Hostel Homestead

It's around 10 in the morning and I am all settled in my new home away from home - well, for at least a week - that's all a could afford up front! Lots of things have happened: last week when James and I were packing up to fly out the anxiety and nervous tension of preparing to leave our home for a foreign place gave me the sensation of a rabble of butterflies swarming in my stomach. I thought I would try and drown them so I began drinking heaps and liters of water to no avail. However, before we left for the airport we met up with Jenny and Bram for mochas; now, I am not sure if it was the mochas or kind and knowledgeable words from friends but the task of 36 hour travel time seemed to become once again exciting and the butterflies perished.

We flew from Victoria to Seattle, to Los Angeles, to Sidney and finally to Perth. After checking in at our hotel (James' company put us up for a few nights) we were ready to hit the streets! We met up with a new friend, for me, and an old friend, for James, and shared the glory that is Victoria Bitters! Haha. The beverage lead James and I to a necessary nap then it was off to "two-for-one" pizza with Jesse and his gang. Now, James and I were faced with a bit of culture shock because this pizza joint seemed to us to resemble a club in design and in clientele. Beautiful, fit people enjoying delicious (but a tad dimensionally challenged) pizza. The stress of travel, lack of sleep and unfamiliarity started to affect my mental capabilities and I very embarrassingly confused the Victorian period for the 1900s. I felt impressively like a dunce and was happy to dive into bed around 10:30pm. The faux pas was I'm sure forgotten because last night when I met up with the same group my name and impression seemed a little fleeting as I was obliged to reintroduce myself. My reputation regarding knowledge of the proper Victorian period was restored.

The evening with new acquaintances also provided an opportunity to obtain knowledge about the ins and outs of procuring the proper means to be employable. A bank account, a mobile phone and a tax file number were of necessity and all three require an address which is not a post box. Lifting one from James' lovely friend from University I have been able to obtain two of the three and am in the 28 day waiting period for my tax file number (I would recommend to anyone thinking about coming to do this prior and have it mailed to someone in Aus).

Moving along, Thursday was arranged as an introduction to the city of Perth and James and I toured along with a wonderfully knowledgeable and personable lady. We went to many of the suburbs and were able to step onto the sand (finally!) of a couple beaches. One in Cottesloe, and as luck would have it a sculpture on the beach event was happening. It had a very island feel! Creative people designing beautiful art and showing it on a gorgeous beach. The second was in Scarborough (pronounced, "SCAHR-Brah") and it was beautiful too but had slightly larger waves. The evening was followed by dinner out with the family of James' work associate. They were lovely people with the cutest daughters! James' tackled, at dinner, an Australian fish called the Barramundi - we were told it is a sneaky fish to catch which I quite liked. James thought its flavour was comparable to a giant herring. The dinner lead to an early night for us once again.

Friday or INTERVIEW day(!) was finally upon us! The reason we trekked all the way across the world (or partly since I have really taken this trip into my own hands and stamped it a bit brighter with my own aims than James did). Things went well and celebratory drinks drove us into a much earlier night, like 8:30ish.

Our final day together we decided we would hike up to Kings Park - the view looks out over Perth and it is said to be a romantic spot. Our canoodling was to be put on hold though. Unfortunately we took a bit of a detour and ended up sweating and climbing treacherous stairs in the ferocious Australian heat. There were a few crazies (whom self professed their lack of sense when they passed us - James was nice enough to slow his pace to my crawl - that to walk up and down and up and down the stairs was there form of fitness!). Well, I might agree but the heat was at a nice broil at 39 degrees that day. When we made it too the top (after a bit of a break on a bench) we were greeted with some of the freshest looking park goers I have ever seen! I suggested to James that our Canadian roots were showing in my inability to cope with a bit of exertion in the hot weather. The Park was supremely landscaped and had lush grass which I am sure took quite a bit of water to maintain, if I am not mistaken there is a drought currently. On our bench we were treated to a bit of a show. A group of tourists were involved in a photo-escapade and going through slight aerobatics and theatrics to get that near perfect memory of the occasion. Taking their lead James and I decided to do a bit of posing but our challenge was clearly amateur because they had started their shoot sometime before we arrived and continued I am sure continued for sometime after we left.

The evening winded down with a competitive game of marco polo in the hotel pool and then for supper a large piece of meat to satisfy our appetites. James left that evening and I slept in solitude comforted by it because I knew I had hostel dorm rooms in my future.

In the morning I took the free bus (which I had been getting well acquainted with) to the train and boarded it to the suburb of Fremantle (I just checked wikipedia and it assures me Fremantle is a city in Western Australia and so does the web page City of Fremantle so it appears it is not a suburb after all). The city is very laid back and has a hostel it seems on every corner. Before I arrived I had booked in at the Old Fire Station Backpackers I was recommended to it by a lovely Canadian waitress at the Little Creatures Brewery and was persuaded by the write up in Lonely Planet. However, I was unable to book for the Sunday, I did make a reservation at the Freo Backpackers Inn. I was initially worried that the hostel life was a bit uncomfortable but now that I have arrived at the Old Fire Station Backpackers I can say with certainty that I will be very comfortable! The clientele seem all to be of a certain age and looking for a bit of fun and adventure. There are billiards tables, a ping pong table, free wifi, a comfortable (I mean very colourful, cozy and inviting) atmosphere and the entire building comes across as large home being rented by several friendly strangers with something familiar enough to make it warm.
This week I look for a job wish me luck!