Things to do in Adelaide and Brisbane

So tomorrow morning I'm going to Adelaide for a few days to see the only giant pandas in the southern hemisphere. After that I'll be going to Brisbane for a few days before returning home for the last semester of my bachelor of law! Woo hoo!

If you have any suggestions of what else I can do while I'm in Adelaide or Brisbane, please comment! :D

Marrickville Markets

I’ve wanted to go to the Marrickville Markets ever since I heard about them and the amazing dumplings you can get there. And while I didn’t end up eating dumplings yesterday (they’d sold out!) there were plenty of other stalls to make it worth my while.

Wandering through the markets I was struck not only by the smells of gourmet sausages, bacon and egg rolls, fresh coffee and gozleme, but also by the sense of community. The markets seem like a place you would go to with friends, but if you do go on your own I’m sure you’d pick up a few friends along the way; a characteristic which defines the inner west.

Browsing through stalls with clothes, home wares, organic fruit and vegetables, breads and cakes, essential oils and incense, fair-trade coffee and ageing books, my grumbling tummy got the better of me. After a painstaking process of indecision and hunger, we finally decided on nachos and spinach and cheese gozleme, followed by banana and chocolate (nutella) gozleme for dessert. We sat and ate on the grass, watching the ponies clip-clop around and the many groups of families and friends enjoying each others’ company and the laid-back atmosphere of the markets.

I’d definitely recommend the Marrickville Markets on a lazy Sunday for anyone in or outside of the area; it’s definitely worth travelling to.

The markets are on every Sunday 8.30am-3pm at the Addison Road Community Centre, 142 Addison Road Marrickville. Check out more info at www.organicfoodmarkets.com.au

Zoo day

We packed our lunch, jumped on a train, hopped on a ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo. In between oodles of cinnamon donuts from my local bakery we saw a few animals and took a few photos. Unfortunately the donuts didn’t tempt the animals to jump the fence and runaway with me in my handbag.

As an all-time lover of elephants (a love originating from the similarities of my name Elyse to the word elephant), I was super-excited to see the baby elephant nicknamed Mister Shuffles. If you can’t make it to the zoo before he grows up, make sure you follow him on Twitter (@MisterShuffles). The elephant playtime made me fall in love with these intelligent animals even more, watching them kick around soccer balls, play frisbee and balance on logs. It also made me feel sad for the elephant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia who walks around Wat Phnom all day, every day.

A few other favourites were the gangly giraffes and striking zebras, both of which I fell in love with in Kenya. (In Kenya, we almost went to a giraffe orphanage, but went to an animal orphanage instead :O )

This time next week I’ll be at the Adelaide Zoo visiting the Giant Pandas, so it won’t be long before I’m blogging about zoos again!