Day 236 - Perth and Margaret River

Welcome to Western Australia.



So, airports and flights have now offically TOTALLY lost their novelty. I don't even think I get excited about take-off anymore, and that has ALWAYS been a winner. I guess after this many flights, they're bound to lose it sooner or later. Anyway, this time it was Melbourne to Perth. And we arrived on a hot and steamy day (you know that feeling when you get off the plane and the temperature HITS you in the face as you step out the door - we got that), transfered into town and checked in.



To a ghost town. Right, its PEAK SEASON here. And the streets are dead. We're in the CENTRE of the biggest city in western australia. 1 block from the pedestrianised city centre. And its dead. And after a night's sleep and a wander into town, its the same. This place is BORING. There's nothing to do in town. Apparently the beaches are nice, but they're like 30 minutes away. So yeah, the next 3 (overcast) days are spent loitering around the dull town centre sorting things out, hanging around the pool catching the sun 30% of the time or getting excited about china (which is right round the corner).



Anyway, we have a week here on the west coast, so we decide to head out of town. And a 6 hour bus journey later we end up in the very quaint town of Margaret River. Its hot - not uncomfortably though - and its cute and green and lazy. And for 2 days we lazed around town, hanging with the locals at the hugely popular karaoke night, watching movies and eating chicken.



And then we realised. Just 3 days before our flight to china, ady emails us about our vietnamese visas and it suddenly dawns on me that perhaps, just perhaps, we need visas for china.

And guess what. we do. I see the fear spread over sam's face. She's amazingly readable when she's scared. The colour drains from her cheeks and she looks like she's just been drafted into Iraq on the front-lines. She has this half-accusational, half-dumb-struck look - its amazing. And no matter how many times I say "its fine, we can sort it out", the look doesn't shift until she's happy its sorted. And that's exactly what we did. A quick call to the embassy tells us the bad news that we need to change our flights ($27.50 each), get passport photos ($8), stay an extra 2 nights ($48 rent) and pay for an emergency visa ($100). All in a country and place we were more than happy to leave. Killer. But its sorted. and that look melts away and she's back to her amazing bright self.

And so our last day is spent by the pool. Basking in the hot 28 degree sun. practising my diving techniques. turning more brown every hour. and relaxing before the onslaught of china (its 1 degrees daytime temperature at the moment there guys. expect me to complain A LOT).





Now, the whole look-of-fear I get from Sam only pops up really rarely. I mean only once every 2 months. Its rare. But it happens twice in 2 days. We arrived back in Perth at 9pm. Its dark. And deserted (as usual). We walk to the hostel we stayed in before, and its full. Great. Sam hints at the look. "its fine, we can sort it out". We walk to the next place. Its full too. And apparently the other place round the corner is too. Sam's hint-of-a-look becomes a full-on fearful glare. "its gonna be fine". We're directed into the less-than-impressive bar area of town where there is apparently a couple of hostels and the occasional gun-crime. And walking through town, a silent, angry, fearful Sam on one side and the most redneck, hillbilly weirdos on the other, we scour the streets for a hostel and eventually find one with just one twin-room with our name on it. Problem solves. Bright and amazing Sam restored.

So yeah, it seems Perth is not only dull as hell, but its LOADED with the weirdest freaks ever. The people here look like something out of deliverance. Friendly - yes. But missing teeth, hideous haircuts, yellowing fingers and stained moustaches, bog eyes, egg heads, limps, lumps and hunchbacks - yes. the lot. is it in-breeding? i dunno. but if you're into circus freakshows you should get down here for a saturday night on the town. those and slutty girls EVERYWHERE. fact.

we stayed in of course. sam's not drinking and I'm skint. and the next day we check out early to get out of this part of town and back into the boring (but regular) town centre. At least that place has a pool. which we make full use of (1 degrees in china guys - have sympathy).

And then last night I hop onto a bus and head down to the beach to catch the sunset over the indian ocean. I'm not that into sunsets, but its something you can easily take for granted. and I sit on the gorgeous cottesloe beach, along with the better-looking half of perth, and watch the birds bound around the red and orange sky, the body-boarders catch the last waves of the day, and the sun sneak behind the horizon to give you guys back home the day I just had.





This is probably my last blog from Australia. Its been mental. I've hated it, and I've loved it. I've come here with almost no money, and left with so much less. Its been SO MUCH FUN. and yet so unsatisfying at times. Gut feeling - i wish I'd stayed longer in sydney. And I wish I'd had time to do the rafting course in Tully. And stayed in melbourne for just a couple more days. Would I come back? Only for sydney. A little bit of my heart has been left there. But the rest of it? Somewhere else.

Onto China. Expect winter clothes, temples, tiny little chinamen and chopsticks. And maybe a renewed sense of adventure.

Day 233 - Melbourne

Goodbye sydney - Hello Ramsey Street!



So, its a new year and time to move on. 6 weeks in sydney has been AMAZING. Yeah, the first few weeks were a bit rubbish. pressure to get a job, not 'feeling' the city, all that stuff. But since that all went away, I've turned into the biggest sydney fan ever. Its the job. and the clubs. and the people. but yeah, I'm so hot for sydney these days. But I can't afford it. So I either stay, and sack in the rest of my trip. Or I go, move on, borrow more money, and globe-trot for the last 4 and a half months of my year away.

and on that note, please acknowledge that I have only FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS LEFT on my 12 month trip. How rank is that! Right, I'm sure I left like 2 months ago or something. not 7 and a half months ago. It doesn't add up. No wonder i have no money left.

Anyway, we're leaving so after spending a couple of lazy days sorting stuff out and packing everything up, spending time with Georgie (who I LOVE) and the kids from the flat (especially Sarah, Dan and Kirsty who I LOVE LOVE LOVE), I text everyone I know and get them all to come down to the rank Sidebar for a pint before I leave. which most of them do. And its raucous. At 5am I'm caught trying to sneak Jenna and james into my hostel via the building site at the back, and end up drunkenly falling asleep and having to pack my entire backpack up at 9 in the morning with a hangover strong enough to kill rats.



   



Anyway, despite the killer hangover, myself, sam and eve start mentally preparing ourselves for the most evil that rapes backpackers of their happiness and good will - the night bus. yes, sydney to melbourne is a mere 17 hours away on the cheapo bus, and its the first nightbus since my 40-hour special in south america. Its gonna be hell.

and it was. Right, I don't wanna complain too much because I know you have NO sympathy for me travelling the world for a year and only working for 3 of those 52 weeks. BUT, australian buses SUCK BALLS. No dvds (in south america EVERY bus had dvds), no reclining chairs, no headrests, aircon that makes the journey feel like its via the south pole, and no blankets or pillows. This bus SUCKS. AND, it costs about 3 times as much as in south america. I HATE AUSTRALIAN BUSES.

So yeah, as you can gather, a sleepless, painful, freezing night on a rubbish bus led to one good thing about the journey - opening my sore eyes to see the beauty of melbourne unfold before me. At 7am, with the sun just up, we're driving through the city and its NICE. The buildings are old school, colonial architecture, backdropped by huge skyscrapers and with a huge river carved through the metropolis in the foreground. Its nice. I have no good photos of it, but its SO NICE.

Melbourne seems to have a bit of a younger-brother complex towards sydney. It seems to think its the best city in the world, but can't seem to shake enough people away from sydney to its beautiful suburbs and gorgeous beaches. It KNOWS its cool. It just wants everyone to see it. Here's the advert for melbourne that is showing at cinemas all over australia. The first time I saw it, I thought it was for some parisian fashion house, or a new perfume or something. Its not. Its for Melbourne. But check out the city - its beautiful.



Anyway, after arriving and gawping at this place, we drop eve off at a hostel and shoot off in a cab to the Brunswick area of town to meet my old mate from Brighton, Mark...



Now, mark is amazing. he smiles at least 95% of his waking life (I reckon he smiles in his sleep too). He has dimples that look like gunshot wounds, and when he's not smiling its because he's laughing stupidly at comic strips, singing Belle and Sebastian songs or complaining about ignorant non-vegetarians. He's amazing. And he's agreed to put us up for 3 nights while we explore the city.

So he whisks us out round the arty quater of town (brunswick high street), and then into town to wander around the city centre and soak up the views as we cross the bridge. We end up wandering around St Kilda (where melbourne has the pleasure of having a beach) and eating at a vegetarian restauarant (anyone who knows me knows that this is a big deal for me). Its so cute. I love melbourne. Its old and homely and stacked with character.



And after going out to one of australia's ONLY gay indie nights (which was awesome I might add, despite neither of us being really in the mood for it), mark tells us that day two in melbourne would be spent on the set of NEIGHBOURS!



That's right. We pay our $40 (17 quid), hop on the neighbours bus and wait for our 'cast star' to turn up for a meet and greet. and today the star was LIBBY KENNEDY. I love it. she's been out of the show for, like, 3 years, and still comes back to meet fans. It wasn't toady, which I would have liked. Or harold bishop. But libby is good enough. and I flirted a bit with her - enough for her to wink at me and flirt back a little - and got her to sign my free Neighbours postcard, then we left her in search of THE ramsey street, via Erinsborough High School.







So Ramsey Street, or Pin Oak Court as its really knows, is tiny. Its about the right length, but you'd be lucky to get a fiat punto round it without having to do a 6-point turn. Its tiny. BUT, its totally exactly as you'd expect.





There's only 6 houses on the close, even though in the show the house numbers are all in the twenties. I liked how the number '2' is etched into the wood where the film crew come every monday and stick one on.



But aside from that its totally what you'd expect. The houses look the same as I remember them, and the tour guide knows everything that's every happened in any of the houses, right down to the order of people who lived there. I don't care much for neighbours, but being here is weird. I liked the security guard stood near Harold's house - apparently an english couple tried to shag in the buses around his house once, so since then they have to employ someone to keep the peace.



Anyway, the whole thing was nuts but I loved it. Probably not worth the 17 quid, but worth it for the fun. and being there was mental. its a well known fact that on a tuesday night in melbourne, you can pay the same price to spend the evening in a pub with some of the cast, specifically harold and toadie, and get drunk with them. Eve's on a mission to pull toadie, but sam and I will have gone by then. Oh well.

And day three was reading comics (mark has SO got us both into comics)...



...wandering the city again, this time exploring the museum (along with its RUBBISH sneaker exhibition which was SO RUBBISH)...







...wandering the botanical gardens and the war memorial...







...walking around some trendy streets, and seeing this in the window of an antique shop...



...and ending up in St Kilda to meet kris (who we met in peru) for a drink...







And early on day 4 we're packing our stuff up again and saying goodbye to mark, as we prepare to catch a flight to Perth - western australian. I heart melbourne. fact. If I had another month here, I'd hate myself for leaving sydney, but I'd wanna spend it here. Its so cool. Maybe a little too laid back for a boy like me, but I could maybe get used to that. If I come back to australia ever, expect me to rave on about how nice melbourne is up close.

Day 230 - Happy New Year!

So, since christmas day I've been pretty busy. I took Eve and Sam for a massive walk around the botanical gardens, opera house and harbour...




[what a muppet]

I walked from Bondi to Coogee beach, passing some amazing beaches with NO BATTERY in my camera (this is all I got)...







And I slept and ate food and did almost nothing else all week in the run up to new years. Although there was one salient feature of my week which stands out above all else. And that is the return of THE JENNA!



She's back. This time towing a 19-year-old canadian who gets WAY more attention than me. Anyway, I talk jenna into coming to Bandits with me (my favourite sydney night ever) and we end up getting SO TRASHED that she's standing on tables, I'm crawling around the place like a monster and we end up in the supermarket at 6am buying breakfast for sam. It was possibly one of the best night's I've had in sydney. I love that girl Jenna.











Anyway, onto the important stuff. So its New Years here. And I have to work. But not til 11pm. So Sam, Eve, Jenna, James and I camp out on my balcony and watch the city drive by as we down glasses of champs. I'm slowing down cos I have to work, but the girls are all fired up. Sam and Eve head off at 8ish to go and see Basement Jaxx play at Bondi Beach (I'm SO jealous), and Jenna promptly falls asleep, leaving me and james to finish the champs. And 2 hours later, my phone starts buzzing and its my boss calling to say I'm an hour late for work!





Anyway, the new years for me involved people barking "WATER!" at me as if english isn't my first language; getting way too wasted courtesy of the beautiful georgie and ending up pressing all the wrong buttons on the till and pouring drinks all over the place. It was funny though. And amazingly Sam and Eve turned up in the bar at 6am (the bouncers had let them in for free because they showed him photos of me on their cameras) and we had a quick dance before I poured my last drink and sat the rest of the night out with Georgie and Matt.





Right, words cannot explain how much I love these guys. I just do. And tonight was especially poignant. It was my last night at the bar, because on Tuesday I'm heading to melbourne for a few days and then onto Perth, followed by China. No more Matt and Georgie. No more Eddy my manager. No more Chats and no more louise. I'm gutted. I LOVE working here. I love the people. and I love being behind a bar again. and it feels like such a crime to be leaving. But it has to be done. I have COUNTRIES to visit. so I'm off. In two days I'm leaving for Melbourne and no-one can stop me. Especially not these two...



anyway, after a sad farewell, I headed out for a quick 10am coffee with Jenna and James, then headed home for bed at 11am on New Years Day. I'm so damn hardcore, I love it.