gilles street market

One of the nice things about travelling is seeing a lot of new things in different places. Alison and I are here in Adelaide for the semester and so we are travelling a lot in one place. I admit that I haven't travelled a lot of places like I have seen Adelaide. We have the opportunity to see and experience a lot of smaller local characteristics, quirks, and events that we otherwise might not be able to.. things such as the Gilles Street Market. We walked through Victoria Square, which is one of Adelaide's first planned city centres, and found Gilles Street Primary School, where the market is held. There were a lot of people on the streets, but if Alison and I hadn't walked right by the school grounds we definitely wouldn't have found it! The sign was there, but you couldn't see it before you actually arrived. Once we found it, we realized that it was a very popular event, especially for girls, as there was a wide variety of stalls with jewellery, clothing, bathing suits, and hand bags, both cheap and expensive. I think the venue has a large part in the success of the event. One, because it is at a primary school that we later found out a lot of locals know about. Two, because the school grounds allow for relatively small personal space, it seems very busy and very social. If this same market was spread over a football field, it would likely feel impersonal and awkward for the shoppers. Third, there was food grilling in the far back corner so if you wanted some, you had to go through everything else (slowly because of the amount of people) before you could reach it. 


Alison and I didn't end up buying anything because of our serious lack of cash, but it was a fun time anyway because we got to see and experience something new in our city.