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Published: October 17th 2006
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Tuesday 4th April 2006 - Arrived in Australia!! - Oh my god!!! How exciting! - I was quite shocked I was sooooo excited and grinning like a Cheshire cat when I landed! I thought I’d be scared - but no!
As soon as I got off the plane I phoned mum and dad and Johanna; before I’d even left the airport - I was so excited I had to tell someone I’d arrived - even though it was only about 7am back home!! I couldn’t believe I was actually in Australia. All the random thoughts and plans with Bea and Chris and cheers of joy from Karen and Sarah had become real! I was actually miles and miles from home and I’d done it and was still alive, very happy and giggling to myself like a right div!
I was then off on my todd on my adventure in Australia, but not before I bumped into an old school mate - I hadn’t even left the departures lounge! Small world! Then it was in the airport transfer bus and off to Fremantle and to Pirates Backpackers that I’d call home for the next two months… It’s funny how just
listening to one bit of information a random person tells you in a foreign country can shape and make the rest of your time… an English bloke in Koh Tao suggested Pirates and I went with it.
Anyways… Fremantle, or Freo to the ‘locals’ (that included me after a week or so!), got everyone back home grasping for their maps and started ‘google’ searches! - ‘Is it a place or is she turning Aussie already??!’ Yup it’s town to the south of Perth, and Perth is a lot further south than I first thought. It’s not at 9 o’clock but more like 7 o’clock in the clock of Australia.
Freo was fun - from the toga parties to the champagne breakfast on Easter Sunday to tasting the delights of homemade Aussie burgers (full of everything you can think off - burger, lettuce, tomato, egg, beetroot and pineapple!! - it’s actually v yummy!!). Lots of time spent sitting in the garden swinging on the swinging chair and drinking lots of goon! - See it’s a whole new language over here!!! - Yup that’s wine in a box that proudly states it may have traces of nuts, egg and fish!!
Food...
Aussie Burger!!! Mmmm! Little Creatures, Coopers Pale Ale, VB, Melbourne Bitter, Carlton Draught, Redback… Freo was the beginning of my education into Australian beer - all of which is served freezing cold. It’s a common mickey take about the British liking warm beer and that we all moan that the beers too cold over here. Well I don’t mind admitting that I fit into that category! It’s bloody freezing! But then again my theory on the matter is that it’s done to hide the fact that most of the beers don’t taste that good!!
Freo was also nights out on the Harbourside, the Orient, Newport (the location of my v funny but dismal attempt to be a bargirl!!!), and live music at the Market Bar, Mojo's, the Paddington and Scarborough Beach Hotel. I was introduced to the sounds of Bernard Fanning and Jamie Cullen at the Blues & Roots Festival chilling under the trees, Augi March, the Drones, Ryan Adams and the enjoyment of listening to live music! (Yes this is me!!) I could get the guitar but my minds still out on the harmonica and will never accept the kazoo!!! Justin is totally to blame for this with encouragement from
@ Pirates in my favourite chair!
Fi, Justin, Me, Marloes swinging... Amanda!
There are things you pick up on when you arrive in a foreign country that you don't really consider to be foreign... at first you could believe you're back at home except for the good weather and then the simplest and most obvious things become important, interesting and different... like the chocolate... what is with that??? It’s just not Cadbury’s like back home! - I did find out that the crunchie ice creams do taste the same as home though. This then led to an addiction and at least one a day!! Coke cans are taller and skinnier... and the water tastes gross...!! They have cans of gin n tonic, vodka and cranberry - how cool... Strangest of all for me so far is the sky. It is so clear in Australia that it freaked me out first of all. This sounds weird but you can see a whole lot more of it than back home and at first it felt like being in the Truman show, like it was really a fake sky painted on… surely it couldn’t really be that blue and have no clouds for that many days! And I guess it was the clouds
Toga Party, Freo
Me and Fi - Goddesses! I missed (??! Yes very strange!!) But clouds put a perspective on things and with no clouds you can’t quite tell how far the sky is away… gettit?!?
Perhaps I should stop there... more later I'm sure!!! x
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