Four Down, Two to Go

I've decided recently to make it my goal to visit all six of the Australian states, and hopefully the two territories, during the year that I live here. May sound a bit lofty, but I'm only a month in, and as of this past weekend, I've already crossed four states* off of my list.

The latest state I paid a visit to was South Australia, specifically its capital city, Adelaide. It should be noted that South Australia was the only state in this country settled by free people rather than displaced convicts. More importantly, as I learned at the end of my trip, it is Austin's sister city!

Anyway, upon arrival in Adelaide, we were greeted by Adam, who was raised in this lovely city. He took us down to the beach suburb of Glenelg, where we enjoyed Mexican food, talk of chocolate bilbies and a lovely sunset.

Arriba!

Adam schooling us on his hometown

Sunset over Glenelg

Adam then dropped us at our hotel, and I use that word a bit loosely. It was actually part of a backpackers resort, and what it lacked in number of beds per room (yes, if possible, our accommodations were even cozier than on the trip to Melbourne), it made up for with its staff. The front desk worker was quite obviously German, and every time he spoke, all I could think of was Mike Myers and his Sprockets skit on SNL. I would be hopeless if I actually visited Germany!

Would you like to touch my monkey?

'Dieter' was kind enough to give us some guidance on where to venture that evening, and his suggestion was a festival called The Garden of Unearthly Delights. Adam had also mentioned this as worthy of checking out, so we decided it was a must. After a bit of a walk that included a few wrong turns and time spent on the street corners reading the map like good little tourists, we arrived at the festival!

And being that this is Austin's sister city, it stands to reason that they would have a Crown & Anchor pub. And yes, we did stop for a drink in honor of all of our friends back in ATX...

*the four states I have visited to this point are Queensland (where I live), Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. NSW is a bit of a stretch, as you have to drive through it to get to the airport on the Gold Coast but I have not made an official visit there yet this trip. I have no doubt that I will soon though, as I foresee myself going back to Sydney and, even closer to home, Byron Bay before all is said and done.