Excellent Adventures

Next I went to Perth. Again the actual travelling went well. no plane delays or anything. I ended up getting to Perth and realized that I hadn’t booked a hostel though, so I had to carry my bags to the closest one I could find and hope they had a room available. And when I got there they had an opening but I couldn’t find my passport (stop wincing, dad), so I had about half an hour of frenzied unpacking of all my stuff. It turned out it was in my backpack where it should have been, I just hadn’t seen it. So I ended up with a room and not having lost anything. whoo!

Perth was great because it has amazing beaches and weather (like lots of Australia). But even Australians say that Perth has the best Beaches. And there is no one on them! well, on the ones a bit out of the city. So I spent a lot of my time in Perth wandering or on the beach. The city itself is actually on the swan river, but about 15 minutes west you get the beach suburbs, and the really nice beaches. I spent about a week in the city of Perth itself, and then another 4 or so days at a hostel right by the coast.

The first night I found this amazing indian food place right on the water that I guess was started by this Bhuddist monk guy. Anyways, the slogan is, “Eat what you want, pay what you want.” It was kind of buffet style, all vegetarian, and all amazing. And the restaurant spaced so that you had an amazing view across the water. It was really amazing. I sat at this big table and these two Indian guys came and joined me, and we spent the next two hours eating and chatting about school and stuff. I talked to other backpackers later and they had also found this place, but I think they sort of saw it as a way to get really cheap food, where I sort of thought of it more as a way of equilizing wealth… so I think I ended up actually paying more than I would have for a regular meal. But then I found out everyone working there was volunteer, and like people’s grandmas, and I felt really good about it. I really like that idea: a restaurant that is partly for wealthy tourists, and also partly for people who can’t afford good food. I think it might be my favourite restaurant.

When I was in the city, much of the day I spent wandering. I got lost in the big park (Kings park, probably named the same way mattresses are) off to the south. I got lost because the park started out like a park should, with great big-trunked deciduous trees and lots of lawns, and a plot of flowers here and there, but then somehow I found my way into this bush area. And instead of turning around I kept going straight. And then it didn’t end, and I realized that “park” was now being used in the “conservation/national park kind of way, and not the,  “please mom, let’s go play at the park” kind of way. Three hours later, I found my way out. At least I had sunscreen and water I guess. And bread, cheese, and fruit were a constant in my bag too, so it was fine. I was tired though.

I also rented a bike one day and biked around. They have these things I really like: they look like playgrounds, but they’re actually gym machines right on the banks of the river. So you can like go for a run outside, and then stop and work-out, and then keep going. I was thinking they should get those in vancouver, and then I remembered Vancouver isn’t as permanently nice-weathered as Perth. Never-mind.

I tried do a tour, I really did. I went online and found a good one: cheap, but interesting, and you get to see a lot. I got it all ready, I printed out my ticket from the library, I woke up like 2 hours before I had to get there, double check-ed that I had everything, and got to the meeting place like 40 minutes before I needed to. I asked four people where the “tourist coach” stand was, and found it, and stood there. And then sat. With ten minutes to go, I made sure again with the tourist information lady, and she said I was in the right spot. The tour bus never came, which I partly expected, because that would happen to me. I went back to the tourist lady (so nice) and she looked again at my ticket, and discovered it was supposed to be given by a company that had gone out of business a month ago. I guess I booked with a company online, adn they book with the company, and they didn’t know it didn’t exist anymore. Anyways, I got my money back, but it was funny because that totally would happen to me. I ended up doing part of the tour by myself, by train, and I ended up finding these really awesome hemp shorts that I love, so it turned out fine.

For three days I also did this volunteering thing, where we were putting these plastic guards around native plants in a park. Part of a “revegitation” project. We also put down a bunch of mulch, and were taking out some other invasive species. It was pretty fun, but also pretty hot, and I didn’t bring a hat, so I got a bit of a sunburn (yes mom, even with the sunscreen I was very careful to apply every couple hours. Yes, also on my nose and ears.) At the volunteering thing I met my first local australian who I did not know before. HIs name was Jesse, and he was cool. The rest of our group was from Korea except for these two Japanese girls. The leader was this lady from France (but not mainland France, from Reunion Island, an island owned by France about two hours east of Madagascar.) So ya, we did a bunch of mulching, mostly. It was good to get to know people. I later met up with one of the Korean guys, his name was Bolt, and we did a day tour around Freemantle, one of the beach towns close to Perth.

My roommates in the hostel were pretty cool. There was this group of British guys who went out practically every night, and they invited me all the time, and so I went out with them to the pub a couple of times. They were great too because even if they would come back to the dorm room drunk and loud it was always at like 5 in the morning, and so I was well asleep by then and never noticed. I also spent a lot of time with this girl Jenny (also from England), and we played a lot of cards. We also entered into this video game contest, Wii tennis, and I actually did pretty well. The prize was a $20 bar tab, so it got pretty serious… And there was a $10 runner up prize. I only made it to the round before the final though, which I thought was pretty good for my first time ever playing it.

Eventually, I moved to the coast, and spent a lot of time at the beach. I made friends with my new roommates, Kustav a guy from Estonia, Alex and Hannah, from Sweden, Rory, from England, and Henrike from Germany. Henrike and I especially hit it off, and we ended up doing surfing lessons together. She was way better than I, but I defintitely got up a few times, and one time I stayed on for the entire wave (which sounds much less impressive if I say, “about 14 seconds”). Very very fun though. We also went bodyboarding together. Most of the time though, we were on the beach. Oh, there is this island we went to as well on the ferry, and rented a bike and biked around it. That sort of was really the whole travelling thing I did: Walking around, making food, laying on the beach. It was great though.