Advertisement
Published: June 14th 2009
The birthday girl
My gorgeous Miss Maud birthday cake from Bec...delicious!!And so it was, our time in Australia was almost at an end, with one final destination completing our journey around the periphery of the whole country, Perth.
Again, having no prior knowledge about what to expect of Perth, we were more than happy with what we found. Having come from the outback, it was nice to be somewhere busy again and us being the city girls that we are, we took full advantage of the fantastic shopping that was to be had!
Of all the cities in Australia, Perth seemed most like England. They even have a little mall of quaint little shops called London Court. The other thing that is like Blighty is the weather! My god, what a departure from the sweltering heat of Broome. Having said that, on the couple of days that there was sun, we managed to make it to Cottesloe and Scarborough beaches - both of which were very nice but with lethal waves which deterred us from taking a constitutional.
A train ride away, there is a lovely little town called Fremantle, which is renowned for its 'cappucino mile' of cafes and restaurants. There's also a really good market (another opportunity for us
to shop!) and the popular Little Creatures brewery, where we sampled the local brew.
With Paul about to bid us a sad farewell, it was lovely to spend some time with another part of the Bloom dynasty, cousin David and Mana. David is the manager of a wonderful seafood restaurant called Zafferenos (hope I spelt that right David, anyway its a quick plug for you!), which was so posh that the frocks had to make an appearance and Bloomy had to iron his shirt , and the food . . . well, put it this way, as I am writing this, I am still salivating . .
As well as dine in fancy restaurants, we, of course, had a look at the nightlife that Perth had to offer. Found a fantastic little club called Amplifier which was full of trendy oddballs and played great tunes. Right up my strasse. Other good places were the Moon and Sixpence, Rosie O'Gradys and the Elephant and Wheelbarrow, most of them being in the Northbridge area of Perth, a short walk from our hostel. But more of the hostel later . .
The main event in our Perth diary was, of course, Geen's 35th
birthday!! And ever the glamour puss, our girl toasted it in style, by getting hair and nails done and then getting leathered! With our new friends from the Billabong hostel, we went out to the Brisbane bar and then to some bizarre techno club. Not quite the venue that we had in mind for Baby Bloomy's b'day, but, hey, its one to remember! Before retiring back to our hostel, where I had thoughtfully decorated Geen's bunk with numerous balloons, which presented some challenge as she drunkenly attempted to get into bed without popping any and waking the whole dorm in the process . . . And so, back to our dive of a hostel . .
Well, thats a little bit unfair because the YHA in Perth has quite a lot going for it, in terms of the facilities - nice bathrooms, large dorms, good kitchen and bar. However, one thing that you truly don't want thrown in is a colony of bedbugs, which we seemed to have in shedloads judging by the tramline of bites that peppered our arms and legs.
After spraying the mattresses twice, changing the mattress and then moving to the top bunk and multiple sheet
and pillowcase changes, the problem was finally resolved, but you never fully get rid of that itchy, rife feeling.
Anyway, to get away from our infested pits (well, for 1 day, at least) we hired a car and drove down to Margaret River, a picturesque little town, where we fed the ducks and had pie and chips with gravy. We also had a stroll around the wonderful Kings Park and the Swan River, whilst the bells of St Martin rang out in the bell tower that sits by the river.
We were then joined in Perth by 2 of our friends, Diane and Rob, and so we had a nice couple days spent in good company before it was time to say cheerio cobber to amazing Australia. We've had a blast!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.442s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 16; qc: 78; dbt: 0.404s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
