Western Australia, February 23rd - March 15th Publié le 13 mars 2008 par Carouche After 3 weeks spent in Taiwan, I decided to follow one of my aunts to Perth, Western Australia. It was the perfect period to go there, since it is summer time when it is winter time for us. Perth in itself counts more than 1.5 million inhabitants, as Western Australia counts about 2 million. The currency is the Australian dollar, and 1 $ = 0.66 euro. There are also 8 hours of difference between Perth and Paris. The plugs are pain in the ass, since it is 3 pin plugs and not the 2 round plugs we have in Europe. So I had to change converters all the time! In Taiwan it is a 2 pin plug but with an electricity supply of 110 volts. Why it has to be so complicated? :( The first week we’ve done some sightseeing. They especially brought me to Fremantle, a cute little city created in the 19th century, 19 km far from Perth. We can find a nice market place, selling seafood, clothes, jewellery, fruits and vegetables and souvenirs. Fremantle Fremantle Market Perth is a much bigger city, but not so big though. The shops open very early and close very early, it’s worse than Copenhagen as I remember! (8.30am-5.30pm). There are two main streets: Hay St. and Murray St. with all the shops, but also the town hall, and a place called the London court, a shopping arcade built in the 1930s to recreate part of Tudor London. People can take advantage of a free bus system inside Perth downtown, called Blue, Red or Yellow Cat. View of Perth from Kings Park Perth streets Town Hall London Court In order to see a bit Australian culture, I visited the Art Gallery and the Perth Institute of Contemporany Arts. Amazingly, the art museums are free. I was told that the money recovered from lottery is given to fund art in Perth. At the Art Gallery, I saw a very nice exhibition of Roger Ballen (http://www.rogerballen.com/) and some aboriginal art, and at PICA an interesting exhibition of Gail Hastings (http://www.gailhastings.com.au/) and of Louise Hubbard (http://www.vca.unimelb.edu.au/ImageGallery.aspx?topicID=762). Art Gallery PICA A friend of my aunt told me to visit also Perth Mint, containing historical displays allied to coins, the gold industry and precious metals. This museum is unfortunately not free, but you learn some stories about how and when gold nuggets were found in Australia, you can see many coins, handle a 400,000$ gold ingot and also know what’s the equivalence of your weight in gold. For me, I am around 2.1 millions dollars in gold. :) Perth Mint Finally, one building that you should not miss is the Swan Bells tower which is one of the largest musical instruments on earth, with 12 ancient bells of St Martin in the Fields church in London. This is the most photographed monument of Perth, and surely the most expensive one! Aussies are not really happy with it, because it cost too much. Swan Bells Tower The good thing of being in Perth and during summer is that we can reach easily the beaches. One of them very famous is Cottesloe beach. I took a bus to get there from Perth, and seriously it’s the most awful bus system I’ve ever seen in my life. The bus stops are poles with no name but a number like: ‘pole number 18345’ and it doesn’t give either the number of the bus that you can take or the direction, and of course not the timetable of the bus! During rush hour there are buses every 10 minutes, but for the rest of the day it is every… hour. What a pain!! At least I had the chance to see a temporary exhibition called Sculpture by the Sea . Here are my favorite sculptures (http://www.sculpturebythesea.com/): We can also do some fishing there, and I could enjoy it with my cousins and their friends. The first night we went fishing was near a coast where we could catch some Tailors. But only one fish has been caught, and after the sunset some rats begun to annoy us. The second day was much more fun, because it was at the beach and many fishes have been caught, of course not by me. :) I think I carry misfortune with fishing, because I managed several times to stick the hook between rocks, and also break a fishing rod… that should probably have had a weakness at some point, because I know I’m a strong lady but we shouldn’t exaggerate… one of my couz' and his friend fishing Talking about fishing, I've visited 'the' aquarium of Western Australia, AQWA. You can see Western Australia coastline's marine life, and touch some rays or other fishes. The aquarium is done up well, but I found it a bit small. I didn’t want to leave Australia before seeing Australian animals!! Therefore I went to Caversham Wildlife Park, where you can see lots of typical animals, and even touch and feed most of them. Kangaroo A 30 kg wombat Koalaaa ^^ Sleeping Rufous Bettong At West Perth, there is a very nice park called Kings Park, with an amazing view of Perth and the Swan River (pic of Perth view shown previously). I could have taken a picture of all the trees there coz they were so beautiful ^^. I’ve seen some kukkaburras, typical birds from Australia. This is called a 'grasstree' :D Kukkaburra To finish, I was surprised to see so many parrots fed in the streets, replacing maybe our horrible pigeons! :) Oh, and for those who are interested ( and I know some :P), Australian guys are rather good-looking, strong and sun-tanned, miam :).
