First days in Australia: Adelaide

It is 12 noon. With exhaustion, we finally stand in front of Leonie and Jim's house, our substitute parents for the next week. The two welcome us with open arms and show us their home right away. Our airbnb is located in Adelaide, Plympton Park, in a beautiful residential area right between the beach and the city. With the borrowed bikes, it's only a 10-minute ride to Glenelg and 20 minutes to the city. Our house is truly a little luxury hotel. Pool table, swimming pool, huge kitchen, own fridge, and much more.

But our goal for today is: Stay awake!

After saving and uploading all the experiences from Dubai twice and triple, we hop back on the bikes and head to the beach.

Glenelg - a small town right on the beach. Nothing big, but it doesn't need to be. I sit on the wall right on the beach, just listening to the sound of the waves, gazing into the distance, and think for a moment: Awesome!

After 16 hours of sleep, we head to the city the next morning, specifically the Rundle Mall, a street full of food and shopping.

We hop back on our bikes. After about an hour, my love Lisa Love (haha) stops, turns around, and says: Please don't hate me now, but we are at the wrong end of the city!

73 km and 15 degrees separate us from home. Shit happens! After a desperate fit of laughter, we head back to our airbnb with a stop at Hungry Jacks.

In the first few days, we also had to take care of organizational matters - SIM card, bank account, Tax File Number.

We also met our travel buddy Pia for the first time, who will join us on our road trip. While exploring the beach and the 'Austral', a cool Australian pub, we plan the upcoming week: destinations, equipment, playlist.

One little highlight is definitely the Adelaide Central Market: a market under a parking garage and a colorful mix of lanterns, music, graffiti, and vegetables.

Unfortunately, we don't have luck with the weather in Adelaide and it's pissing (sorry) at every opportunity. We spend our time at home, writing blog posts, editing pictures, reading brochures.

But before we go crazy staying inside, we take the tram and visit the Art Gallery in Adelaide, followed by '50Sixone'. After about 10 Chinese tourists (of course not meant in a bad way, never) came in with Instagram pictures and asked if they were in the right place, we realized that we are sitting in a real Insta-hype place. To all hipster kids and Instagram heroes: Gogogo!

The next day, our first stop is 'Cream' - a breakfast place, if you can call it that. In reality, it was a small room behind an incredibly hidden door, filled with the finest hip-hop music, a large table in the middle, and Tupac posters on the walls. And on top of that, there was the best French Toast - very, very nice.

We quickly burn off the mentioned toast thanks to the tram, which unfortunately does not allow bikes. It's 4:00 pm when we're back home. We've been on our feet a lot, the two of us.

Day 6 takes us to the Himeji Garden and the Botanic Garden in Adelaide. Beautiful plants and bird chirping, a little paradise. In the evening, we go to 'The Original Pancake Kitchen' - Vreni's little paradise.

We spend our second-to-last day here in Adelaide hiking... and walking... and walking even more. It all starts at a bus stop.. in the middle of a highway. Really?! After a moment of confusion when we realize that we're actually walking on a highway, we turn around and then take the 'Bikes only' path. Better than nothing.

With the help of Google Maps & Co., we finally reach the 'Cleland Conservation Park' after 2 hours and follow the hiking trails. The park is beautiful, full of intricate trees and singing birds. And finally, we have the Waterfall Gully in front of us!

Small tip: That wasn't Waterfall Gully.

Unfortunately, we don't have time for the 'Cleland Wildlife Park' and Vreni goes back to the adjacent neighborhood highly depressed. Of course, there is no bus here either, so we ultimately covered a distance of 15 km on foot.

Our last day in Adelaide is used for our camping shopping: sleeping bag, sleeping mat, camping chair, and more for $80. Cheers to Kmart!

In the evening, I take a final photo of the great jetty in Glenelg. Unfortunately, the wind is whistling in my ears and the waves are pulling the sand out from under the tripod. In the end, I managed to capture a few shots. With Leon, the son of our Airbnb parents, we go to a pub on the beach and end the evening with Sangria. The only catch: Leon loses his car keys. So once again, it's the tram for us. That's what we love to do.

Our first week in Australia is behind us. A week full of new impressions and experiences.

Australia welcomed us with open arms from the airport and I can't wait to experience more and more. Our next trip will be in a small VW and a 4-person tent:

Great Ocean Road, here we come!

P.S. to Doug: Dougie, I have a good time!

P.S.S. to Mom & Dad: I love you.

P.S.S.S. to Lisa: I'm always here, even when you're on the other side of the world.