So much is happening! Where to start?

Wow. I had to go back and read my last entry to know where this one should begin!

This city is amazing. The buildings are constructed very similarly to Mexico, (here reminds me more of mexico than Canada), the houses are built for the heat. Shiny tin or clay shingled roofs, bricks. Palm trees... and even though the heat is sweltering this time of year, the vegitation is diversified and can be very lush in shady areas...
Spent two nights at the first hostel... Visited the Botanical gardens and the Art gallery, both of which were spectacular. The botanical gardens had specimins from all over this part of the world. Rows and rows of 150 year old fig trees that grow to be enourmous... never seen anything quite like them. And there are more varieties of Eucalyptus (gum trees) than I can count. They are everywhere around here.
The art gallery, which was free admission, featured work of South australians, largely, in the period of the last 200 years or so... There was also a Picasso original sketch, a Matisse, a few Chagalls and a Dahli piece... and a few others that I could hardly tear myself away from... I had just short of an hour to soak it up before the gallery closed.
In the botanical gardens I met another solo traveller, a German guy named Vinzent. We ended up trekking back to my hostel to meet up with Henning and Maki for some pints and fine South Autralian wine, which is cheap and plentiful here. Something like 40% of australia's wine comes out of this small region of S.A.
I have learned alot about the politcal systems, mindsets and traditions of German, Japanese (especially), Norviegian and Swedish peoples as of late... very fascinating stuff...
Any how... we all went our separate ways yesterday... Henning and Maki finding work north of the city in the desert and Vinzent going to Alice springs... but it turns out that we all travelling to New Zealand within about 4 days of eachother, so we have planned to meet up and perhaps rent a vehical or something. see how that comes together.
I decided to head out to the beach... all of the locals reccomend Glenelg (the last 'g' is silent) and I see what all the hype is about. It was beautiful. was also crowded as hell. I had to call a reservation in on a hostel and the beaches were packed with young people. This beach culture is still new to me... having grown up 1200km from the ocean... My Canadian winter skin is slowly taking on some colour. I'd rather slow than straight to red.
Glenelg was nice - but too crowded and too full surfers and ditzy girls... guess some things are universal. I'm looking forward to moving on to less touristy, more backpacker type destinations.
Interesting thing happened at the beach though.
I was sitting for a nice meditation... decided to go for a dip (the ocean is beautifully warm) the water was crowded. I found a nice place to swim near a lady and her kids. She turns and says to me - "I know you. You're from Canada!" she recognized me from the market. I knew who she was once she talked - as she had shared many stories of her travels and was very curious about mine in the 2 minutes or so we had chatted in the market as I was buying veggies for my salad from the stand at which she worked (the central market in Adelaide is fantastic, BTW) and so we sat on the beach and shared stories until it was time for her to get her kids home. Really kind, well travelled, strong Australian woman. good times.
I have decided that I'm headed for Tasmania. It's cooler and more naturish. I want to see the sites along the way, but gear toward Tassie.
I was planning on getting out of the Adelaide today. This city sprawls for many, many miles (one of the largest by land area in Oz) so it will take me a couple hours by bus to be clear of it. I called the bus company and they don't run busses out toward Meningie and Mt. Gambier today. 2:45 tomarrow is the first. This is a route toward Melbourne. Not as quick, but beautiful. It leads to the great ocean road, which I've heard is stunningly beautiful. So far as now, I plan to try my luck hitching it. If I take the bus as far as Mt. Gambier (6.5h), that puts me almost half way to Melbourne and much nearer to the Great Ocean Road. That bus takes me through the wetlands of Coorong National park and all that fun stuff.
So we'll see how that works out.
Alright. I'm just about out of time here... and I have to go try to manifest a place to sleep for this evening.
I'm really looking forward to getting out of the city!
The real adventure is about to begin!
P.S. Check the photos section. not sure how it works but I uploaded a few pics!