Life in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

View of River Torrens and the Adelaide Oval

12th July 2017 - My flight to Australia. This was the day. After contemplating about how it would be and what would happen on my year abroad. The day finally arrived. I booked my flight to Australia on the 26th of April 2017. It was almost a 1000 pound return I remember. So I knew there was no backing out now. Anyways when the day finally arrived I was excited but also a little nervous. But I was eager and just wanted to pass the first hurdle which was to get Australia and get through that incredibly long 22.5-hour flight (14.5 hours to Hong Kong, 8 hours to Adelaide).

Let’s fast forward the journey now. I reached Adelaide at I guess 6am in the morning on the 14th July 2017. It felt like a whole two day time travel because of the time difference. I had travelled with two other study abroad students who were staying at a different accommodation to mine. I was staying at a University managed accommodation called the University of Adelaide Village. We parted ways after that long and exhausting  journey as I had a separate driver from the University pick me up from the airport and they had a separate one. The receptionist checked me in after about an hour of me getting to the accommodation. This was because it was really early in the morning and the reception did not open till later. I remember being extremely exhausted as I did not get any sleep on my journey to Australia. I had not done a long haul flight in a while so I was not used to sleeping on the plane. Once I was finally checked in to my room I just wanted to get into bed. But I knew I needed to shower and also make my bed.

The videos above show my little room and my shared kitchen that I shared with 4 other lovely ladies.

Hallet Cove, South Australia, Australia

Now living in Adelaide was just super fun. At the start, I thought OMG a whole year how will I do it? But honestly, the time just flew and there was just so much to do. I did not ever get bored during my time in Australia. I met some of the bestest people and visted some of the bestest places.

Mount Lofty/Waterfall Gully Trip

What I truly enjoyed about Adelaide was knowing that I could just go and take a hike or more so go 'bushwalking' whenever I felt like. The nature, the fresh smell of leaves and the blue sky was never a disappointment. It's so hard to find a city that has pretty much everything to offer but Adelaide surely had everything and more. 

Victor Harbour/Granite Island South Australia

Victor Harbour/Granite Island South Australia

The beaches and the surrounding coastal areas were an absolute delight. Above are photographs from Victor Harbour. Victor Harbour is a coastal town about an hour or so away from the city of Adelaide. Just a lovely place to visit as a day trip and the coast surely was a definite treat to the eye. I visited Victor Harbour in the month of July. If you are not aware but the seasons in Australia are completely opposite to the seasons in the North. So July in Adelaide is considered as 'Winter'. But having said that the winter season was relatively mild there and I would describe it more as British Autumn days more than winter. I mean just look at those photographs. That does not look like winter at all. But that was definitely one thing I loved about Australia. The bluest of skies you will ever see and pretty much great weather all year around.

Port Noarlunga, South Australia 

Henley Beach, Adelaide

It is honestly really difficult summarising all these beautiful locations in a single blog post. Like I mentioned Adelaide pretty much had everything a city could have. The beaches were so pretty and not too far away from where I lived. It often took about 10-15 mins by car or 20 minutes by public transport to get these gorgeous locations. What I really liked was that they were not overpopulated locations and you could really just enjoy the nature and the views after having a long day of work or whatever (not that I did a lot of work whilst I was there hehe). Another great thing was the sun would always set in the direction of the sea so you can only imagine how incredible the sunset at the beach would be. Some things I just could never get enough of and would relive a 1000 times over if I could. 

Grote Street, Adelaide, Australia

Now just look at how gorgeous the sunset looks. The street above was the street where I lived. This was where the University of Adelaide Village was located. I used to find these streets massive. I guess I must have taken this shot on my way back from Coles (the supermarket) back to my home. The walk to the supermarket was about 10 minutes but for some reason I always found it a bit of a trek, especially after a long day of groceries. Another good thing was the Adelaide Central Markets were also right next to Coles and were just amazing. I never thought I would find bargaining so much fun and buying discounted fruits and vegetables certainly made my day. Guess that's just what Adult life is about sometimes. 

Victoria Square/ Rundle Mall

So the main sort of area around Adelaide was the square above which if you followed through it would lead you to King William Street and eventually you would end up in Rundle Mall. Rundle Mall was the main shopping area of Adelaide and was more of an outdoor Mall with shops following the street. I would walk down this route on my way to University so the temptation to shop was always real. 

Right, I think I might call this blog a day and continue maybe do Part 2 to Living in Adelaide sometime instead. As I mentioned it is extremely difficult if not impossible, to sum up, a year of experiences in a city into one blog. Thus far, I might try and do snippets instead of small experiences here and there rather than one huge blog. I think I started drafting this blog post almost 2 months ago but because I have started a full-time job recently and have been a bit busy with some other things, I found it a little difficult to find the time to finish it. Anywho, if you did make it this far and actually bothered to read everything then thank you ever so much. I do appreciate the time and I hope you found what I have written interesting. :) 

See you soon. 

Love Aisha x