Melbourne made all its public transport free for NYE - Charlie and NC on the Tram Due to a demanding work schedule back in DC, Charlie needed to leave Oz a week earlier than Nancy. Since Charlie's last night also happened to be New Years Eve, we decided the best way to spend it would be in the middle of the madness in Melbourne. After experiencing predominantly blustery, chilly weather both along the Great Ocean Road as well as in Tassie, it came as a big shock when we walked off the airplane onto the tarmac at Melbourne International and slammed into a wall of sweltering 40+ C heat. Summer had officially arrived in Victoria, and it wanted its presence known. We joked that now Charlie and Nancy could actually experience the legendary heat of Oz, instead of the New England style weather that seemed to never want to leave. It was just too bad that Charlie didn't have more time to have a true Aussie beach day. Little Creatures NYE Beach Party! After checking into a local caravan park, we did our best not to pass out from heat exhaustion as we got ready for the evening in the city. Our stifling cabin, sans-air conditioning, was basically an oversized EZ Bake oven with beds. As the sun dropped to the horizon and covered the city in pink and gold, we made our way to the Little Creatures Brewery restaurant, located in the heart of the Fitzroy, a fantastic, semi-grungy artfoodculture district that has become one of our favorite parts of Melbourne. It felt good to be going back to Little Creatures, as it was one of the first places Gareth took us when we arrived in Australia 8 months prior. Taking Nancy and Charlie there made it feel like Mar and I were officially finishing the circle we had drawn around the continent. Pshhh, who can't do that? We soon discovered that Little Creatures had been a particularly sweet choice for New Years. For its NYE festivities, the restaurant was hosting an indoor beach party, complete with beach umbrellas and poolside lounge chairs (and most importantly no cover charge!). The employees were dressed in wonderfully ridiculous costumes, most of which involved either spandex or hideous wigs, including one fabulously gross mullet wig. Between some delicious frites and pints of liquid heaven, we were thinking our choice of NYE venues was pretty great, but our satisfaction soon turned to delight when the entertainment took to the center of the room. Little Creatures had hired two burly circus performers to dazzle the crowd intermittently throughout the night. They did the usual, amazing, two man acrobatic tricks, but what really impressed us was when one of them pulled off an armless headstand, perched atop a wine bottle. I don't care who you are, that shit's awesome. As midnight loomed closer, we left Little Creatures and wandered with the masses down to Federation Square for the fireworks. We soon found ourselves in a sea of people, though it wasn't oppressively dense so we were able to stake a claim on some open street real estate in the center of it all. It was in the middle of this great, multicultural gathering of people in this international city that all of us realized we had never been a part of such grand New Years Eve celebrations before. Those big televised parties that we had always seen on TV had become a reality, only better, because as we were celebrating New Years in the summertime, everyone was comfortably partying in the warm night air (rather than getting frostbite). There was the obligatory drunkard dragged away by police, and the not so expected Indian, bhangra drum dance party that both helped to set the mood for the night. Live music was everywhere and we became hypnotized by all the sights and sounds, until the abrupt start of the midnight countdown took us by surprise. At 12AM, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by a 360-degree fireworks show. All the major buildings, and a station on the river, were shooting off beautiful fireworks for what seemed like half an hour. It was an uplifting experience, an almost cliché New Years event, with all manner of folk wishing each other a Happy New Year, hugging, kissing, and singing and dancing in the street. The evening was a magical end to 2010 and, hopefully, a good omen for 2011.
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Nov 25 - So, we're currently writing the following post while riding the Indian Pacific Railway from Perth to Adelaide over the next few days. We'll hopefully be able to post about the train while on the train (ain't technology somethin'?), but in the mean time enjoy as we get up to speed! Happy Thanksgiving to our loyal reader :) Within minutes of driving into the city centre, Perth had us enchanted. Bordered by the beautiful Swan River and filled with parks, art, food, and shops, it was all we could do not to fall madly in love. Damn you sexy Perth. Had we the time and the funds, we easily could have spent many months in this region of Australia (Perth, Fremantle, and the Margaret River Region). But alas, it was not meant to be. We did try to make the most of our short stint here, however, and so we present you with the following adventures in the Southwest: The first few days in Perth and Fremantle were the last for Devin’s west coast jaunt, and sadly also for our merry band of itinerant miscreants. Therefore our time was spent primarily in frenzy, reorganizing and looking for accommodation, post offices, and the means to mail two unwieldy didgeridoos across the world. Our first night in the caravan park near town was fairly low-key. There we befriended a pair of young Quebecers over dinner and some free, boxed wine that was thrust upon us by departing retirees. We noticed this particular phenomenon during our stay there – apparently, the more destitute you look as a weary backpacker, the more handouts you receive. As we sat in the camp kitchen that night, we had no less than four different people approach us with bags of food and supplies. Thank you Australia, we are not below free food. Wandering through Perth central during the day, we couldn’t help but pick up really positive vibes. Different sections of town had aspects of our other favorite cities and towns around the world – Melbourne, San Francisco, Montreal, Cambridge, Boston, and Munich to name a few - and it made for a very familiar ambiance. Public art was abundant with sculptures and paintings scattered throughout the city. After months of small towns and vast bush land, we had re-entered metropolis and the refreshing cultural perks that accompany an international city. The Asian population and influence were particularly apparent here, surprisingly more so than in Darwin where we had been expecting it. Perth was filled with Asian restaurants and shops, which reminded us of our serious sushi deficiency. What made Perth less overwhelming for us compared to other big cities was its abundance of parks and green space. The largest and most impressive was King’s Park, a sprawling expanse of botanic gardens perched on a hill high above the city. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to give this truly spectacular bit of real estate proper attention, but we did manage to get up there and take a peek. We also took this opportunity to take some celebratory photos marking our successful completion of over 18,000 kms through Australia with the car still intact (suck it Corey, this pictures for you, naysayer!). Woot. Neighboring Perth is the smaller, but equally enticing port town of Fremantle and on our second night, we ventured in for a beer at one of our favorite Australian breweries, Little Creatures. We had been to the Little Creatures brewpub in Melbourne, but the one in Fremantle is the company’s main brewery, the original. Built in an airplane hangar, the facility is huge and has a trendy, industrial but welcoming atmosphere. The place was packed but we soon realized that we were some of the youngest in there. Most of the customers were in their early 30’s - the type that just wanted a good, casual beer and excellent food, without the stereotypical bar scene. It was right up our alley. The beer, as expected, was fantastic and we had a sampling of their tap selection. Our favorite is their Bright Ale, but we would take any one of them any day. Ben was super excited that he could actually taste the hops in an Aussie beer. As Australian beers go, Little Creatures knows how to do it right, particularly when it comes to hops and a balanced flavor. We also got to try a white ale and a dark ale from another Western Australian brewery, White Rabbit, which were excellent. London Court, Perth The next day, Devin’s last full day with us out west, we spent far too much time reorganizing the car and then settled in at a hostel closer to the train station for Devin’s departure the next morning. We spent the afternoon getting a better feel for Perth, exploring the side streets and numerous walking malls. We discovered one particular hidden alleyway that had been designed to look like a street in 1600s London, and contained a variety of specialty shops for coffee, chocolate, and cigars. The guys immediately rushed in to this legitimate old-school style Tobacconist to soak in the ambiance of pipe tobacco, wood boxes, cigars, and humidifiers. Two Cuban cigars were purchased to celebrate the significant milestone in our trip that evening, as well as a few bottles of local wine. That night we were determined to have a sushi dinner to mark the end of a successful road trip as the three (and once four) musketeers. We took a lovely stroll into town from the hostel and soon discovered that Perth restaurants, much like Colorado Springs, seem to close down at 9 pm for some bizarre reason. This being a Saturday and the night before Halloween, we were particularly shocked. Anyhow, we managed to sneak into Taka, a very cheap Japanese restaurant, just before they stopped taking orders. They do it cafeteria style and have some awesome inexpensive sushi platter options. Much to our dismay, the chef only had enough sushi rice for one more roll, so we resigned to one large sushi roll to split and several other dishes including a delicious teriyaki fish. The Cubans were lit and we moseyed the streets in the cool night air, admiring the occasional costumed passerby. Eventually, we stumbled upon a massive Halloween block party sponsored by one of the corner bars. We would have jumped right in had the entry fee not been a whopping $50 each. We did get to check out some excellent costumes though, and Ben got to have a slightly creepy conversation with some old, inebriated Aussies about Texas and whether he owned a gun. Which brings up a recurring theme we’ve noticed in our travels – Aussies LOVE Texas, especially the more backwater Aussies. From their perspective it seems that the United States mainly contains California, New York City, and Texas, and that everyone owns at least a handful of guns. We’ll probably talk about this, as well as other Aussie observations, in a later post. Be sure to tune in! It's been a long jouney The next morning, we made sure Devin was packed up, had done his homework, and had remembered his Ninja Turtle Thermos lunchbox. Before we parted ways, we made sure to document that at the completion of a six-month, 18,000+-kilometer road trip our beards had grown long. ALL our beards. It was an emotional parting given all we had gone through, but we knew Devin would go on to amazing adventures back in Brisbane on the boat with Emily. Ah, they grow up so fast. Miss you Dev and Em! With Devin on his way east on the Indian Pacific Railroad, Ben and I decided to get a better feel for Fremantle, since we had only really seen Little Creatures and a few streets in the dark two nights before. Fremantle was established as the port town for Perth, and has become a hub for artists, baristas, and backpackers. It was easy to see in the many well-preserved, ornate, Victorian buildings that the people of Fremantle went to great lengths to preserve the history of the town. There was a consistent balance struck between the old and the new that made for excellent city walking and an overall feeling of comfort to be there. Who is this guy? Each street held new surprises for us: hidden indoor markets, fantastic brewpubs, quaint restaurants, dirt cheap Asian food, specialty stores, and sinfully gourmet chocolatiers. If you ever find yourself in Fremantle, go to San Churro’s Chocolatier (they also have one near Perth) and order the Azteca Hot Chocolate or really anything on the menu. Sweet nectar of life. At the Sail & Anchor brewpub we bought a sampler paddle of various beers from local breweries as it was officially “Novembeer,” a month of celebrating Aussie craft beers. We particularly liked Hop Hog, an American IPA, and 1984, an Imperial IPA. We’ve been particularly starved here for good IPAs – tragic, I know. Don’t worry; we plan on doing a post specifically on Australian beer. Add all this up with $2.50 sushi rolls and the night was complete. Yay Fremantle! Alas, Karma finds a way to balance out all things and the following day was indeed a "ball-suck day" as Ben so aptly described. While there was some additional positive sightseeing around Perth and Northbridge, a student oriented, culture-rich suburb, United Airlines made sure to ruin my day. While at the beautiful state library trying to sort out far future travel plans and near future to-do’s, I found out that I had been given incorrect information regarding the travel rules of my ticket home (which had been purchased with frequent flyer miles) and I wouldn’t be able to make any changes to my itinerary. This basically meant that I would have to leave a month earlier than we had planned or buy a new ticket altogether. Suck. In addition to this catastrophe, we were experiencing mental and emotional panic about where we should be staying (city or country), how we were going to sell our car, and how we were going to forestall our upcoming bankruptcy, among other things. Triple suck. Anyway, no need to go into detail about all of this. It’s boring, it’s not fun, and you don’t want to read it. To sum up: It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I think I’ll move to Austral… wait crap. (Childhood literature reference anyone?) Eventually, after much hemming and hawing, we determined that waiting in the city for someone to take interest in the car was not a good idea, and we wouldn’t be able to find work in town unless we could stay for the entire summer. We didn’t want to stray too far from the city in case someone did want to look at Alby, so we determined that WWOOFing just outside of town would be the smartest move. After calling at least thirty hosts with no luck, we were contacted by a woman named Ita Goldberger from Roleystone, a town in the hills southeast of Perth, who invited us to stay and work beginning the very next day. A night of free camping in a beautiful wooded picnic area near Jarrahdale and we were off! |
Marielle & BenWe're two people in the midst of severe quarter-life crises who decided to leave good jobs in a bad economy to travel to the other side of the world because, well, why not? Archives
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