Australia: Perth & Rottnest Island
September 3: Perth
Started my morning by packing up and meeting my childhood Canadian bestie and her husband for brunch in my hood. Such fun! Also, delicious. Ray Cafe is a solid restaurant with a vegan menu in Brunswick, for anyone interested.
It was a 4.5 hour flight from Melbourne to Perth. Thank goodness I had a window seat! And I managed to finish my book on the plane.
After landing at 5pm, I got my bag and hopped in an Uber to go meet a friend from my University of Ottawa days for dinner and drinks. We hadn't seen each other since 2011, and since he's living in Australia, I figured we should meet up. Twas fantastic. Thanks, Matt!
We hung out at a pub and then Matt showed me around his office before I grabbed an Uber to get to my friend Kate's house. I LOVE having friends all over!
September 4: Fremantle
Slept in a bit, had a delicious breakfast of fresh avo smash with garlic aioli and balsamic vinaigrette reduction, and coffee in an Aeropress, which was new for me. We hopped on a train to Fremantle - the port suburb, which is super cute and quaint.
We wandered through the town, stopped at a cool pub called Norfolk for a pot of beer, strolled down the Cappuccino Strip, picked up bread for breakfast at a solid bakery, and checked out the fairytale store. Then we stopped in for a chai latte while it rained.
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| Cappuccino strip |
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| Delicious chai lattes! (Made with almond milk, for me) |
We carried on to Kate's university, Notre Dame, and apparently it's changed a whole bunch since she finished several years ago. Fremantle is full of museums, and we decided to look in on the Shipwreck Museum. Turns out, there are a bunch of ships that have sunk off the coast of Western Australia and they have HUGE anchors. It was neat. I learned a lot about various ships and history. Pretty cool. Then we went to Little Creatures Brewery, which is the coolest brewery/pub/art gallery I have ever been to. It was massive, and there were 9 STALLS in the women's washroom. These folks know what's up!
As soon as we entered, Kate hugged the manager and was offered a job! Hilarious. She was talking earlier about how she needed to figure out where she wanted to work, and if she wanted to keep living with her mother and find another place. We had some beer and cider, ate kangaroo kebabs, a huge bowl of fries, and delicious halloumi. There's an art gallery along the upper level of the huge brewery, and tonnes of seating.
Upon leaving, we walked along the water to the first jail and saw this super cool illusion!
We wandered down, stopped in at a shop to get olives and fresh cheese, then grabbed a train back to Claremont. We went to the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner and got picked up by Kate's mum. Spent the evening watching TV in front of the fire, drinking tea. Ideal.
September 5: Perth
It was chilly and raining, so we decided to have a lazy day. We watched the Bachelor (Australia) and the movie Stardust, and ate a bunch of really excellent food: oats with turmeric, honey, and raspberries; avo smash (garlic mayo is RAD); olives, Persian feta, and bread. Then we went for a really lovely walk through University of Western Australia language school, along Swan River, past Christchurch Boys School.
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| Pelican are funny looking birds! |
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| These plants are called Kangaroo's Feet. Makes sense cause they definitely look like them, and they're fun colours! |
Finished the day with The Bachelor and an absolutely incredible roast veggie dinner. So simple, and so delicious. Definitely must keep it in mind for winter, as it is extremely comforting and filling. YUM.
September 6: Perth
A good day to go downtown! Kate needed to get her computer fixed, so we went into the city for a wander, and a bit of a tour. Kate is an excellent tour guide, cause she really loves Perth and is happy to share all kinds of fun tidbits and cool places.
While Kate was getting her Australian license, I went to my favourite lingerie store, Simone Perele, and had some fun. Some bras are really funny looking.
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| The fringe felt funny, but I really liked the way the bra looked and felt, aside from that. |
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| An INCREDIBLE gin & tonic with lunch. Wow. |
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| Funky wall art |
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| Kate's a genius! |
As we were wandering around a couple of neighbourhoods downtown, we stopped for another gin and tonic, and then coffee. There was a super cool bathroom in this bar, so I decided to take a photo haha I also LOVED the music.
We caught a train from the main station at dark and walked back to Kate's house for a nice dinner, easy dinner, a glass of wine, and we watched Australian Football because Perth was in the quarter final. I got super into it and really enjoyed myself.
September 7: Perth
Friday. We decided to take it easy, do some reading, stoke the fire, and watch a bunch of Netflix. We started working on a puzzle in the afternoon, and rather than go out, we opted to stay in for dinner and puzzles with some of Kate's mum's friends. It was a lovely, relaxing evening.
September 8: Perth
After a nice, late breakfast with coffee, we went to King's Park, which overlooks Perth downtown and is a beautiful garden and green space. I absolutely loved it until it started pouring rain. Luckily, at that point, Kate's mum picked us up!
Then we went to Il Lido Italian Cafe for a late lunch, which was delicious, and walked out to the pier for this iconic shot at Cottesloe Beach. We saw a whole bunch of crabs and various birds, and some people were fishing. I was shocked to see some folks swimming, and there were definitely surfers. Far too cold, I'd say!
September 9: Rottnest Island
Quokkas sleep with their tails between their legs and heads tucked down to their chests. When they're exhausted and/or in deep sleep, they fall over onto their sides like above. After a quick coffee and muffin, we decided to go for a nice, long hike before the sun got too hot. We passed the one windmill on the island, and passed a SUPER salty lake. It's a wonder things can live in it!
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| Freaky blue jellyfish that will DESTROY you with their super long tails, even after they're dead. |
Quokkas are everywhere! They are so cute, and I love them. I wanted to cuddle all of them, but they're wild animals despite being human friendly and lovely.
By lunch, we were exhausted. We decided to spend some time eating by the water at one of the two pubs - the touristy one cause it's by the water. We had to fend off the seagulls, but had a few drinks and some good food. It was nice to sit down for a while after a 10k hike around part of the island.
After lunch, we went to the other lighthouse on the Perth side of the island. On our way, we ran into one of Kate's friends who works there, and he suggested we meet up after the lighthouse.
We went to the "locals" pub and had a few drinks, then realized we were about to miss our ferry back. We would have had to make a run for it, when we were offered a place to stay for the night with Kate's friend! Huzzah. So, we had several more drinks, ate some yummy foods, and enjoyed our evening on the island.
The next morning we caught the first ferry back to Fremantle, then to Kate's house. I packed up my things and got on my flight back to Melbourne.
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