Advertisement
Published: December 29th 2005
(Dave writes...)
Christmas 2005 will be a memorable one, it being our first Christmas away from home and our first on the beach!
On Christmas Eve the hostel, Governor Robinsons (see photo - the nicest hostel we've seen) put on a wine and cheese night. We met quite a few others staying there for Christmas, including two English couples - Matt and Michelle, Grace and Andy, a crazy German girl called Katja and a Mancunian named Dan. Spending Christmas with them really made it for us, it was a great group of people and even if Matt was a Liverpool fan we still got along. Afterwards, we headed off to the pub, and from what I remember it was a great night out!
Christmas day we woke up a little groggy and sat in bed, opening the parcels our family had very kindly sent out to us. Thanks again to everyone that contributed, it made such a difference to our Christmas. I think we actually received more cards than last year! After breakfast we followed true Aussie tradition and caught the train to the beach after donning our santa hats.
Cottesloe beach was a fantastic sight, everywhere
was so colourful as people had pitched their tents, windbreakers, eskys and bbqs. It was a wonderful fun atmosphere and the girls lapped up the sun whilst the gents went bodysurfing. We came back to the hostel via a Christmas ice-cream (of course) and had a bbq for lunch.
We called home - amazingly we managed to get through - it was great to talk to everyone, if a little strange. We spent the evening relaxing at the hostel sharing a few drinks.
On boxing day, another glorious day of blue skies and sunshine, Katja made us delicious pancakes for breakfast before we went back to the beach! It was so great, I think we could have easily gone back everyday this week. In the evening a group of us went to the outdoor cinema in Perth to see the latest Wallace and Gromit film. Everyone enjoyed it, it was a good choice for Christmas. We also had a few unusual experiences on the trains there and back, see the photo of Dan chatting to a complete stranger's brother! Let's just say we met some interesting (but harmless) characters!
On Tuesday we had a quiet day, then
went to the cinema to see 'Joyeux Noel', a fantastic film that I would recommend to anyone, covering the occassion in WWI where troops from opposing sides came out of their trenches to celebrate Christmas together. We had a night in and tried to finish off our wine over a few games of cards!
On Wednesday, our last full day in Australia we went to King's Park to admire the views over Perth for one last time. In the evening we caught the train down to Freo and had a romantic Mexican meal together, which was a Christmas present from John and Gill (Gem's godparents).
So today is Thursday and it's time to leave Australia. This afternoon we fly to Bali to spend time there with friends Liane and Clare, as well as seeing the island and neighbouring Lombok. I think we're both ready to move on from Oz now, having seen a great deal of it and feel ready for a new challenge. I am surprised how much I have enjoyed Australia, I thought New Zealand would really eclipse it for me, but we have had many amazing experiences here that I will remember forever.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.044s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0242s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Dave achieves his life ambition
