Adelaide

I've safely arrived in Adelaide and thus set foot in the state of South Australia (SA). Adelaide is a lot smaller than Sydney or Melbourne but still a big city. They call it the "city of churches", "the city of festivals", and "the 40-minute city". Apparrently you can get anywhere you want to go to in 40 minutes. And 40 minutes after knocking-off time (Feierabend) everyone is home.

One thing that they did well when they built this city is to enclose the 1.5 by 2 km CBD (die Innenstadt) by a ring of green land that separates it from the suburbs around.

It was really nice to see Cori again, my travel mate from Tasmania, and she was happy to see me again too. Unfortunately the car that I was hoping to use (her friend Andre's van) is not fit for use: the registration (Zulassung) has expired on the 1st of April and it seems like I or Cori, not being the owner, can't renew the registration without presenting a written authorization from Andre -- and he is in Thailand at the moment, so this is impossible within the few days that I'll be here. And if you get caught in a car with an expired registration, the fine is so high ($600) you don't want to risk that.

So this is a bit of trouble. But at least in Adelaide the public transport is not too bad and so I can take the bus or tram. I am staying at a hostel in Glenelg, a popular suburb by the beachfront. Yesterday was Cori's birthday so my arrival was good timing, and I had the pleasure of joining her to a very good fish restaurant for birthday dinner.