The rainy view from the flat
Jacob left
Perth on a cold and rainy night, which would be a sign of things to come for me. Supposedly Perth had been in a 3 year drought before I got there, but that all changed because it rained EVERY day that Jacob was gone. I tried to be positive and applied for 12 jobs the day after he left. Day after day, however, I got zero calls. Being so far from the CBD, I didn’t get to go many places because I would have had to walk to the train station in the cold rain. Chris, the owner of the house I was in, was very cool and drove me to the store or to places I just had to get to, but not wanted to mooch, I stayed home a LOT.
Luckily, Keera came to my rescue. A friend from home, Keera is Australian and after graduation from LSU, got a job in Perth. On her first few days in the city she stayed with a friend who had a car, so she came to pick me up and we looked at flats for her and saw some sights in Perth.
Becca with a Rogers at Little Creatures
Our first excursion was to
Fremantle, an adorable port city just south of Perth. It was raining, of course, so we didn’t get to walk around the city, which is the best way to see it. We did, however, go to
Little Creatures Brewery. Little Creatures beer is delicious beer and their brewery is very cool. The building itself looks like an old wharf warehouse, with a very tall ceiling and huge windows on both ends. You can see it on their website. We sampled all of their brews (both of our favorites was the Rogers), had a snack in the restaurant, and wished we could stay all night.
Keera and the Feral tasting tray
Another day we drove to
Swan Valley for some wine tasting. I learned so much about wine doing this and it was great, I must learn more. We also stopped at a chocolate factory and 2 breweries. Naturally, it rained off and on all day, but we still had a blast.
One evening, when Chris was heading to a footy game and let us borrow his car, we explored some touristy stuff around the CBD. The “Wheel of Excellence”, a big Ferris wheel right on the water was neat but a bit scary because of the wind. It was right next to the
Swan Bells, a strange sculpted tower building that was a gift to Perth from the City of London. That night, while having drinks at a Belgian beer pub called the Trappist, I met the bartender, Anna, who is from Baltimore and was in Perth working after having finished several months traveling Southeast Asia. Neato!
Becca, Jeremy, and Valentina
So by this point I’ve been in Perth for a week and a half and still haven’t heard from any of the 17 total jobs I’ve applied for (it was explained to me that shortly before I arrived a few of the mines closed, which put a lot of Aussies out of work, which made less work for travelers). I was starting to think that this wasn’t such a good idea. Keera started work the next week so I didn’t have her to hang out with on weekdays. One of my flatmates, Jeremy, had a BBQ at the house every Monday for his workmates, which was a good distraction, but on a few days I never left the house. It rained almost constantly and was
very windy. Later that week, after several more days of no work-related calls, I decided to leave. The earliest flight I could get was the next Monday, the same day Jacob would be arriving back in Sydney, so I bought the ticket. A couple of hours later, I got a phone call from an employer wanting me to come in for an interview, but it was too late. Murphy’s Law, eh?
American Sailors in Perth
I had one weekend left in Perth so I made it a good one. Keera found an apartment practically IN the CBD which she had to herself so I moved into the spare room for the remainder of my time there. It was great because I could walk or take a free bus to anywhere I needed to go. In a great/terrible twist and another example of Murphy’s Law, the weekend weather was amazingly clear and crisp. The
USS George Washington was docked in Fremantle and the city was overrun with American sailors (in their uniforms the first day), which I got a great kick out of. The boys (and girls) are friendly and well-mannered and most Perth residents (especially the women) were happy they were there. I spent most of Thursday night eavesdropping on Aussie conversations about them and asking every one of them where they were from. No Louisiana boys, but lots of Texans, and one definitely knew his Cajun food. We talked about eating for like two hours.
Keera has Fridays off so we rented a car with Werner, another friend of hers from LSU who was visiting, and we drove to
Wave Rock, which was about 4 hours away, and some other sights. The rock itself was beautiful but the weather cold and a lot of the countryside we drove through was old news to me but new stuff to Keera and Werner. Since Saturday was the Fourth of July, we made it a one-night trip so Keera and I could go to a party in town.
The Fourth was a blast and we were surrounded by Americans thanks to the Navy. It was a late night, in which I chatted with a couple of Aussie-Texan girls, met up with Anna the bartender again, and laughed with sailors and pilots until the wee hours. The Fifth of July was not so much fun! We did manage to make it out of the apartment for a few hours to walk around
King’s Park, but we were like zombies.
Monday finally came and I boarded the plane excited to see Jacob again. Chris drove me to the airport because he is the nicest landlord ever. Perth is a beautiful city when the weather is nice and I can
definitely see how it would kick ass in summer. I never got to see any of the beaches, which are some of the main attractions. I have bad luck with weather, or else I would have loved Perth. I am thankful for the fun friends I made there instead.
Click HERE for More Photos of Perth
Becca
) with his lawn maintenance business and offered me a half-day’s worth of work the next morning. For the next couple of days Rob and I worked mowing and cleaning lawns. He seemed to have some fairly rich clientele and I saw some very nice houses around Broome. We also helped Rob move his stuff from his old house to the new one. He also let us stay in his yard for free and use his garage shower, which Becca cleaned.
