Adelaide Adventures

After living here in South Australia for four months, it was high time we made the trip to ‘our’ new city of Adelaide*. Neither of us had really been to the city of churches before, only very briefly on a school camp en route from Uluru ten years ago. I had a conference in Adelaide about five years ago when I worked for Elders too, but only really saw the inside of the Hilton and talked cattle prices for five days straight. Fun times.

So on Friday night we loaded up the car with a calf puller, vaccine and various other farm supplies and headed to the other farm in the Adelaide Hills – a beautiful property reminding us very much of the familiar rolling Gippsland hills of home, as well as the country in north-east Victoria we also consider ‘home’. Definitely a reminder that, quite literally, the grass is always greener…

After the obligatory farm tour on Saturday morning we headed into Hahndorf, the quintessential Adelaide Hills village. This weekend was more of a getting-our-bearings rather than full emersion in ‘Radelaide’, so Hahndorf was a tick off the tourist trail list. Lots of old stone buildings, German sausages and cuckoo clocks. We wandered the streets, admired far more well kept spaniels than our rough and tumble Tess and enjoyed a berry smoothie complete with milk bottle and stripey straw.

With our hills cherry popped we headed down into the city – first stop for me was the Central Markets, in particular Goodies & Grains, who I found on Facebook and have drooled over for awhile now. It was foodie heaven, I didn’t quite know where to start with so much goodness around me, but grabbed some hard to come by things for this little country mouse. Matt’s one Adelaide request was a trip to 5 Percy Street, Prospect – the original RM Williams store and factory site, another tick off the ‘first-time-in-Adelaide’ list. Then down to Glenelg for a walk along the foreshore, coffee in hand, before checking into our hotel and saying hello to a free bottle of wine.

Coffee replaced with wine, perusing Urbanspoon, I found there was a highly recommended restaurant just behind our hotel, Etica. I wish I had taken my camera, or that my sorry old iPhone battery didn’t die as soon as we got there. It was a very suave little place, very authentic Italian cum hipster trendy eaterie. Highly recommended, pizza was delicious and gnocchi a knock-out. Fantastic service too which always goes a long way, brilliant conversation with my clever husband topped off by a ginormous shared gelato on the walk home. Perfect evening.

Thank-you for a little glimpse into your fabulousness Adelaide, it was just what we needed to whet our appetite, dip our toes in and get off the farm for a few days. Next time I’m hoping to explore some little shops and eat at some more great restaurants, but for now this city-loving-country-living girl is content with her weekend spent in the big smoke. Now back home to ‘Carlton’ to stoke the fire up and bake some scones, rejuvenated with a dose of culture and a pantry stocked with deliciousness.

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Goodies & Grains is at Shop 21/22 Central Market Plaza, Gouger Street, Adelaide. They stock pretty much anything you would ever want to eat…other than fruit and veg but that’s just around the corner in the markets!

Etica – Ethical Pizzeria & Mozarella Bar is at 125 Gilles Street, Adelaide. They’re open for lunch on Friday and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday.

* Melbourne will always be ‘our’ city. Well, mine anyway, Matt claims he gets a rash from going to Melbourne…