I spent my last 2 days in Australia
in Fremantle & Rottnest Island,
20 km south of Perth, but miles
away in personality! Fremantle is a picturesque little town full of historic
buildings and a hub of the arts & music scene. Moreover, Rottnest
Island, just offshore from
Fremantle, harbours tropical beaches and a native community. In short, it was
the perfect place to linger around and soak up all the best that Australia
has to offer once again. I spent the day walking around Fremantle, doing some
shopping, until I ended up in a record shop…Here in Fremantle, record shopping
is still a real delight. The record shops are small, and the guy behind the
counter actually plays in a band! In the first shop, the shop attendant was the lyricist (so he
says) of Eskimo Joe (one of the more famous Australian
bands) for their new album and he was happy to advise me on up and coming bands from Australia,
in particular of course Western Australia.
The guy in the second shop was more into electro, and made me listen to a lot
of good stuff! So in the end, I spent a small
fortune (because unfortunately, CDs aren’t cheap in Australia
L)
on several indie & electro albums to take home, including some old
favourites like Eskimo Joe.
Unfortunately, I had visited Fremantle on the wrong day of
the week (Monday) to catch some live music in town, so instead I watched a
movie back at the hostel and had a chat with some travelers from Scotland.
On my last day in Australia,
I couldn’t make my mind up whether to spend money on a ferry to get to Rottnest
Island, but I’m glad I did in the
end, because it was well worth it!
I arrived rather late, at noon,
and immediately headed for the nearest beach, which turn out to be this little
gem with shallow waters and reef. To my great surprise, the water was
relatively warm, so I had fun splashing around in the breaking waves. And I
realized one thing: I had become addicted to the sea. Damn it, why did I chose
to move to the mountains???
A few hours later, I left the island very happy, and
returned to Perth airport content
to have spent my last day in Australia
in this way.
