Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So after a large amount of wine consumption on the plane, we arrived in Perth. Border security and quarantine was INSANE, they asked us about 5 times if we were carrying any food or wood with us, everywhere we went through the terminal. The queue to go through quarantine was so long, they were scanning all the bags, and as we approached a staff member pointed us through another way, which fast tracked us through, our bags weren't searched and we were out of the airport so quickly.We arrived at our booked hostel, The Globe; the girl behind front desk was a bit of a retard. She firstly told us that we had already paid, wasn't going to complain about that, secondly that we had been overcharged so we would be receiving a refund the next day, even better. So she gave us our keys to our room, we had to walk through the smelly, noisy and smoky common area into our bedroom, where they had clearly lacked the capability to wash the sheets since they were 1st put on the bed 10 years ago, the room stank of rotting boys, and we had booked an en-suite and this not have one. So we went back to the delightful woman at front desk, that this was not our room that we booked and could we be moved to the correct room. The response we received was there wasn't any of them rooms available and that we would have to come back tomorrow when her manager was back. So a little put out me and Jess thought sod this, left our bags there and went on a new hostel hunt around Perth at 5pm on a Sunday with no map, so we popped into an open bookshop had a little look at the lonely planet and went on our way. We found the 'Old Swan Barracks' Hostel in Northbridge, reserved a room, and headed to a pub for a cold beer. This cold beer smacked us in the face of how expensive Australia is; two pints of Heineken cost $25. We went back to the Globe to tell them we were leaving and that we wouldn't be staying in the hole which was there establishment. She told us that it was a backpacker hostel, that we should expect this, and that she would advise that we stay tonight as leaving would not look good to the manager….well I wanted to advise her to go F*** herself, but we said that we found a lot nicer accommodation for a better price, that just because it was a backpacker hostel doesn't mean you can give us the wrong room and not keep a room in that state! After this fun ordeal we ended up having a lovely meal and some more wine at The Moon, reminded me of home. Well the name, not the venue, as the place was a really cool and quirky place, with live music. Then back to the hostel for more wine and a couple of appalling games of pool.
The following day (6th December) we had a very lazy day, we grabbed some brunch in Perth town, went to the library to use their free internet. The evening however was much more eventful, we began our night in Nandos, and how I missed that Peri Peri chicken. The first stop after dinner was to a bar that had live music, we however didn't get into the bar until everyone poured out of this place after the music has finished. So we had a quick drink as we had been waiting so long and went with a couple of Australians to the club 'The Dean' for backpacker/student night. The music and the atmosphere were really cool here, drinks weren't too expensive and they even had a live band at one point in the night. We met some girls there who we hung with for a bit who had just finished Uni for the summer, so were on a big night out. We then met Gemma, Astra and Max, three Ozzys, who we got chatting with. At around 3, when the club started kicking out, none of us were ready to say our goodbyes, so as you do when a bit merry we went back to Gemma's car (she wasn't drinking) and hung out in the car park drinking their beers and just generally pissing around and taking lots of photos. After the beer ran dry they suggested that we go to the Burswood Casino on the edge of town, so after a quick stop at the hostel for me to change into some jeans we headed to the Casino at 4.30am. After watching Gemma lose a lot of money on a slot machine we headed into the bar for some Cava, which I can say now at 5am is not needed, but we drank anyway, sat around the table chatting about crap. Next thing we knew it was 6.30am and outside was beautiful sunny day. This was our queue to get back in that car and go to home, where we were back in time for breakfast and then bed.
The 7th was a uneventful day for us, we were very tired, so we mooched around the hostel and the town, cooked dinner and just hung out in our bedroom to try and get an early night, which the two gay guys (who looked a lot like ugly girls) in our room didn't let me have, they decided to get frisky when I was still clearly awake, so I made a swift exit of the room as I wasn't hanging around for that show.
So after a good night sleep we hit Perth Zoo. We jumped on the ferry across the river to spend a sunny day with the animals. We saw Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas, Tasmanian devils, orang-utans, rhinos, elephants and lots of other animals. We had such a nice day in the sun, we took a picnic and I raged war on a gang of seagulls. That evening after dinner, we went to the local bar in Perth, which was HUGE. We were only staying for 'one,' of course we did not. We bumped into our lovely roommates, who bought me some blue drink with an umbrella in it and pretty much ignored Jess. The evening event at the bar was Drag queen Xfactor, where different queens would lip-sync to songs and the audience got to vote, seriously what is with us and drag acts. As the bar kicked out we moved on with the crowd to the seediest gay club ever, it was very dark, lots of smoke and ugly topless men. So we had a few drinks, a dance and made our exit at around half 1/2am.
As we weren't committed to stay at our new hostel, we decided to take a trip down to Freemantle for a couple of days, so with our small backpacks we jumped on the train down to Freo. We had a few issues trying to find a hostel there as everywhere was booked, but we managed to find two beds in the YHA. For lunch we went to 'Cappuccino Street' and like in Ben and Jess style we ordered the two biggest meals on the menu and ate far too much. Shocker! After lunch we were determined to walk down our large lunch, so went on the tour of the Freemantle prison, this place was amazing. The prison is the largest Colonial prison in the southern hemisphere and it had been in use up until 1991. This for me was one of my favourite tourist attractions so far, because our tour guide was so interesting, he made the experience very theatrical, and like to tell us lots of stories of old prisoners. I would definitely recommend this to everyone. That evening due to our large lunch we dined on cornflakes, and went for a walk around the harbour as we wanted a chilled out evening,
So on the 10th December 2010, Jess took us on a guided tour around Freemantle (this tour was in one of our guidebooks), we went to the harbour markets, statues, the maritime museum; don't ask me why I went to a museum about boats when I don't like them, it just seemed like the thing to do in Perth, and we had a tour of a submarine by the dullest man in Western Australia. As it was a nice day we had another picnic in the park by the sea and had some tanning time. We also went to the famous Freemantle markets, I must say I was pretty disappointed by how small they were, and so we headed back to the hostel via a bottle shop. For dinner we went to the harbour for their world famous fish and chips, which was so tasty. We also went to Little Creatures Brewery for a drink; this bar is a really cool and buzzing bar on the seafront.
Saturday, we departed Freemantle to go back to Perth via North Freemantle beach. We spent the whole day sunbathing on the beach and watching the kite surfing event. It was a really beautiful day so it was perfect for this, except the wind was irritating as sand was being blown EVERYWHERE! For the first time, I was not burnt after a day of sunbathing, this could not be said for Jess, and she burnt around her bikini line really badly. That evening after checking back in the Old Swan Barracks, we had dinner in the Moon again for some more of their awesome food and wine. We had an early one though as we had to be up early for our flight to Sydney in the morning.
- comments
Becs Woooooo WA! I also loved the Prison - I went on night tour which was awesome - Little Creatures was my fave place to go! xx