last days in freo

My flight from Brisbane back to perth took two hours longer than going the other way…yuck…the flight arrived at midnight, which was too late for public transport, so I slept at the airport…at first, I didn’t know where I could sleep, or if I could, but then I noticed a few people racked out near unused baggage carousels…I didn’t sleep well, but who does at an airport…the next morning I caught the bus back into the city, then took the train back to freo, and walked home…the whole process took about two hours…not too bad, and waaaaaaaaay cheaper than the shuttle or a taxi!!

I spent the rest of the day reading and watching tv, and generally doing nothing…nice…

My last day I was finally a little productive again…I did laundry, packed my stuff, bought some food, visited fremantle prison, visited the war memorial, booked a shuttle to the airport and cleaned a bit…not much, but a little…

The prison in fremantle has a long history…it was built by the convicts themselves, originally opening in 1855…the guide told us that convicts were those who were convicted of crimes in the UK, then shipped here for their hard labour punishments…they didn’t commit their crimes in Australia…when the convicts first arrived, the local authorities didn’t even know they were coming, the letter telling the authorities was on a different boat…so the convicts were originally housed in a warehouse, until the letter arrived…then they built the prison…if I remember correctly, it took about 7 years? I could be totally wrong on that…most of the prison is built from local limestone, which is really soft…you can see how it’s been clawed out in a few places…the "new" part of the prison was built out of limestone from another area, much harder, and you can easily see the difference when you're walking around the prison grounds...prison labour built not only the prison, but a few other places around town…according to the guide, having a job while you were in prison was a good thing, because otherwise you had nothing to do with your time…if you had a job, you went out of prison grounds every day to work...if not, they put you out into the yard, every single day…regardless of how you felt, or the weather…the tour takes you through all of the prison, I wouldn’t want to spend time there…it must’ve been soooo monotonous…after a bunch of years the prison started taking local prisoners as well, though the routines didn’t change…it was still maximum security, and the prisoners still lead very boring lives…according to the guide, from time to time old prisoners still come back to take the tour of the prison!!

We saw the punishment area, which had a gallows, as well as the spot where prisoners were whipped by the cat of nine tails…OUCH…the area where they had solitary confinement, and sensory deprivation…ugh…the area where prisoners who needed special care, or separation from other prisoners...I think I’ll stay on the right side of the law, thank you very much…the prison closed down for good in 1991, mainly due to safety concerns…there was a fire in 1988, and they realized that firetrucks couldn’t get into the prison because the gates were too small…that was something that couldn’t be fixed without essentially taking everything apart…there are a few different tours, I took just the basic one…there is another that shows you how prisoners tried to escape over the years, and some of the well known prisons…

The war memorial honours those who fought in several different wars, including Americans who fought in the area during WWII…ever since I first came to Australia in 2008 I’ve felt that aussies do a better job of honouring those who have fought…you see these memorials in lots of towns all over the country…and ANZAC day is one of the biggest holidays…

That night, my host and I had fish and chips…an appropriate dinner for my last dinner in Australia…loaded in salt, and perfectly yummy…I’m a sucker for fish and chips, especially when it comes wrapped in paper…I’m sure I’ll be back at some point, but it’ll probably be a while…it’s an expensive country in which to travel, and it’s not on the way to anywhere else…

the shuttle came to pick me up, and I said goodbye…then I spent the night at the airport…yippee skippee…

WA

During my massive asia trip (November 2008 to early October 2009) I met a lot of people, and still keep in touch with some of them…I had long thought of visiting one of them in Australia, and was thrilled to be invited to come for a holiday…since I didn’t have any specific travel plans taking me anywhere else, I figured I should go…it is likely to be quite a while until I’m anywhere close to Australia again, so I thought I should take advantage…plus, I was rather over traveling, and over feeling as though I needed to get out and see something or do something every day…the idea of being about to hang out and do very little was really really appealing…

I booked a flight to perth, on the west coast of Australia…the flight is just under four hours, and it went smoothly…my mate picked me up at the airport, and drove us to the house in fremantle…by train, fremantle is about 25 minutes south of perth…

Since then, I’ve done very little…lots of reading, lots of watching tv…going for walks on some days…it’s winter, so it’s been pretty chilly…but not cold…and yet, they say this is the coldest winter they’ve had in a while…people are pulling out their thick jumpers…crazy…on the sunny days, I’ve spent a lot of time sitting on the front porch, reading…you can tell the sun is stronger here…cooking dinner most nights…the neighborhood is fantastic…the people actually know each other…when I’ve been sitting out on the porch I’ve had numerous conversations with various neighbors…there is a new lady on the street, everyone has been talking about her…it’s funny…I love that people know each other, and care about each other…the houses are pretty old, but the weekly rents are still pretty high, mainly because of the proximity to the beaches…

Fremantle is a small town, only 20,000 people or so…it’s called freo by locals…the guidebook calls it a hippie, artsy town…I guess I can see that…tourism has changed it though, it isn’t as full of earth muffins and granola people as it used to be…my host tells me the bars in town aren’t as unique as they used to be…it’s been really easy to walk into town, I simply walk straight down the street, turn right, and keep going for a while…there are lots of little cafes and shops…fremantle markets is supposed to be exciting, or worth seeing, but it doesn’t seem that way to me…a bunch of stalls selling everything from boomerangs to fresh produce, to soaps and lotions,  lollies, etc…it’s fun to watch people…

the house is a 5 minute walk from the beach, which has also been really nice…it definitely isn’t bikini weather (boooo) but from what I’ve been told, summer here gets REALLY hot…40+ degrees much of the time…with very little rain…I know I’d love the lack of rain, but in terms of what this area needs, the lack of rain isn’t a good thing…it’s full on winter here now, but it has only been getting down to 8 degrees at night, which isn’t that bad…the house doesn’t have heat other than a wood burning stove, but I’ve been comfortable under a few comforters…and during the day it’s been up to 20 most days…it’s been really windy and rainy a lot of days…gusty rain, not downpour rain…

the beach is actually a series of beaches…one of them is named for the guy who engineered the harbour in fremantle, and who also built the pipes that bring water from perth to kalgoorlie (sp?)…unfortunately, those pipes didn’t work very quickly after the project was finished, so the guy was disappointed…people made fun of him, and he didn’t take it well…he went back to fremantle, and committed suicide…a few days later, the water came through to kalgoorlie…another beach is popular for walking dogs, and letting dogs swim…needless to say, that beach isn’t particularly popular for swimming…along all the beaches the water is clear and lovely…

I did give a lot of consideration to finding a job that paid me under the table, and staying for a year, but in the end, I decided not to do that…it would’ve been really awesome to work out in the outback…I would’ve seen amazing places that are seen by very few others…and I would’ve made more money than I’ve ever made before…

One day I took the train up to perth…the biggest city in the biggest state in the country…perth doesn’t feel like a big city at all, and compared to other cities, doesn’t feel very cosmopolitan…it’s easy to get around, I was able to walk all over…i’d looked up lululemon stores before arriving in Australia, and was thrilled to find that there are two stores in perth…woo hoo!! I found the address to one of them, it seemed to be right in the middle area of the city, not too far from the main train station…that was the first place I headed after getting off the train…the store is in a mall, so I had to find a mall map…I went on to spend plenty of money…I knew what I wanted, so I was thrilled…lululemon is a great brand, and I love it…it’ll definitely be a permanent brand name on my Christmas/birthday wish list…

After shopping, I walked down the street, first stopping at a huge cathedral…I wanted to go inside, but go figure, as I got there, a bride and her entourage were getting out of a huge limo…I knew it wouldn’t be appropriate to wander around the church, though it was obvious there was a bit of time before the service started…it was pretty outside anywho…

From there I kept walking down the street, stopping at the perth mint…it’s one of not many royal mints around the commonwealth…western Australia is full of mineral resources, mining is a HUGE part of the state economy…the gold rush in WA started last century, and that’s one reason people live in WA…without all the minerals, there wouldn’t be many people in the state…the mint is in a heritage building, and offers tours which teach about the history of the mint, and of gold in general in the state…my tour guide told us about the building itself, as well as when the gold rush had started…I got to learn about the history of prospecting in the state, the type of people who came to the state, what kind of life they led, and some of the gold nuggets that have been found over the years…a huge number of the world’s largest gold nuggets have been found in Australia…just in case either of my two readers ever finds a gold nugget, DO NOT HAVE IT MELTED DOWN…nuggets are worth far more than gold bars, and gold itself is worth quite a bit…(the price of gold was around $800USD in 2008, now it’s over $1600USD)…I think the largest nugget ever found was 70kgs…it was melted down…of the top 26 biggest nuggets ever found, only three of them haven’t been melted…at least, that’s what I think I remember…for whateva reason, people usually name the nuggets they find…

Part of the tour also included a demonstration of pouring a gold bar…melting temperature of gold is around 1300 degrees, and once the gold is taken out of the heat source, it cools very quickly…the guide who poured the gold bar said that sometimes the end of the gold hardens before he gets it all into the bar…eeek…it was neat to see…

From the mint I walked down by the river…perth is built along the banks of the swan river…it was quite lovely, and I enjoyed the walk…I didn’t really go anywhere else in particular…the weather was nice, I walked for a while, and eventually made my way back to the train station…overall, I got the feeling that perth would be a decent place to live, but isn’t all that great to visit…there aren’t a lot of sights, though I’m sure the local tourist office would say differently…