The train ride to Adelaide from Sydney took 24 hours. We left at 3pm in the afternoon from Sydney, and arrived the next day in Adelaide about the same time. On the train we meet some interesting people, mostly Australians, ate delicious food, and enjoyed the views trough the windows. The Blue Mountains were amazing, and the stop in Broken Hill (population 21,500), known as the Silver City because of its grand mining heritage founded on silver, lead, and zinc, was very special thanks to the private sightseeing we were given by George’s boss’ mom who lives there. Sleeping was a little rough due to some serious rocking and shaking all night. A fellow traveler said she felt like she was sleeping in a washing machine. It turns out the train tracks between Sydney and Adelaide are the roughest, but they do get better as you travel on we were told. Arriving in Adelaide, we were met by Gavin (George’s boss) and his wife who were putting us up for a couple of nights. For the next couple of days it was a whirlwind of sightseeing and touring around town and even getting a trip out to Barossa Valley www.barossa.com/ and Riverland http://www.riverland.info/. They did a wonderful job making us feel welcomed and giving us an idea of where we now were going to live for at least a year. Then we moved in to a Hotel in the city. George went to work at the University, and I went to work trying to find a place for us to rent. We spent two weeks in town, that was kind of nice, and gave us a chance to find our way around, but we wanted to live outside town by the beach since we had that option. Then we would be able to enjoy the outdoors a lot more. It’s also so easy to get back and forth with public transportation (parts of trips are for free in the city) , which is amazing down here in every town we been to so far! (Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne). So let me tell you a little about Adelaide with a population of approximately 1,204,000. The ethnicity backgrounds of most people in this area are English, Greek, and Italian. Therefore the city is full of Pubs, Greek restaurants, and Italian cafés and restaurants. I am not kidding. Out here where we live by the beach, we have within a 10 min walk a really nice Italian, a very nice Greek, and a Fish and Chips place that has been named the “best in Adelaide”! There were also a lot of Germans that came here and some moved up the hill and built their own town called Hahndorf. Hahndorf is Australia's oldest surviving German settlement. I guess this explains why every restaurant seems to have Fish and Chips, Schnitzel, and Gyros on their menu. The café life is very vibrant, and they are always full of people having their “short black”, “long black”, “regular white soy”, or cappuccino (my favorite and the best I ever had). Adelaide is definitely a nice and somewhat small city, easy to get around, and with the best open air market in the country, I think. I go there usually every Thursday or Friday to load up with all kinds of tasty stuff for the weekend www.adelaidecentralmarket.com.au/. Adelaide is also known for all the festivals held here, and let me tell you there was one after another and sometimes more than one going on the same time in February and March. But the beauty of Adelaide I think is the closeness to the long beautiful beaches and all the quaint beach cities along it. Henley Beach, West Beach, Glenelg, www.glenelgsa.com.au/ and more. There are walk and bike paths along the whole stretch, and nice parks and benches along the way where you can sit and take it all in. There are always people out and about biking, walking, and swimming, no matter what the weather is it seems like. And always a few tourists and many different languages are spoken around you, but there is plenty of room, and it never feels crowded, not even on a beautiful weekend. The river Torrens runs right through Adelaide and out into the ocean just south of where we live, so you can also walk or bike along the river all the way in to town. There is the most amazing birdlife to watch along it like Australian Pelicans, Egrets, Cockatoos, and many more. Everybody you talk to down here seem to be from somewhere else. My hair dresser was born in Germany. George’s workmate who had us over for a dinner party is from Iran, and there we met people from Scotland and Holland. Most people born here have parents born somewhere else, so you realize quickly how young this country is.