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The last time I wrote, I was in Perth, getting used to the backpacker scene. Then Kaisa and Kari arrived and we spent a few days more exploring the city. One of my favorite things was enjoying a picnic at the moonlight cinema in the beautiful Kings Park. Kings Park is a huge park, high on a hill with wonderful views of the city. Although getting to the cinema was another thing.. The the guy at my hostel said to me, that it's a 20 minute walk to the park, but of course the cinema was at the other end of the park and we really got to see how big the park was, since the walk took us 2,5 hours! Plus I was wearing high heels, which I don't recommend if you're planning a 2,5H walk.. At some point, we were about to lose faith, but made it there eventually and it was well worth it. And the good thing is, we really know our way around the park now, we even picked out the street where we'd live, if we were to move to Perth.
For the weekend we headed south to Margaret River, the famous wine region and a good place to go surfing. On our way we stopped in this park to see koalas, who were adorable. Koalas are definitely on my top 3 favorite animals list! (They're sharing it with pandas and lamas.) So there we were, me, Kaisa and Kari and about 40 over-excited school children, petting the koalas and feeding the kangaroos, running from one kangaroo to another, because they were all getting a bit bored of the food, since they seemed to be constantly fed. We also got to see some emus and dingos in the park.
The weekend we spent doing what you're supposed to do, when in Margaret River, which means visiting wineries and hanging on the beach. We went to see some surfers, but I'm still too scared of the sharks, so I was just happy enough with swimming. We also did a full day winery tour, which is the best way to see the region. We had a lovely guide, Silvano, who was keeping us entertained with his jokes and made us sing along to "YMCA" and "pretty woman" along the way..
I really loved Perth and was quite willing to move there (if only it wouldn't be so so far away from Finland). And moving there would be easy, especially since I already found my local corner cafe and my home street and my yoga school.. I had basically everything sorted :)
But even I was smitten by Perth, now being in Melbourne, with that constant buzz, reminded me that I'm much more of a big city person than I thought. Just on my way to the internet cafe, I saw buskers and artists and dancers and all sorts of activities going on on the streets. There are so many different areas to explore, so many things to do and Melbourne is exceptionally active city with many major sporting and cultural events throughout the year.
We arrived to Melbourne on Monday, same day the Australian Open started, and our week has been pretty tennis oriented. And it's been so much fun! I didn't even know I enjoyed watching tennis so much, but I really do. The atmosphere is great and you see the games so much better live than on tv and you hear the players comments and see all the crazy fans. So far the Chilean fans have been the best and the Finnish.. well, how can I say it nicely..hmm.. Anyway, they have all these silly things they shout like "oi, oi, oi, mikä taito, taito, taito" or then "we are blue, we are white, we are Finnish dynamite" But it probably doesn't even sound so bad now, you just
have to hear it..
We've been to Jarkko Nieminens both games, and we were so disappointed (maybe not as disappointed as he was, but still very) when he lost his second match. He was so close to winning and had several match points, but still lost. We also went to see the Williams sisters and been to many other good games. One day we spent over 10 hours out there, but time just flew by..
So apart from tennis, we really haven't had much time to do anything else, except eating out in the evenings or going for a few drinks. Haven't had a chance to go to any of the interesting exhibitions or museums that I've read about or visit the surrounding areas.. But I'm not complaining, tennis has so far been the highlight of my trip and I still have a chance to return here in March, which I believe I'll do because, there's still so many things I want to do in Melbourne. Now I must go and catch my night bus to Sydney. Heading there for Australia Day and then to New Zeland. New adventures await!
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Anna Voi Anni. Kaikki kuulostaa niin kivalta. Vaikka on tää Suomen talvikin poikkeuksellisen hieno.. kevättä silti odotellessa ja kaikkea sitä valoa ja positiivista energiaa, jota se tuo mukanaan. Onnea matkaa!