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Hey Everyone!!
So this update is coming to you from the Ocean Beach Backpackers hostel in Cottesloe, a.k.a. paradise. I arrived here last Friday and I already absolutely love it! Everyone here keeps saying to me that this is the best hostel in Perth and I can so believe it, even after only a few days. From the minute I arrived everyone said 'Hi' and there was such a welcoming feeling. It genuinely is like one big family here - most people have been living here for months...and my plan is to join them in that. I have to go back to a hostel in the city for 5 days from Friday (I booked that before I flew out, not really knowing which hostels would be good or where I would want to be), but I've booked myself back in here for 2 weeks from the 26th September and plan to keep renewing that (you get priority booking if you book for 2 weeks at a time) for the next few months or so.
So why is it paradise? Firstly, check out the photos on facebook. Basically, Cottesloe is a little beach town on the outskirts of Perth. It's also renowned as the playground of the rich and beautiful. The beach is one of the best in Western Australia (although it's also one of the beaches frequented by Great Whites and has been in the news loads this year because of frequent attacks - I only learnt this the other day after going in for a swim...now I'm not sure I'll be doing that again!!), and this hostel is literally a one minute walk away from it. From my bunk I wake up in the morning, look out of the window and can see the waves, and I fall asleep to the sound of them. It's just so beautiful. The only things around are beautiful houses and apartments, up-market restaurants, hotels, and cafes that line the beachfront. It's a brilliant place to get a job because these places rely on a turnover of casual staff; I'm going to try and get a job at the Ocean Beach Hotel restaurant, which at the moment is pretty much staffed entirely by girls from this hostel! So as soon as I get back from the city I'm going to get my CV into them and will then hopefully have work so that I can live here for the next few months.
Ironically for a town inhabited by Perth's wealthy, this hostel is one the cheapest places to live in Perth. But price is a bad indicator of how good a place is, because this hostel is great. It has such a great atmosphere: the rooms are big, airy and clean, the kitchen is well-stocked, a good size and always full of people, there are 3 different chill out rooms (including a movie room with hundreds of free movies to watch, an x-box which I embarrassingly lost terribly at on Saturday night, and loads of sofas so there's plenty of space to come and chill out), and there's even free wifi from the cafe next door (though for some reason it works on my phone but not my computer, so to do anything substantial I have to pay to use the computers in reception).
I'm living in a mixed dorm. There's 6 guys, me and a lovely German girl who's been in Australia now for 2 years. I love it in there - the guys are all a bit older (around 27) and I got on with them instantly. Before I flew out I thought I was going to be surrounded by 18- year olds on their Gap Yahs, but it turns out I'm the baby here! And it's great - the guys in my room are like older brothers to me: they introduced me to all their friends here in the hostel immediately and just took me under their wing. They're also surprisingly clean and tidy for guys! When I booked back in for my 2 weeks here I was put in a different room, but the guys are gonna see what they can do about switching it so that I get to stay with them, which would be awesome. I think they were all endeared to me on the first night (Friday), which is a massive party night here because most of the guys work full-time Mon-Fri. As I
said in my last blog entry, because I'm basically skint in Australian terms, I'm living on a super-budget diet and being tee-total. Well, I was. That first night I sat amongst them all whilst they drank with a bowl of soup of a cup of coffee!! Someone also brought out a ukulele, which I started playing and singing to - so that, conjoined with the soup and coffee, seemed to make them all think I'm really sweet and I just settled into their company really well. It's amazing how chilled out and friendly everyone is here - I know I keep saying it, but honestly, even within only a few days of being out here I'm so much more relaxed and I just keep going on to everyone about how happy I am!! Sunshine does wonders for my mood :)
The weekend was amazing. Both days were at least 27 degrees and I spent the entire time on the beach. On Saturday night (another major party night) my tee-total spree was ended when the guys made me drink 'Goon'. They all know I don't have much cash, so they let me have their drink...and any of you who know what goon is, well you can pretty much guess how my night went!! Goon is basically really cheap, really s*** pseudo-wine. Someone told me it's actually made mostly of fish bones. Most of the people here won't touch it, but for those of us who can't afford the ridiculous 10 dollar pints, it's the only way to go at 16 dollars for 4 litres!!! It was a really fun night though. We chilled out in the hostel courtyard for a while, before heading down to the beach in the pitch black to sit in the moonlight - amazing. Sunday night was even better. At around 5 pm we all headed down to the beach with some drinks and set up camp to watch the sunset (my first since getting here). It didn't actually set until about half 6, but honestly it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen...and I was told it wasn't even a great one!! Apparently it only gets better from now on as the summer comes. But even so, I sat there with the guys chatting and just beaming to myself, thinking how beautiful it was and how lucky I am to be here right now. All that fear and stress about what it would be like out here = GONE :)
The other thing is that because so many of the people in this hostel are here as long- termers, they do lots of organised trips on weekends. A few of the guys have cars, so they put up posters and groups of them go off each weekend to different places along the Western Australia coast. This weekend a load of them went to Albany (they asked me when I arrived on Friday if I wanted to go - see, that's how friendly everyone is immediately! - but I just wanted to chill and settle in this weekend), and in a couple of weeks they're planning on going down to Margaret River which I'll definitely join them for. On top of that, I discovered that Scot (one of the Scottish guys in my room) has his birthday on October 7th, so given that mine is October 9th we're going to have some kind of joint birthday thing, yay! I feel so settled and welcome and am really looking forward to spending the next few months here.
So that's it for now - I'm off the the city for a few days next week before I come back here and look for work. Missing many of you very much and really appreciating the comments and messages on here and FB. Hope all's good in the UK - big cuddles all round!!
Bonza for now babys xxx
p.s. The picture for this blog entry is of the view when you walk out of the hostel :)
- comments
Felicity Macdonald-Smith Albany is interesting, so do go if you can at some point. Old whaling station, IIRC. Also see if you can get to the karri forest (very tall amazing trees). The Gloucester Tree at Pemberton is famous, and the Valley of the Giants treetop walk, near Denmark.
Amy Thanks Felicity!! The trip that the guys went on this weekend was actually to Albany, but I'll definitely try and get visiting places once I'm earning :)
Amy Oops just realised I already said that in the blog :)
Rosie Aaaaaaw this is so lovely, I'm just so glad to hear you've fallen on your feet and feel settled already! :) I'm writing this from a Liverpool Travelodge so can't pretend I'm not a teeny bit jealous too! Team Wales love! xxx