Sweet Adelaide..

Here we are in Adelaide, Southern Australia. It was a 3.5 hour flight from Perth, where we lost 2.5 hours. Not sure where that .5 hours comes from, an Aussie thing I guess. I do not question. When we arrived, I was a bit disappointed, well a lot disappointed in our “5 star” accommodations. I guess the star rating is different here because the hotel we are in is : a)very old and b) some stains in the furniture and c) not the “nouveau décor” they advertised. Sorry- these things make me worry about bed bugs, etc. but I cannot right now.. We do have a one bedroom suite which makes up for the bed bug worry. (Did ANYONE see the Dateline story but me? about this issue-old beds=bed bugs)..

We are in the heart of the city of Adelaide, which seems to be growing on me. We ate at a great Indian restaurant last night and tumbled into bed at a decent hour, even with the time change. This AM I felt like a new person walking out on the street, we immediately found a McDonald’s which offered FREE Internet service as opposed to the $40 per day at the hotel-seriously? That was OK..we enjoyed our McCafe and Muesli per McDonalds. I have yet to figure out the whole “hot plate” water warming system here to make coffee in the rooms. They all have it so I know it is possible but darned if I can figure it out!
Next off to the Southern Australia tourism office, where the poor chap spent an hour with us while we figured out what the hell we are doing the next few days. We settled on a car tomorrow (god help us in the big city driving), where we will travel down the coast to the beaches of southern Australia, followed by a ferry trip Wed to “Kangaroo Island” where we will spend Wed-Sat there exploring wildlife and hopefully see some real Kangaroos at last.

Next we were off to the Adelaide Zoo where we were some of the first folks to see the “Giant Pandas” just shipped in from Japan. They were very cute (pics to follow on FB). Sleeping 10 hours a day did not give us much active Panda watching but it was really fun. After the zoo, we walked around and visited the “Migration Museum” where we learned that the British took over the Indigenous people here (sound familiar?) and killed them off to create a new society. I think some of the native cultures are finally reclaiming their heritage and past. It is unreal how white, Anglo-Saxons thought they ruled the world at one time. I am a descendent of one of those I suppose..

Tea on the mall, people watching, lots of walking today..Hopefully will walk off all the food I am consuming. We are off to try out a great steak house tonight and hopefully see the Christmas lights of the VictoriaSquare tonight..

As an aside I have tried “Nads” to take off my facial hair, since my wonderful esthetician is not here with me. I think it works..I have taken half my chin skin off as a result. I am getting tanner by the day, although using 50 SPF sunscreen. This is not attractive on 55 year old skin..Holy cow I feel old!
I try to use my cell phone to call the US. No one here seems to know how to do this. Is it that hard? Will have to stick to Skype I guess..