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So we’ve been here a few days now and I know Mark has blogged about our interesting night in a local pub but maybe not so much about what life in the Ozi Inn is like and all the other info that happens on a day to day basis so let me fill you in.
The one thing I can say about the Ozi Inn is that the bathrooms, toilets, kitchens and bed sheets are clean. In all honesty if they weren’t Mark and I would have checked out the following day. The curtains are questionable and there is a lack of plugs in all of the sinks which can make washing up a bit tricky. Maybe if we were in our early 20’s this would be something that wouldn’t be commented on but I have to say I find it quite irritating being unable to fill up a bowl with hot soapy water. The other guests at the Inn are wide ranging and for the first day or two seemed to peer round the corner at Mark and I with questionable looks. Not sure if they were cautious of Marks grumpy exterior or if they were concerned that our age would erase their youth! People seemed to walk and talk around us for a couple of days even though we had tried our best to give chirpy hellos at every opportunity. We had gleamed some local knowledge from Crystal a young twenty something from Ireland who’s working at the Inn and travelling with her brother and also Raphael an Italian who has been in Oz for 4 years and manages the Inn. The lack of conversation from everyone else was becoming a bit worrying and I couldn’t help thinking that Mark and I were invading their territory or maybe we weren’t soapy enough yet.
We spent our first few days walking around Northbridge town and Perth under the warm sunshine, not too warm just about 18 degrees so pleasant enough. Northbridge is Perths china town and main nightlife area with small pockets of Chinese eateries on almost every street along with every bar, club and music venue you could think of. Perth city is just a few streets away with every conceivable shop and amenity you can imagine. Shopping for groceries has been something of an experience. There is a small Coles supermarket near the Inn which we were directed to on our first day. Since then we shopped at a place called IGA too, both seem to be pretty expensive in comparrison to home. I think the small convenience type ones are dotted around the hostels in the hope of taking advantage of backpackers. We decided to explore Perth city on Monday as we needed to finalise our bank accounts at Westpac and grab some groceries. Monday morning was quiet, people were either in bed still having been awake all night playing poker or had gone to work. Our rent includes a free pancake breakfast and so we sat outside under the sunshine to chomp pancakes and syrup with tea and juice to discuss where we would go and the best way to get there and back. We chatted with Raf the Inn manager about visas and immigration he is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to this topic.
We have a trusty little map of the local area and decided to stroll through Northbridge into Perth and then down to the Swan River. The streets were busy with commuters but not as busy as the main towns back home which isn’t surprising given that the whole of Western Australias population is just 1.5 million. We nipped into a phone shop on our way to pick up a Lebara SIM card, it costs just 5c a minute to call a UK landline and 5c a minute to call my Mum and Dad in the USA so for just $30 it’s a bargain! Hopefully you all have the number by now, if not it’s 0451594956. We are 7 hours in front of you in the UK and about 11 hours in front of the USA.
Just 10 minutes into our stroll we found the bank, handed over our passports and finalised our accounts, our debit cards will be at the Northbridge branch within a week, marvellous! We walked on down hillside roads to Swan River where vast areas of green grass, little cafes serving milkshakes, iced coffees and pastries were plenty. We looked out over the river and could hear the bells chiming from the famous bell tower. The tower itself is quite a structure with a tall glass spire surrounded by what appears to be iron half moons. There are plenty of ferries and cruises over to Fremantle and we plan to arrange one of these in the next week having been told there is a place called Little Creatures that brews its own beer, it would be rude not to. At this point I received a text from Lisa who I worked with at Countrywide who has also made the trip to Perth just 2 weeks earlier. We found her location on our trusty little map and wandered along the river and then back-up the hills to her apartment block. We exchanged our knowledge of things to do and see, the best mobile SIM cards, the best way to get around, campervans and whether or not the exchange rate will go back up. At $1.6 to the pound it is not great on our pockets at the moment.
Perth have brilliant transport links around it’s lovely city. The trains are cheap in comparison to our rip offs back home and there’s even free buses called CATs. You can hop on and off of these all day and currently Mark is buzzing around on these now making his way around the hostels in search of our campervan. Our first encounter with one of these CATs was after our catch up with Lisa we strolled back towards the City Centre and stopped inside a small high priced supermarket to grab some necessities for the Inn. Laden with a bag each we spotted the blue Cat stop where a bus comes by every 6 mins which would take us just a short distance from our clean but odd Inn. Seemed bizarre stepping on the bus and not actually paying anything, I haven’t been on a bus in years but was grateful to not have to lug the heavy bags back the few miles we had strolled.
We unpacked our goodies into the pantry and the fridge each containing canvas bags with each individuals name, room number and departure dates. So far no wars have broken out that I have seen where someone has taken anyone’s rice, pasta, veg etc. There was a small exchange of words over some missing salt the other night from 2 other travellers but so far so good. I’m of the understanding that everyone is in the same boat and couldn’t understand why anyone would steal someone else’s food, Mark on the other hand is not so trusting and chooses to store his beloved bottle of Pepsi Max in the bedroom just in case. Our first WWOOF placement has fallen through as they haven’t come back to us to confirm we knew we needed to make alternative arrangements for next week as we are yet to find our campervan and we are still awaiting for our funds to be transferred over. We have booked into another backpackers just down the road as it looks as though our room has been booked for next week. Mark has been craving and Indian for a few days but none of them seem to do what he likes and the cost seems high so after consulting our Lonely Planet guide we took off to the Golden BBQ a few streets away. Those of you who know Mark will know how fussy he is about food and that he refuses to eat Chinese due to a fear that they use local cats and dogs. He had said before coming out here that he would try anything once, with my new love of bargains this seemed the place to go. I convinced him into the Golden BBQ Chinese Restaurant by reading to him the review from our Lonely Planet guide with the promise of succulent BBQ pork and duck. He wasn’t disappointed. For just $23 Mark enjoyed BBQ pork and duck with steamed rice and Pak Choi which I ate, and I had the best Singapore Vermicelli I’ve ever eaten washed down with a Diet Coke each. We were satisfied and what a bargain!
I’d been craving a decent glass of wine since we had arrived, we were in Australia so all my favourites were from here I just had to find them! We’d viewed the wines at the local rip off stores and almost passed out at the prices, I’d refused to pay $23 for a bottle of Oyster Bay, Montana or Jacobs Creek and vowed to find a decent bottle of vino at a snip of that price. We’d been informed of 2 bottle shops in Northbridge the yellow one where the till is protected by a small Chinese woman who charges what she likes depending if she likes the look of you or not and Cellars. The first one we came to was the scary Chinese one but always up for a challenge decided to enter with a chirpy demeanour and every nicety you can think of. We struck gold, a bottle of Oxford Landing just $7.70, we approached the till with caution, big smiles and wide eyes.
‘You want cold one?’ Scary little lady said
‘Yes please, I didn’t see one in the fridges though’ Oh no have I just made a rookie mistake?
‘That way, that way, down, down, there, there, there!’ She was bleating at me from behind the till as I desperately searched for my chilled bottle of loveliness convinced I was annoying her. There it was one single bottle on the bottom shelf, I should have known the lower priced ones would be at the bottom. We paid no more than was expected and took our brown paper bagged goods back to the Inn.
Elated with my purchase we sat outside, me with my mug of wine Mark with a mug of Pepsi and suddenly we were being spoken to. Not sure what the change was but people had obviously seen passed our aged exteriors and realised we weren’t freaks of nature at all. Conversations were filled with the adventures of everyone else our tales of the Slovakian family who cleared out our house and more hints and tips of places to go, things to see and what we could expect in the future. It had been a great day and at midnight we dropped into bed.
Tuesday
We decided that Mark and I would have some alone time. Even married couples can spend too much time together and neither of us want to start getting on each others nerves at this early stage. So he spent the morning hopping on and off the CAT buses at all the hostels looking for a campervan whilst I stayed at the Inn to blog and do the washing. The good news is Mark has found a Woolworths which is a big supermarket here, it’s much cheaper and he picked up 3 bottles of Hardys at just $5.55 a bottle. Hurrah!
When he returned he was full of all sorts of knowledge about the City Centre although no real luck on the camper van so the search continues. We made a plan for our afternoon to go to Fremantle. The train is just $3.60 each to Fremantle so we jumped on with our Lonely Planet Guide and camera with the plan to go to
Little Creatures the brewery we had heard so much about. We reached our destination just 30 minutes later, we ended up taking the scenic route without actually meaning too. Fremantle is full of really beautiful buildings and is so quiet it is almost deserted everywhere we go and the sea air is amazing. Before long we could see the harbour and just beyond the train tracks, ‘Little Creatures’.It is the most amazing brewery/pub, we marched up to the bar to purchase some refreshment before taking them out onto the decking overlooking the sea to sample them. We weren’t dissapointed the beer was scrummy, we ordered a plate of Nachos to share and relaxed just looking out to sea under the warm sunshine. We remained here for quite a while before deciding to make tracks back to the Inn, we jumped on the CAT bus to the station rather than take another scenic walk.
Back in Perth we started our walk back to the Inn, we then bumped into a group of the other guests of the Inn all in each others clothes, it transpired they were off on a scavenger hunt and there were 2 teams within the vacinity. We left them to it and headed back to the Inn for peace and quiet. I grabbed some wine and we sat outside chatting with some new guests and others for a while until we heard that one of the scavenger hunt crew was currently getting a free Tattoo under the pretence that it was for charity! Some scavenger hunt! Everyone found this completely hillarious and we couldn’t wait for them to return. The group outside began to grow with everyone grabbing a beer and exchanging stories, when the scavenger groups returned no one could believe their eyes, all very drunk the boys in the girls clothes and the girls in the boys clothes armed with all their treasure. Treasure included, road signs, signatures from strippers, toilet seats, pint glass, pictures of group members kissing Aboriginies and other funny snaps. Then in walked Liam with his fresh new Tattoo of a Canadian Maple Leaf with the well known phrase ‘Fuckin eh’ underneath. Liam is of course very patriotic and 100%!B(MISSING)ritish! The night continued with everyone having a great time drinking and chatting, it was 2am before we finally slopped off to bed 2 and a half bottles of wine down!
Thursday
Kings Park is a huge open space set high up boasting beautiful botanical gardens, a tree top walkway and breathtaking views. We headed off in the early afternoon jumping on the Blue Cat to the nearest stop. It wasn’t clear of how we got to the park seeing as it was above us as we sttod at the bus stop. A friendly Aussie directed us down the road to an unsigned walkway. As we began our ascent we realised just how far up the park was. The walkways were steep with steps filling in the steepest parts, we were grateful to be protected by the trees growing over the walkway which kept us cool. It was 20 minutes or so before we reached the top, but it was an amazing sight, the grass was so green and against the blue sky it looked like a photograph. We grabbed a drink and relaxed for a while looking at the views over the city and Swan River. We headed for the Walkway, which is a 225meter suspended glass and steel structure settled amongst the tree tops. We walked through the botanical gardens which smelt amazing and we could hardly believe there was a bustling city below us.
The trees were huge, who knows how long they have been there! The only way to explain just how big and beautiful Kings Park is, is for you to see for yourself, sorry no free flights but a few pics. Enjoy.
View the Kings Park Slideshow by clicking here
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Mark and Verlie
Our Asian Adventure..............
Just a small add on.............
We know the links to the pics aren't working! Technical issues being resolved at some stage soon :)