Where's the beach?

This is the second of the two-parter. Go ahead and read the first part. It’s just down there.

After writing yesterday’s blog, I was very tired (something I alluded to in the earlier blog). Knowing that going to sleep wouldn’t be a good idea, and with England losing heavily in the cricket, I decided to go for a walk in the area near the hotel. Adelaide is a city surrounded by big parks (something I found out on Google maps), so it was only a 5 minute walk to find the local football pitch. Hoping there would be some locals around playing some sort of sport (so I’d be able to join in), I wandered around the various parks (there’s loads of them all sort of linked together in a belt around the city) but sadly there was nobody around for me to join in with (except some kids playing tennis. I don’t play tennis, despite my superb performances for Aldercombe in house tennis last year). Walking back to my digs, I saw through an estate agents window (I don’t know why it was on either) that the cricket was actually quite close, and could be a tight finish. I then walked back into the main part of town to the pub I’d been at earlier, to watch the climax of a game that wasn’t actually that close at all.

While drinking my ludicrously expensive cider and sitting quietly in the corner, England took a wicket, which I celebrated by clenching my first and saying something like “Go on Yardy lad”. A pretty standard wicket taking celebration. However, my behaviour was noted by a group of blokes who I could only describe as ‘drunk Aussies’. They then starting audibly sledging me, with every run Australia scored being used as a taunt. While it was all good-humoured, combined with another inept performance from England, meant that it wasn’t my happiest experience of watching cricket. But oh well!

This morning I woke up, and went to try and find the British Embassy. My passport doesn’t have too long left, and what with flying to South Africa at the end of the week, I just wanted to confirm that everything would be fine. However, the address given to me via the internet, and confirmed on Google Maps actually turned out to be a sandwich shop. While they did do a nice chocolate and honey flavoured milkshake, they weren’t able to give me any advice regarding my passport. So instead, I went for a walk along the river, and got the bus to Glenelg.

Glenelg is basically a beach resort, and in a word, it’s lovely. The beach was pretty much empty, so I was able to leave all of my bits and pieces in my shoe, and go for a dip in the sea. Last week, I went for a swim off Tasmania, where the water was approximately -30 Celsius. However, the sea in South Australia is fantastic; clear, blue and warm. After a walk up the beach, I went into the town, which is really nice. There was a nice parky bit to sit (if the beach wasn’t for you), as well as a really cool resort type thing, where you can buy tokens and go on water slides, crazy golf or arcade games. (I didn’t do it today, but will be back to have a go!). There were also a few restaurants, and I saw a really cheap deal for fish and chips, so I thought I’d have some of that. And it was probably the best fish and chips I’ve ever had; the chips especially were incredible. To get to Glenelg, I had to get a 50 minute long bus through various suburbs, which was slightly tortuous. However, to get back, I found there are trams going directly into the heart of Adelaide, which was both much quicker and much cheaper. I’ll definitely be going back at some stage this week; it was awesome.

So that’s what I got up to today. Who knows what I’ll be up to tomorrow? Until then, Will