I was in Adelaide between 2nd and 8th December 2012 for BioinfoSummer-2012, a conference jointly organised by the University of Adelaide, University of South Australia and the Australian mathematical society, AMSI.

Adelaide is the capital of the state of South Australia and is about 2.5 hours flying-time from Brisbane. Adelaide is a small beautiful city with lovely gardens and parks, serene canals, sparkling fountains, statues and historic churches and buildings. The city was named after Adelaide, the queen consort to King William IV.

Adelaide is one of the oldest cities in Australia; it was developed into a planned city for free immigrants after it became a British colony in 1836. The strong roots of British and Victorian culture can be spotted everywhere in Adelaide -- at the Victoria square which has a statue of Queen Victoria, at Glenelg where the British first landed in South Australia, and the churches and buildings built in Victorian architecture. The accommodation allocated to me for my week-long trip was at the historic St. Marks College, and in my room was a large wooden chart showing the Kings and Queens of England (see picture). The University of Adelaide has several old buildings resembling the buildings in old England.

The campus of the University of Adelaide is located conveniently close to the city center and is admist serene canals and sprawling gardens. It was founded in 1874 and is the third oldest university in Australia, housing several established departments in mathematics, engineering, arts and sciences. It boasts of five Nobel laureates and 104 Rhodes scholars (as of 2012). The Mitchell building (see picture) is one of the historic buildings on campus. The University also has a brilliant museum, and during out visit it showcased a special section dedicated to Egyptian mummies.

Glenelg (a palindoromic word!) is a beach-side suburb located south of Adelaide, about half-an-hour by tram from Victoria square. It is the oldest settlement in South Australia, and was established when the British landed there in 1836. It has a lovely beach, beach-side restaurants, bars and discos and amusement parks, making it the perfect get-away during the evenings.

South Australian wines: While at Glenelg enjoying the sunset by the beach, we decided to try out a beach-side bar and cafe called Bar-bay-dos. It was a fine place with some lovely ambience and food. The lady at the place told us about South Australian wines and that Adelaide was famous for some of the finest wines in Australia. We decided to try out a 2008 Shiraz, which tasted really good and blended perfectly with the mediterranean pizza that we had ordered. I thoroughly enjoyed the wine and decided to try out other varieties of Australian wines, and since then I have an account of my wine experience maintained here.

The BioinfoSummer is an annual conference on bioinformatics organised by the Australian Mathematical Society (AMSI). I met several researchers from all over Australia and outside -- Condrad Burden (Australian National University), Andreas Schreiber (University of South Australia) and Martin Frith (Computational Biology Research Centre, Japan) whom I had earlier met at the InCoB conference in Kuala Lumpur in 2011.

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