Perth, Australia

Hey all!

Two blog updates within a week, going well! :) We're just back from 5 nights in Perth, so here's how it went...

We arrived last Saturday evening, got a taxi to the hostel and then headed out for food and drinks. We were staying in an area called Northbridge, it's a suburb of Perth, but literally like 20 minute walk north of the city centre. And turns out that there are no clubs/pubs really in the city centre, they're all in Northbridge. Our hostel was on a quiet residential road not even 10 mins walk from the centre of Northbridge. We met up with Dino who I know through the guys in Cork, and we all went for drinks in Rosie O'Gradys. Turns out it's owned by the same crowd who own the Elephant and Wheelbarrow, and Bridie O'Riellys in Melbourne. So we felt right at home. On our walk home from the pub though we had an incident where an aboriginal came across the road and smacked one of the girls!! Thankfully Dino was with us so just pushed us on and said to ignore them. Apparently Perth and alot of smaller towns in Australia are notorious for this kind of thing, where the aboriginal people don't take kindly to the white people. We were told they get a grant of about $600 a week from the government! So they hang out around parks drinking alot.. This gave us a shock, but it was the only such incident during our time in Perth.

On Sunday we headed out to Fremantle for the famed Fremantle weekend markets. It was great, but we've been to so many markets around Asia so it wasn't too new to us. After about an hour or two we decided to head to Cottesloe for the legendary "Sunday Sessions" There are two main hotels along the beach, but we heard the Ocean Beach Hotel was the best so we spent the afternoon and evening there. Usually there are mad queues to get in, but this week there was a festival on over in Rottnest Island so alot had headed over to that. We still had a great day, and met up with Dino and his girlfriend Melissa (who's from Melbourne) for a drink as well as Gillians friend Mary. Then on our way home sure we pass Rosie O'Grady's, so we just had to go in for one or two!

Monday was our check out Perth City day. We started by going down to the Perth Mint. This is where in the past they used make the gold. It was cool, we watched as he had the melted gold in a furnace at 1,300 degrees celcius, and then a few minutes later it was a block of gold worth about $400,000 !! There was a little museum part of the place as well and you got to lift an 8KG bar. We also got to weigh ourselves, and turns out I'm worth almost $2.5million in gold :p I'm sure Ger would say I'm priceless though ;-) haha

After Perth Mint we went to see the Swan Bells. It's just a modern looking building with huge bells at the top. I think they call it the largest instrument in the Southern Hemisphere. Then we jumped on a bus and went to Kings Park/Botanic Gardens. Here we saw the most amazing view of the city. If you put "Kings Park Perth" into Google Images you'll see what I mean. Well I though it was so beautiful anyway! :) It took a while to walk to that point, but was so worth it. Then we headed back into the city centre and got to one or two shops before they all closed. In Perth they have a bus system with 3 routes around the CBD and they're free! It's a cool idea I must say now, and they were new, clean buses too. Then after town, we walked back to the hostel, but like previously stated, we pass Rosie O'Gradys on the way so well we called in for a few drinks and some food. They import Campbells Curry sauce from Ireland, so chips and curry were amazing!!!! :)

Next day we did a tour down to the Margaret River region. We had booked this the day before, and got collected at the hostel at 6.45am! To be honest it turned out to be a glorified taxi! We were the only 4 on the tour, in a crappy mini-bus. But we drove down the coast and stopped at a few beaches along the way, making our way down to the town of Margaret River (where the actual river is) But i think the whole region is known as the 'Margaret River region' and is famous for its amazing beaches etc. We stopped in a winery and a brewery too. Then it was back to Perth. It was backpacker night in Rosie's so we had to be back for that.

On Wednesday we planned to spend the day over in Rottnest Island. We had planned to go out early and cycle around the island, as besides one or two tour buses, there are no cars or anything on the island. So it's famous for cycling around it and admiring the amazing views. I think it said there are 83 beaches and 40 bays around the island. It's just over 8km in width. We met up with Mary again, and her boyfriend Colm, and the 6 of us got the 11.30 ferry over. But by the time we got there and ate, turned out we only had about 2 hours to cycle around, as the last ferry back to the mainland was at 4.30. But it was plenty time. We got to do two of the tracks (out of 3) and cycled 14km, so it was great views AND we got our exercise in for the day ;) We also got to see the animals that are native to this island - the Quaka. They're like a very small kangaroo. Very cute!! Apparently when people first came to this island years and years ago, they mistook them for rats! How I don't know.

When we got back to Fremantle (aka Freo) we had time to kill, so visited Rosie O'Gradys over here and then checked out the Little Creatures Brewery. They brew beers and a cider you can buy all over Australia. Then it was time for the Torchlight Tour we had booked at Fremantle Prison. It's an old convict prison dating back to the 1850's. The main prison block was actually built by the prisoners. It was onyl a convict prison a short time though, and then became a regular one. Before it closed in 1991, it had executed 43 people by hanging. I was listening well to the tour guide ;-) It was really cool and spooky. We went in a group of about 20 people all carrying our torches around the prison. It's meant to be very haunted, but we didn't come across anything too mad except for the odd 'orb' in a few of our pictures, you know it looks like a spec of dirt in the photo, but is actually a spirit/ghost. I'm very sceptical about the whole thing, but there was definitely some sort of spirits there alright because sure you could take the same photo twice and theres no consistency in the dirt patches..

On our last day, our flight wasn't until 7.30pm, so we just shopped out in Freo and then back to the city to check out some more shops. To be honest, the shopping in Melbourne is alot better but we still found plenty stuff to buy! :p

The next update should be Alice Springs in April! But before that Gillian will have done the Gold Coast and the girls will have gone to Vanuatu, for what they call 'a holiday from our holiday'

Catch ya later!

Cathy x x

Fremantle Markets

Cottesloe Beach

Dino, Melissa and Gillian

Myself and Emma with those weird, but lovely slushy drinks

The 4 of us with Mary

Kings Park/Botanic Gardens

Our fab mini-bus to Margaret River

Me and Emma by the Bussleton Jetty (longest pier in the Southern Hemisphere - 2km)

View of Perth skyline from Kings Park

Bussleton Jetty

Meelup Beach

The 4 of us outside the winery

Surfers Point; where the likes of Kelly Slater competes in surfing comps

Fremantle Prison

Little Creatures Brewery

Fremantle Prison, all locked up

The guy pretending to be a prisoner, he bloody scared us!!!!!

Rosie O'Gradys in Freo

Inside the grounds of Fremantle Prison

Cycling around Rottnest Island

Wadjemup Lighthouse on Rottnest Island

A Quaka - Native to Rottnest Island

Emma with her new friend the Quaka

Melbourne, Australia - Part 2

Hi Again!

Since I've last updated this we had New Years in Sydney, we've all done the Great Ocean Road, Ger came to visit so we went to Tasmania, Kelly and her gang are all living in Melbourne, and Alice and Sarah are back in town. So here's how it went...

After a lovely Christmas Day on the beach, we all headed over to Sydney. The girls went seperate to me as I was off to meet Ger. 4 months since we had seen each other, the longest ever! Myself and Ger stayed out in Coogee (just below Bondi Beach) while the girls stayed with Marie's friend just outside the city. Alice and Sarah had just finished the east coast, as did Kelly, Declan, Dee and Finbarr. So we all met up down by the Rocks at Sydney Harbour for New Years Eve. It was a loooong day of drinking, but the fireworks then were just amazing!

While in Sydney myself and Ger did the harbour cruise, went to Manly, went up the Sydney Tower, did Bondi and Coogee, and of course we visited Palm Beach - aka Summer Bay aka HOME AND AWAY!!! Unfortunately they didn't start back filming until mid January so we didn't actually get to see any of the 'stars' but sure we (and when I say we I mean me!) were in our element there. Ger was very upset of course that he didn't get to meet the legendary Alf Stewart haha! Meanwhile the others did the Sydney bridge climb and Emma and Gillian did a skydive.

Then it was back to Melbourne. The first thing myself and Ger did when we got was go get some flying lessons! It was so cool. We got to take off and land as well! Two days later we packed up the car and got the ferry over to Tasmania. We only had a few days here, but oh my god, what a beautiful island!!! It's good we only had a few days here, because now it means we've an excuse to go back there! :) It's so gorgeous. We arrived in Devonport and drove over to the east coast to the fabulous beaches of Bicheno, and then down to Cole's Bay and Wineglass Bay. What amazing scenery!!! Next day it was down to the Tasman Penninsula. Down here we went to the Tasmanian Devil park (Yeh I know, they actual do exist!!!!) and onto Port Arthur. For anyone who didn't know (cuz we didn't before we started researching it) Port Arthur is the place where all the British and and Irish convicts were sent many many years ago. It's a definite must see if you're ever in Tassie. There were even recounts on the walls of some of the convicts, and you'd see they'd be from the likes of Kerry and Cork (naturally there were no Waterford convicts!! ;-) ) After Port Arthur, it was onto the capital of Tassie - Hobart. Here we decided to brave it out and do a skydive! Three words - Oh My God!! What a feeling when you're literally free-falling straight through the clouds. You can't breathe! You think you're gonna die! And then as soon as you begin to see the city the parachute comes out. Fantastic! For anyone who hasn't done a skydive, I'd definitely recommend it. What an adrenaline rush!

After Tasmania, it was time to check out the famous Penguin Parade down at Phillip Island. This is where the little penguins (the worlds smallest type - fairy penguins) come out of the water each evening at dusk and waddle across the beach to the little homes on the shore. Soooo cute! But if you ever do this definitely do the 'Penguin Plus' We were lucky and decided to do the penguin plus not really knowing why we paid extra, but it meant we had a prime view of it.

Before Ger went home we drove the Great Ocean Road. This starts about an hour and a half west of Melbourne city. It's basically a coast road for miles and miles with the most amazing views. We did a two day trip, stopping in Torquay, Lorne, Bells Beach (from the film Point Break), Cape Otway, Apollo Bay, Port Campbell, Warnambool and Tower Hill. Most of these stops were beach resorts, Lorne being one of our favourite. Such a beautiful beach! Around Port Campbell we saw the famous rock formations known as the Twelve Apostles, as well as London Bridge. And Tower Hill is the home of a very very old (can't remember how old) volcano.

And then it was time for Ger to return to Ireland... :(

Since Ger left, the girls have also gone and done the Ocean Road. And they were as impressed with it as us. They did it as part of a tour, and did a two-day trip as well. Gillians highlight anyway was seeing the lighthouse from the old TV show 'Around the Twist' !!

The end of January had us celebrating Australia Day. Myself and Gillian went to the Ting Tings concert (was excellent!!) Oh I forgot to mention, before Ger left we also all went to the Australian Open tennis. What a setup. For all of us except Gillian (as she had gone to Wimbledon before) it was our first time at a big tennis tournament. So we were well impressed anyway with it.

February was a quiet month with regards to going places and concerts etc. Gillian went home for 2 weeks and has since come back. We had a few house parties and nights out to keep us going. It turns out the house that Alice and Sarah moved into are kind of a bit mad! It's full of Irish people as well as their neighbours next door. So it's a good place to start for a night out. Oh it's all coming back to me now. I think the highlight of our February was, wait for it..... Neighbours Night! After Black Saturday (the Victorian bushfires) there was a special Neighbours benefit night. They have a night every Monday, but this week was a special one, and there were soooo many stars there! I tell ya, we were going around following them like star-struck fools! :p haha Ah it was a great night. There was myself, Emma, Gillian, Marie, Kelly and Dee. I'll make sure to attach some photos below.

February also brough the hottest day ever recorded in Melbourne - 46.5 degrees celcius!!! It was HORRIBLE! The winds were unreal (hence why the bushfires were so out of control) and then people were cranking up their air conditionning so alot of homes lost power. Thank god for air conditioning in work thats all I'll say! Myself and Alice also joined gaelic football teams. Alice is playing with St Kevins and I'm playing with Garryowen (as it's close to work so very handy for training) The season has just kicked off. Theres matches every Sunday down at Gaelic Park, so another good way of meeting many more Irish people.

So now it's March.. Sarah has just gone home. She's gone back to work for a few months, and then planning on coming out to meet us in New Zealand in June. Myself, Gillian and Marie went to the Coldplay concert. They were fantastic!! Unbelievable live!

So whats to come I hear you ask... This is what the next few weeks bring us....
- Concerts: Kings of Leon, The Fray, Snow Patrol
- Trips away: Perth, Alice Springs
- Comedy festival: Jason Byrne, Neil Delamare
- Other: Melbourne Grand Prix, Paddys Day!!

So, until next time..... enjoy the photos

Cathy xxx