Eating Crow

Today I take off for Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, for no other reason than I've never been there. I'm a little excited to see this city as my mother raves about it. I figured that since I'll be gone for the weekend, I might as well update my progress now.

A few days ago a powerful weather system moved through the region bringing howling winds. I don't know exactly how fast they were but winds of up to 90km/h were recorded in Sydney and that was the same system. Although the windstorm brought clouds there wasn't much in the way of rain. The system has now cleared and we've got nothing but sunny weather. Unfortunately, according to the forecasts, my time in Adelaide will be rainy.

In my last post I mentioned Roman and Oksana who had come down for a wedding and I said that it was for Oksana's friend. Shortly thereafter I received a, may I say terse, e-mail friend reminding me that it was Oksana's sister that was getting married up in the Blue Mountains, not her friend. Now, I don't know Oksana's family dynamic but I imagine if she's come from Canada to see her sister get married, they must be friends. I stand by my earlier statement.

Now, a little about Adelaide and South Australia. South Australia was founded by free settlers, unlike the rest of Australia which had convict settlement, although the man who though up the idea was a convict and was in Newgate Prison in London when he thought up the idea. Some of the earliest settlers were Germans who established the wine industry in the Barossa Valley, now a premier viticultural area. The Germans had a particular dish involving crows and to this day South Australians are known as "crow-eaters". Because it accepted non-conformist thinkers South Australia has usually been a little more liberal than the rest of Australia.

Adelaide, named after a Queen of the UK, with a population of 1.1 million, is Australia's 5th largest city after Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Its center is laid out in a grid pattern and is the only major city in the world who's central district is entirely surrounded by parks. It is home to many festivals, giving the name "The Festival State" to South Australia. I'll see if Adelaide is as wonderful as my mother says it is.