Perth, WA, 07.04-11.04
We arrived last night. At 22:35 @ Perth Airport. Yes, that’s right, airport.. because the Indian Pacific had no seats available till next week on their trains crossing Nullabor. So we arrived.. at the airport. A warm breeze welcomed us as we stepped out of the plane, and it felt good. So good. 4 hours, 3400 km, and we are now in WA. It’s strange how you can just hop on the plane and go as far as it takes. Having just one backbag with you I guess makes it a lot easier too to move around. So we quickly found the city shuttle, and the hostel we had booked for 2 nights in Perth. It’s a huge 10-storey building, nothing like the hostels where we’ve stayed so far. Doesn’t feel much home, but we have a twin room just for the two of us which makes it up. It was warm last night.. (I keep saying it was.. because it isn’t anymore), so warm that we kept the windows open and had the van on. Today is different. It’s partly cloudy and there’s a cool breeze. Looks like the winter is chasing us wherever we go. Let’s see who’ll win when we get to Broome :P
WA – the Australia’s last frontier. It’s so remote that many of its cities, including Perth, are closer to Jakarta than Canberra, and so big it makes up nearly a third of the continent. Ever heard the expression ‘bigger than Texas’? It applies here. It’s 4 times larger. Or from an European point of view, it’s bigger than the whole of Western Europe. In fact, it’s bloody massive,.. and empty. Less than 2 million people, with 90% of those living in or around Perth. There’s more wide open space in WA than virtually any other populated location on earth. Nevertheless, they say WA is far from empty. It’s full of wonders. 12 000 km of magnificent beaches, more species of wildflowers than in the rest of the world, more restaurants per head than anywhere else, more days of sunshine and certainly more visible stars than in most places. The kind of red, sweeping outback that Australia is famous for – where all that glitters was once gold. The oldest culture in the world that has been challenged, but never erased, by the newest. So don’t be scared by scale or intimidated by enormity, go discover!
Perth. Holds the twin honours of being both the world’s most isolated and sunniest capital city. Politically and socially you could say this is a place with a lot of ocean but not many waves. Although the locals say ‘Perth’s getting bigger than the eight streets it used to be’, I find it one of these cities that are definitely worth a visit (if you ever come to WA) but would be too quiet and little vibrant for a long term stay. Big city girl! J Give me a day in Perth and I’ll start telling you again how I lived in Milan in the middle of the ‘casino italiano’, or how much I love the bubbly life of the great city of Barcelona. Europe, the good old Europe. Never mind. Back to Australia! Perth. Attractions – all within easy reach, or if you are lazy, take advantage of the free service of CAT (Central Area Transit). Free city buses – one of the WA’s seven wonders. Doesn’t happen often in these days I guess. Attractions include some of the old shopping arcades on the Hay-Murray Street Malls, such as Trinity Arcade and London Court, Town Hall, St George’s Cathedral, The Perth Mint (one of the world’s oldest gold mints still operating), Government House and the Supreme Court in Stirling Gardens, Swan Bell Tower with views at the Barrack St Jetty and the Old Perth Port where you can jump aboard a boat tour to Rottnest Island, the Swan Valley or Fremantle. You’ll easily notice a contrast of old Perth and new in quite a number of places, like the Palace Hotel, now Bank West, and its new tower on your right. That’s what makes Perth’s CBD different. Only a few high-rises with some more historical architecture. And the green, just a short walk out of the centre. Parks. Take Jacob’s Ladder, a steep climb to the massive King’s Park to enjoy great river and city centre views.
People. People of Perth. My impression. A strange mix of Asians, Black, Aboriginal and European expats, or Australians. More the first three than the last. A city of Australasia. West Coast. Wild, wild West.
Day 2. Fremantle and Cottesloe
We leave the hostel early, keep the bags in their storage room and go discovering the rest of the city. King’s Park and the Botanic Gardens. Another way to walk up there is uphill along Mount St. Probably one of the nicest streets and residential areas of the city. Brand new apartment blocks with tiny fountains at the entrance. Bright green grass and palm trees along the street side. And the city views. From the balconies of these brand new apartments. Or from the lookouts in the park. The best. Better than any 360* observation deck. People. Perthies. I changed my mind, and I’m gonna take my words back. Nice people. Calm people. Families. I know why I didn’t see them on Sunday, the first day in the city. It was Easter Sunday. Home with friends and family. And those who don’t have them, wander around. Alone. Like me and Ann in Perth :) Monday was a day out though. Walks, talks and picnics. In King’s Park.
Afternoon. We stop by at a book shop. Just for a look. And we walk out with a Sudoku. Ever heard about the Japanese invention of what’s also known as ‘Number Place’? Addiction. Can’t get myself away from these magic numbers now :) A good mate on long bus or train rides up the coast. Apart from Ann, of course. Ann’s da best! :) Anyways, afternoon. We grab our backbags and walk down to the train station on Wellington St. The next destination is Fremantle. 25 minutes from Perth, on the beach. It’s getting late and we try the first hostel to see if they have any vacancies. No. We walk down a few blocks and try the second one called Pirates. Fully booked. What?!? Tired of walking.. with the backbags, we call the third and the last one. The same. No way!! It seems like the lovely little harbour town is popular.. and it’s Easter. The streets are packed. And we are late. Again. When will we learn to book things in advance? Never. We are backpackers and have all the time of the world :) No Fremantle today. So what. We’ll be back tomorrow. And for the time being, we go and discover another little beach town – Cottesloe. 4 stops back to Perth. There’s a great hostel right on the beach called Ocean Beach Backpackers. Great place, great people. We meet a nice German girl Christiane, she’s sharing a room with us. Chris tells us her friend Tobias is leaving for Broome on Wednesday, and we could probably travel with him. A 10-day road trip up the West Coast. Awesome!
Day 3. Back to Fremantle
But before we catch the train, we take a stroll on Cottesloe Beach. The ocean is calm, almost no waves. You know, there’s a lot of ocean but not many waves. But it’s deep. It’s green-coloured. It’s Indian. Some people are swimming, some are surfing.. but it looks cold. I guess it’s cold, I won’t try. We go back to Fremantle, or Freo as it’s known to the locals. What used to be a sleepy port, however, is now a vibrant city with consistent colonial architecture and a relaxed, alternative joie de vivre, the café strip and monumental pubs. There’s almost always something happening in Fremantle, so locals are either planning, participating or recovering from the array of festivals and activities held to celebrate this centre of cultural creativity. The charisma is as refreshing as the Fremantle Doctor, the afternoon breeze that whistles through on a slow, hot afternoon. You’ll go sentimental for Freo as soon as you’ve left. Taking a walk through the streets with beautiful Victorian buildings, you realize it’s full of history, scattered all around from the Roundhouse to the Town Hall and the hilltop Prison itself. The past has never really left this city. It’s warm and sunny. We have a quick brekky, and walk through the history.
Evening. We get back to Cottesloe by the sunset. Perfect timing.. because the sunset is beautiful. The sun ‘goes to sleep’ into the ocean again, in the water. Sunset on the beach. Like back home. Not like on the East Coast, where it’s the wrong way around. Back at the hostel we meet Christiane and Tobias. We are going out in Perth. There’s a backpackers’ night at Hip-e-Club in Leederville. Backpackers are the celebrities on week nights, when most of the locals are sensibly tucked up in bed, and with celebrity comes free and cheap stuff. So it’s free BBQ and drinks <:o) It’s fun. The place is fun. The people are fun. The music is fun. Lots of dancing, lots of laughing. We really enjoy the night. We get back home late.. and get up early in the morning. We are leaving. Leaving for Broome..
WA – the Australia’s last frontier. It’s so remote that many of its cities, including Perth, are closer to Jakarta than Canberra, and so big it makes up nearly a third of the continent. Ever heard the expression ‘bigger than Texas’? It applies here. It’s 4 times larger. Or from an European point of view, it’s bigger than the whole of Western Europe. In fact, it’s bloody massive,.. and empty. Less than 2 million people, with 90% of those living in or around Perth. There’s more wide open space in WA than virtually any other populated location on earth. Nevertheless, they say WA is far from empty. It’s full of wonders. 12 000 km of magnificent beaches, more species of wildflowers than in the rest of the world, more restaurants per head than anywhere else, more days of sunshine and certainly more visible stars than in most places. The kind of red, sweeping outback that Australia is famous for – where all that glitters was once gold. The oldest culture in the world that has been challenged, but never erased, by the newest. So don’t be scared by scale or intimidated by enormity, go discover!
Perth. Holds the twin honours of being both the world’s most isolated and sunniest capital city. Politically and socially you could say this is a place with a lot of ocean but not many waves. Although the locals say ‘Perth’s getting bigger than the eight streets it used to be’, I find it one of these cities that are definitely worth a visit (if you ever come to WA) but would be too quiet and little vibrant for a long term stay. Big city girl! J Give me a day in Perth and I’ll start telling you again how I lived in Milan in the middle of the ‘casino italiano’, or how much I love the bubbly life of the great city of Barcelona. Europe, the good old Europe. Never mind. Back to Australia! Perth. Attractions – all within easy reach, or if you are lazy, take advantage of the free service of CAT (Central Area Transit). Free city buses – one of the WA’s seven wonders. Doesn’t happen often in these days I guess. Attractions include some of the old shopping arcades on the Hay-Murray Street Malls, such as Trinity Arcade and London Court, Town Hall, St George’s Cathedral, The Perth Mint (one of the world’s oldest gold mints still operating), Government House and the Supreme Court in Stirling Gardens, Swan Bell Tower with views at the Barrack St Jetty and the Old Perth Port where you can jump aboard a boat tour to Rottnest Island, the Swan Valley or Fremantle. You’ll easily notice a contrast of old Perth and new in quite a number of places, like the Palace Hotel, now Bank West, and its new tower on your right. That’s what makes Perth’s CBD different. Only a few high-rises with some more historical architecture. And the green, just a short walk out of the centre. Parks. Take Jacob’s Ladder, a steep climb to the massive King’s Park to enjoy great river and city centre views.
People. People of Perth. My impression. A strange mix of Asians, Black, Aboriginal and European expats, or Australians. More the first three than the last. A city of Australasia. West Coast. Wild, wild West.
Day 2. Fremantle and Cottesloe
We leave the hostel early, keep the bags in their storage room and go discovering the rest of the city. King’s Park and the Botanic Gardens. Another way to walk up there is uphill along Mount St. Probably one of the nicest streets and residential areas of the city. Brand new apartment blocks with tiny fountains at the entrance. Bright green grass and palm trees along the street side. And the city views. From the balconies of these brand new apartments. Or from the lookouts in the park. The best. Better than any 360* observation deck. People. Perthies. I changed my mind, and I’m gonna take my words back. Nice people. Calm people. Families. I know why I didn’t see them on Sunday, the first day in the city. It was Easter Sunday. Home with friends and family. And those who don’t have them, wander around. Alone. Like me and Ann in Perth :) Monday was a day out though. Walks, talks and picnics. In King’s Park.
Afternoon. We stop by at a book shop. Just for a look. And we walk out with a Sudoku. Ever heard about the Japanese invention of what’s also known as ‘Number Place’? Addiction. Can’t get myself away from these magic numbers now :) A good mate on long bus or train rides up the coast. Apart from Ann, of course. Ann’s da best! :) Anyways, afternoon. We grab our backbags and walk down to the train station on Wellington St. The next destination is Fremantle. 25 minutes from Perth, on the beach. It’s getting late and we try the first hostel to see if they have any vacancies. No. We walk down a few blocks and try the second one called Pirates. Fully booked. What?!? Tired of walking.. with the backbags, we call the third and the last one. The same. No way!! It seems like the lovely little harbour town is popular.. and it’s Easter. The streets are packed. And we are late. Again. When will we learn to book things in advance? Never. We are backpackers and have all the time of the world :) No Fremantle today. So what. We’ll be back tomorrow. And for the time being, we go and discover another little beach town – Cottesloe. 4 stops back to Perth. There’s a great hostel right on the beach called Ocean Beach Backpackers. Great place, great people. We meet a nice German girl Christiane, she’s sharing a room with us. Chris tells us her friend Tobias is leaving for Broome on Wednesday, and we could probably travel with him. A 10-day road trip up the West Coast. Awesome!
Day 3. Back to Fremantle
But before we catch the train, we take a stroll on Cottesloe Beach. The ocean is calm, almost no waves. You know, there’s a lot of ocean but not many waves. But it’s deep. It’s green-coloured. It’s Indian. Some people are swimming, some are surfing.. but it looks cold. I guess it’s cold, I won’t try. We go back to Fremantle, or Freo as it’s known to the locals. What used to be a sleepy port, however, is now a vibrant city with consistent colonial architecture and a relaxed, alternative joie de vivre, the café strip and monumental pubs. There’s almost always something happening in Fremantle, so locals are either planning, participating or recovering from the array of festivals and activities held to celebrate this centre of cultural creativity. The charisma is as refreshing as the Fremantle Doctor, the afternoon breeze that whistles through on a slow, hot afternoon. You’ll go sentimental for Freo as soon as you’ve left. Taking a walk through the streets with beautiful Victorian buildings, you realize it’s full of history, scattered all around from the Roundhouse to the Town Hall and the hilltop Prison itself. The past has never really left this city. It’s warm and sunny. We have a quick brekky, and walk through the history.
Evening. We get back to Cottesloe by the sunset. Perfect timing.. because the sunset is beautiful. The sun ‘goes to sleep’ into the ocean again, in the water. Sunset on the beach. Like back home. Not like on the East Coast, where it’s the wrong way around. Back at the hostel we meet Christiane and Tobias. We are going out in Perth. There’s a backpackers’ night at Hip-e-Club in Leederville. Backpackers are the celebrities on week nights, when most of the locals are sensibly tucked up in bed, and with celebrity comes free and cheap stuff. So it’s free BBQ and drinks <:o) It’s fun. The place is fun. The people are fun. The music is fun. Lots of dancing, lots of laughing. We really enjoy the night. We get back home late.. and get up early in the morning. We are leaving. Leaving for Broome..
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