AUSTRALIA

PERTH:

By the time we got to our lodge called The Witches Hat, it was midnight and only booked in for that one night due to availability and would have to check out at 10am the following morning (or infact that same morning!) Mr F had done loads of research into hostels in Perth and found that for the size of the city, there are very few hostels and with good availability. We asked if there was another room for the next night on the off chance and we were able to keep our room for 2 nights. 

DAY 1:

We were woken up by yet more inconsiderate people staying at the hostel at ridiculous o'clock, so we decided to get up and get out fairly early. The walk into Perth city was 30min. We stopped off at a cafe and had an egg and bacon toasted sandwich with a hot drink each and headed for the city centre. Our first stop was The Aussie Job Centre to look at getting some work, which took up most of our morning and spent the rest of the day walking around window shopping and browsing the shops. Mr F had his third haircut since travelling, but instead of it costing little over 1 pound in Asia, it cost 12 pounds.

The Witches Hat hostel.....wonder how it got its name???

Mr F with Perth City in the background.....

 

DAY 2:

Since our room was right next to the outside smoking and drinking area, we were kept awake by a group of people who were being really loud, even though they had been asked three times by a supervisor to leave the outside area as it was closed after 10pm. After patience had run out, Mrs F went to speak to the supervisor who asked them to smoke out the front or go into the TV room to chat. The hostel was mainly full of young Irish travellers who just wanted to stay up late being loud and drinking which was very frustrating. They didn't clear up any empty bottles or wash up the kitchen wear after using it either. Needless to say we spent most of our time in our room, which looked much like a prison cell! It was also the first hostel we had come across where you had to hire your own set of plate, bowl, cup, knife, folk and spoon for 7 pounds a set!!

In the morning, we got the free bus not too far from our hostel and got off just on the outskirts of the city centre to walk along The Swan River. It was a beautiful sunny day and saw loads of people jogging. We then walked to and through The Queens Park where we saw a couple of Australian black swans and their signets. Mrs F being Doctor Doolittle, fed the swans :-)

Walk along The Swan River....

                 











                         ....Queen Park

                       Mr F looking at a Peter Pan Statue...

We then walked up to see the WACA, Western Australia Cricket Association. Unfortunately it was all under construction work so were unable to get any good pics. So we got the bus and headed for Kings Park.

We started to walk through the park when Mrs F spotted a group of trees that had parrots in them! We had some ginger nuts on us so Mrs F held up some broken biscuits to one particular parrot who seemed quite tame. The parrot came down and took a piece, ate it, then came back for more....it was great! Kings Park is a huge Park area, but unfortunately it absolutely poured down not long after we got there, having to hid in the toilets and wait for it to ease off.

Once the rain had eased off a little, we walked just over the road the get a couple of pics of Perth City before getting the bus back towards the hostel. Since we were soaked through, we decided to get the bus going the other way from the hostel which would give us time to dry off and also enjoy the ride around the city.

That night, there were no rooms available other than a shared room for 40pounds! We were in a room with two bunk beds and two strangers, who also didn't know eachother. We got into the room and found that our beds had been slept in and not changed, so had to complain again about that. Then at midnight, one of the guys sharing the room came in making so much noise it woke us up. At 2am we could still hear music blaring out from the TV room, so Mr F went in to find one person half asleep on the sofa with the TV on a music channel. After turning it off and returning to our room, the second person sharing came in shortly after and was the worlds loudest, consistant snorer!!

Since we were up at 6am to catch a 6hr coach to Gerladton, we decided to move all our things out of the room and go and sleep in the TV room. At 5:30am, we were woken up by someone shouting through the front door to be let in.....needless to say we had a bad night and was glad to get out of the worst hostel we had stayed at!!