for that matter (how I dislike to use the misleading collective term Europe). Yes there are lots of German flags, bars are playing "Bierkeller songs" and excessively expensive German products like Milka chocolate ($ 5.50) can be bought. But to me it failed to shake off the fake hue that usually surrounds mediocre theme parks... 

Top row: Elvira with lazy kangaroos and cockatoo showing off, bottom left: unusual nest placement in Hahndorf, 

bottom right: view over Adelaide from Mt Lofty (Pictures by P.Wettstein)

Since Elvira and myself did not work yet we chose to get up early, fetch the rental car and pick up our two friends at the hostel – sounded pretty straight forward in theory. Elvira steered straight towards the driver’s seat although I was meant to drive – welcome to Australia. Once we had that sorted out I wanted to shift into first gear but pulled on the door handle instead – needless to say that the employees from the rental company were starting to look quite worried… Anyhow I managed to drive off and turned left – with no indicator but wipers going at full speed instead. No matter how hard I tried it kept on happening for the whole day and I felt like a clueless 18 year old taking his first driving lesson... 

Sticker placed on our Windscreen - just to make sure... (Picture: Government of SA)

We did manage to get through the day without causing an accident. But I am tempted to open up a rental car business for tourists with wipers and indicators the "proper" way around – it might even be funded by the Australian government in the interest of safety. With roughly six million tourists per year (vs. 22 million Australians) it could be worth it... :)

A green day under blue skies

Being green has become fashionable in the past few years. Concerns about climate change have sparked actions in countries all over the world - even the ones notoriously known for their high greenhouse gas emissions like the USA and Australia which has been in the "per capita top 10" greenhouse gas emitters for the last twelve years. Today we profited from one of these efforts towards becoming "greener". Adelaide has a great programme called BIKeSA which encourages its citizens to use the bicycle more often. Anyone can rent a bike for free (if it is returned by 4:30 pm - otherwise is costs 25 AUD) and use it for the whole day.

This was the perfect opportunity for us (Elvira, our new friend Inessa and myself) to explore the surroundings of the city on two human powered wheels whilst doing something for the environment and for our own health. The lovely weather (blue skies and ca. 24 °C) made the decision easy. We chose to head towards Glenelg, a small town rouhgly 12 km southwest from Adelaide located directly on the beachfront. Many people from the city go to Glenelg since a tram conveniently connects the two.

(Adapted from Google maps)

Although I have lived in England for four years cycling on the left side of the road was rather challenging after 11 years of driving on the right (=correct;)) side... Surprisingly there are numerous cycling lanes in Adelaide and even a separate bicycle path almost stretching the whole distance from the suburbs of the city to Glenelg. The girls left the honour of being "el navigator" to me so I had to find a safe (and preferably lovely) path out and afterwards back into the city. I won't tell you how well I did - but we're all alive and back at the hostel...

Smelling the sea and feeling the sand again was great after over a year of marine abstinence. We loved it so much that we cycled along the coast line up to West Beach before returning to Adelaide along the banks of River Torrens. All in all we loved exploring the area round the city by bicycle and we will surely do that a few more times. But next time we won't let the spring weather fool us and use sunscreen before going outside. The attentive observer will note that our noses have a slight reddish tough - reminiscent of a famous reindeer. But one that tried to cover up his conspicuous nose with some make-up...

Last but not least a few impressions of todays trip. By the way: wearing a helmet whilst cycling is enforced by law. Breaking it means certain death (judging by the well known rigor of Australian law enforcement).

(All pictures: copyright P. Wettstein)

We have arrived...

... physically at least. But I'll get to that later. After a flight from Zürich with stopovers in Dubai, Singapore and Melbourne we landed in Adelaide which is the capital of South Australia. We took the bus to the north of the CBD (= Central Business District i.e. the town center for the ones who do not know) and the very friendly driver showed us which bus virtually would stop in front of our hostel. However, we decided to walk in order to get our systems going again (after a 30 h journey). Apparently our systems were very rusty - in a fit of motivation we walked way past our destination (both with a 30 kg suitcase + hand luggage) and found ourselved on south terrace which is the southern boundary of Adelaide's CBD. We then decided to take the tram back up north which also stops near the hostel...

We have now spent three nights in Adelaide and we absolutely love it so far. Getting back to arriving: we still feel like we're walking around in a zoo or a botanic garden. We are still excited that the main city birds seem to be parrots (rather than pigeons as would be expected coming from Zürich). We still stop at almost every tree or flower because they all look so unfamiliar. We love the fact that all the swans we have seen so far are black. Things that locals do not seem to take notice of any more. In fact, a good way to distinguish locals from tourists is to check whether they still turn around to see a parrot whizz past...;)

The city itself isn't huge - even for someone from Switzerland where a town of 50'000 is already big. Therefore we did a lot of walking to familiarize with the area. Since Adelaide is a planned town (i.e. it is essentially a grid of streets - well known from North American cities) orientation is much easier than in 'organically' grown cities. This facilitates our flat search quite a bit. However, the latter turns out to be rather difficult without having to make concessions with respect to location, price or comfort. 

All in all we feel great here in Adelaide. It has definitely not become 'routine' to me yet and everything is still exciting and new. And to be honest - I hope that it will remain that way and that I will still notice every parrot come the day we leave...