Perfect Perth

View of the City from King's Park

As my first point of contact with Australia, and my home away from home, I believe I will always be biased towards Perth and Western Australia in general – I don’t believe I have ever been anywhere more beautiful though.

As a city, Perth does not necessarily tick all my boxes – it isn’t like Galway or Melbourne, but it is the second city I have ever lived in and it is the first city I have done the commuter thing in so I will always remember and love it for that. The museum is nice, and it’s good for shopping. It has a crisp, new air about it and now with the big cactus-esque statue in Forrest Place it has a really modern feel mixed and in contrast with buildings like the Train Station.

I spent my first few weeks in Perth settling in and spending time with Baby Aidan, Lena and Ian. I minded Aidan then when Lena went back to work. I had my lovely pre-made group of friends from Thailand to which my Marion was added so everything was perfect.

As well as hanging out and going out and playing with Aidan, I am lucky to have a sister and brother in law that brought me to see so many beautiful places. One of the most amazing was Bunker Bay. We stayed there at the resort for one night and I think it was one of the nicest resorts I’ve ever stayed in! I minded Aidan when they went to a wedding. I got up bright and early the next day for a swim in the pool and a walk on the beach. In just the last week, a surfer was killed by a shark at Bunker Bay; it is so sad and upsetting that such tragedy can take place somewhere so beautiful.

We then went on a mini winery tour which was my first but would not be my last!












When Jen moved over out of the blue, Lena brought us on another mini winery tour of the Swan Valley. I  loved the Feral Brewery and the little small winery on the way of the road whose name I can't remember but will find out!

Myself, Jen and Marion went to Rottnest Island for a day just before the weather broke for Autumn. It was beautiful, we met some Quokas and cycled around, what we thought was, most of the island. When myself and Séamus revisited months later and actually cycled around the full 17kms of the Island I realised how little ground myself and the girls actually covered. Rottnest Island is very different now to the Island it was a hundred years ago - it was originally populated as a prison island for Aboriginal prisoners. The living conditions were dire, but similar to any prisons for natives in new colonies. Now the Island is mainly a tourist attraction, but there is still friction, as there is all over Australia as a result of old customs and traditions and merging into a Modern multicultural non-descriminatory society. 

Another great day was spent at Caversham Wildlife Park, a place I also revisited with Séamus. I got to see Kangaroos and feed them and see a real-life Koala for the first time.

I also took a trip in a kayak with five others to Penguin Island. The little baby penguins were incredibly cute and as it turns out, Penguin Island is also one of the largest Pelican breading colonies in WA.

After six weeks of chilling in Perth I set off on my adventure around Australia. I returned with Séamus in June and spent a further few weeks helping with Aidan before going to Bali to change my Tourist Visa to a Working Holiday Visa and here I am; six weeks on and I’m working in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia and loving it.

 

 Life as a commuter suits me, I get to read my book for two hours a day; commuting in Perth would suit anyone. The transport system is the best I've ever been on - not that buses are always on time, but that it is all completely synchonised and one ticket can be used on bus, train and ferries. Dublin City take note!! 

Perth would be a perfect place to raise a family - each suburb has numerous parks and the weather suits for outdoor activities almost all year round. 

My life in Perth is very different to my backpacking life around Oz; I am cleaner and more organised and I go to bed at a resonable hour and I only drink at weekends, but I love it all the same and I am very grateful for the chance to spend some long overdue time with my lovely sister and to make sure my Godson knows me as well as a one year old possibly can.

I'll be sad to leave at the end of October for sure.


I'm absolutely positive I have left much out of this and one thing that comes to mind is FREO! Another post soon...

To Come...

Sunrise on Occasional Island, Lake Argyle, Kimberly, WA

Posts in the pipeline:

Perfect Perth including Caversham Wildlife park, Rottnest Island and some breweries


The Tour Files:
Kimberley Adventure Tours - Broome to Darwin
Groovy Grape - The Great Ocean Road
Western Xposure - Perth to Exmouth.

Bali on A Budget. 

I shall be up to date by October, and that is a promise to myself!

Le Grá,

Gabberific x

Sydney- One cold Hotspot.

I got a shock when I got off the plane in Sydney.  I’m not usually one to chase the sun, but it’s almost like that’s what I’ve been doing in Australia so far. Sydney, when I arrived was fifteen degrees, and it was a severe shock to my body coming from thirty degrees. On my first day I bought a coat. On my second I bought gloves and a pie to keep warm. I really had to cop myself on then and realise that I am Irish and that fifteen degrees should not affect me like this, I am not Austrian. As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one affected by the cold in my hostel, maybe it was the hostel and not the cold, but four out of six of us in my room were sick by the day I left.

Though I’m not usually one to locate the nearest Irish bar and hibernate there, when the girls in my room invited me out one night to O’Malley’s I couldn’t say no. I went out that night with quite a culturally diverse group – two Germans, a French, a Taiwanese and me, an Irish. I don’t actually think there were any other Irish people in my hostel. 

I was lucky to be able to meet up with my friend Leo, though just for Pizza and also with Kaie, both on the same night as it happened. My meeting with Leo was brief because Kaie was arriving that evening just for an hour, but we caught up all the same and he was still the bubble of amazingness I remembered. I’m hoping another meeting will happen before he goes home! I met Kaie at Circular Quay, and it was the first time I’d actually seen the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I was exceptionally lucky that the Vivid light festival was taking place over the time I was in Sydney, so I got to see the Opera house lit up and beautiful four nights in total.

When Séamus arrived, jetlagged as he was, we did a tour of the Opera house which was very interesting and I would recommend it to anyone, it was well worth the money. Another touristy recommendation I have is to do the walking tour that leaves from the Anchor by Town Hall; it was absolutely brilliant. It was refreshing to have a guide, who was actually from the city and was very passionate about its history.

Because of the weather, most of the sites were less impressive than if it had been sunny, having said that, Sydney was a great city and, as with Darwin, I’m looking forward to returning! One thing I didn’t find, and had expected, was for the people not to be as helpful or friendly as in the other smaller cities. Everyone was lovely, a common trait I’m coming across in most Australians I meet!

Darwin - Detoxes and Distractions.

My Darwin experience was different to my other stays in my various other stops. Arriving smelling like the outback at 7pm in the evening to a room about the size of a camper van didn’t help I suppose. I think what made Darwin different for me was that when I arrived I already had friends – I had planned to meet all of my KAT friends that night in the Youth Shack for one last hurrah. As a result, I was in and out of my hostel within an hour of arriving. I didn’t even get the names of the two people I’d spoken to in my room (later I found out they were Liam from Co. Down and, I’m taking a guess at, Dutch Monique). In most other places I had made friends with people in my hostel or in my room on the first day, but here in Darwin it wasn’t until my fifth day that I made an effort with my hostel buddies.

On my first night, like I said, I met the KAT gang at the Youth Shack for a tearful goodbye with Kaie, the Austrians and the Swiss. Myself, Amaya, Tom and Simon stayed out for an eventful late night, and I bumped into the lovely Brendan, one of the fabulous English I met in Broome. The next day, it was as if the tour was continuing when myself, Tom and Amaya piled into the car with our guide for the night, Simon, for a trip to the Mindle Beach Market.  We went out as a group again the next night and then, minus Amaya on the Saturday, myself and Tom helped Simon clean the car and trailer after our amazing trip. We thought after eight days of rolling swags every morning that we would fly them, turns out rolling nine swags between two of us in thirty degree heat was not as easy as rolling one at 6.30am when the sun is just up. We had fun that day, and minus falling down a little waterfall at Berry Spring into some rocks and hurting my ankle and bruising my legs, it was one of my funnest days in Darwin!

When Tom, Amaya and Simon departed on Sunday, I visited Brendan in the YHA, went to the Library, hung out a bit at the Waterfront and made friends with some lovely Irish girls (and one Irish boy).

The one thing that struck me about Darwin was the Irish population – it was full of them. I think, to get a proper view of Darwin and if I really like it or not, I need to go back, in the same way I need to go back to Adelaide. Maybe I didn’t warm to Darwin because I wanted a detox, and Darwin of all places is the last place you should plan a detox. Especially as an Irish Backpacker. 

Broometime

When I arrived at the airport in Broome, slightly tired after my last night in Adelaide I realised I had no contact number for my hostel, The Kimberly Klub, and no idea how to get to it. I saw a desk in the ‘Arrivals’ hall, which I learned was the same as the ‘Departures’ lounge,  that said ‘Shuttle Bus’ so I decided that was probably my safest bet. When I asked if the bus went to town, I was told it stopped in the centre at the Roebuck Hotel. The man at the desk then asked me where I was staying and scoffed at my wanting a taxi. His directions were ‘Out the gate, turn left, walk for ten minutes and it’s on the opposite side of the road when you come to a T-Junction’. His ten minutes was actually five. I’ve never been to an airport so close to a town. It was literally ten minutes from the centre, five minutes from the Kimberly Klub. A few days later I experienced the incoming and outgoing planes’ roar as they came in and out of town and soared low over the small town. It was surreal.

I arrived at the Kimberly Klub a little disorientated from the flight and the hour and a half time difference; checked into my room and quickly fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke, it was dark and I hadn’t changed the time on my phone (though I thought I had) so in my head I’d slept for about six hours and completely missed my first day in Broome. It turns out that by half past five the sun leaves Broome and it had actually only been about six o’ clock.

I got dressed, stumbled downstairs and realised that the only item of food I had to my name was a jar of Vegemite. I remembered then that the girl at the reception had told me that Woolies was only five minutes up the road. Two minutes up the pitch black road I realised that the notices about Broome not being safe after dark alone were not false and I legged it back to the KK and located the two friendliest faces in the bar – a blonde Dutch girl and a brunette named Julia from Switzerland. I asked them where I could get food and again they told me not to go anywhere alone. Then the Dutch girl said that they had dinner left over and that I could have that. I was more grateful for that vegetable curry than I had been for anything ever in my life.

After I finished, I went to join them in the bar. The Dutch girl left and myself and Julia had a beer and bonded over being left alone. That night we went out for a strange night which began with drinking a can in the car park (as with all YHA there is a strict no BYO policy so backpackers are forced to be inventive with places to drink cheaply). We then went to the windy Town Beach where we stayed for about an hour before nearly getting blown into the ocean. And so we piled into some guy’s camper; all millions of us and drove uncomfortably back to the KK.

The next day, myself and Julia adopted Jana, a German girl, and we went shopping and generally hung out together. My first trip to Cable Beach was with Jana and Scottish Lauren. It was the Beach you expect when you think of WA; deserted and beautiful with the odd naked person.

The night after my Cable Beach experience, I convinced an Aussie, Sniper, to bring myself and Jana, since we weren’t allowed walk alone and didn’t know the way anyway, to Murphy’s Irish Bar for Open Mic Night. We were late and missed all the bands, but had half an hour with the in-house Aboriginal band. Murphy’s (and actually Broome in general) was the only place so far in Australia that I’ve come across Australians and Aborigines hanging out together and socialising in the same places. I have to say I really liked it.

After that, my expected one and only night out in Broome, I spent my last expected actual day packing and hanging out in the KK. I had sent a bag to Darwin with my dresses and ‘nice’ clothes and kept all my ‘practical’ clothing for my tour to Darwin that was set to begin the next day, Thursday 12^th May.  I got a call, however, at 4pm on Wednesday 11^th May to say that my tour, that I’d booked  in March, had been somehow overbooked by one and that I was the only single traveller and therefore the only feasible person to make change tour dates (jeepers I felt special). So after the throwing around of many a possible arrangement, myself and Jen of Kimberley Adventure Tours settled that I would spend twelve more days in Broome and take the next tour from Broome with them – I was very generously compensated for the inconvenience (Thanks a mill KAT!) and am actually delighted I got to stay in one place a little longer than planned as I actually got to know and grew to love Broome.

The natural phenomenon of Staircase to the Moon took place on Wednesday 18^th and 19^th of May, another reason I’m grateful to KAT for messing up my tour dates is that I got to go to Town Beach and see it. We piled into two cars and trucked down to Town Beach. As we waited for the moon to show its face, we had a feeling we were missing something, that the moon was behind a tree on the other side of the beach, or that somehow it just wasn’t going to work. We were of course proven incorrect when the pinky orange moon peaking up over the horizon created exactly what it said on the tin – a staircase across the water to the moon. It was beautiful.  Broome is definitely, and rightly so, renowned for its natural phenomena – the beautiful sunsets at Cable Beach (I saw three) certainly rival any I’ve ever seen in the beauty stakes.

Looking back, and apart from go to the beach and attending the odd Wet T-shirt and Dance competition in Oasis, I actually didn’t do all that much in Broome. To be honest, I think that the fact that I stayed there sixteen days in total and actually had the chance to form (what I think were…) actual friendships is why I liked Broome so much!  I met some great Germans girls, some fabulous English and some amazing Aussies; some of these people I know I will see again, whether it’s on the East Coast of Oz, when they visit me in Ireland or I visit them in their native lands, I’m hopeful and looking forward to some serious shuffling at some amazing reunions! Oh how I miss you guys!

Adios Adelaide.

I arrived late on the first Thursday in May to Adelaide, and promptly got lost. I was tired after my three days on the Great Ocean Road see. Brenda came to my rescue and brought me to her cosy house on the Waterfront and made me feel right at home.

I have to be honest that Adelaide for me consisted of two (great, might I add) nights in JP O’Reilly’s and a very brief trip around the city!

It was a nice city, but I really didn’t get a proper feel for it as I only had one full day to explore and I didn’t do the city justice in this day of exploration.

Looks like I’ll just have to go back…

Melbourne Toast.

A word of advice, don’t fly Tiger Airways to Melbourne: From Avalon it takes a year to get to the city and the flights are at stupid o’clock. I arrived in my hostel in Melbourne, Collingwood Backpackers, at about 5am and, as was previously arranged, I spent my first night on the couch. This was to set the tone for my stay in Melbourne, which was nothing like any of my other experiences of the other places I’ve visited and this is mainly due to the Houseshare  hostel I stayed in. 

Collingwood Backpackers is not your average or normal hostel. There is no way you can compare it to a YHA or a standard hostel that has rules, because there really weren’t that many. In fact, right now the only rule I remember is that people didn’t smoke in the kitchen. And this may not have even been a rule but something people did out of courtesy. It’s a small hostel, with a kitchen that’s open 24hrs a day, extremely cheap wifi, and had the feel of a big house full of friends rather than a hostel.

I left Melbourne thinking I was going to go live in an Ashram and be a real-life hippy because of a great American girl, Arielle, who I met in my room on my first day. She brought me to the Hare Krishna kitchen that day and I ate the best curry I’d ever had (until my last day in Melbourne when I went back!) and a few days later, she brought me to Lentil as Anything, a pay what you think the meal is worth restaurant that was also veggie and gorgeous!

As well as finding my inner hippy, I found a little bit of home away from home by meeting Aoife and Paula from Athlone for a lovely day on a Roof in Melbourne; a day that continued for myself and Paula, and our new friend Leslie, from, as far as I can remember, Alabama, to a Burlesque club, Red Benny’s.

As well as dirty dancing and hippy living, I spent a day out in ST. Kilda, the backpacker hub of Melbourne. It was, as it promised, beautiful and eclectic and I really enjoyed it. St. Kilda wouldn’t be somewhere I myself would like to live, but I can see why so many people are drawn to it. 

My day in St. Kilda

I can’t really explain why I liked Melbourne so much, it wasn’t necessarily how it looked, it was more how it felt. As Paula said to me that day in Roof, the city has a heartbeat, and you can feel it.There's a really subltly nice atmosphere around the city that didn't feel too businessy or too hippy, just right for me.

I have to say, that Melbourne has been my favourite city so far in Australia and that I cannot wait to go back there…so much so I fly there on January fifth 2012!