Perth &
Freo

After moving to Perth, we had many more day trips which are covered in the Week 587 posts. But first — a Melbourne Cup Day long weekend that sent us west with one bag between two people and an introduction to Fremantle on a Friday night when absolutely everything was closed.

In Melbourne, there are holidays for sporting events and on the first Tuesday in November it is Cup Day. It is like if the Kentucky Derby was on a Tuesday, and everyone in America had a public holiday, put on their best party clothes, and drank like it is last call for 2024. And they take the preceding Monday off to prepare. So, we saw this as a good opportunity to go to Western Australia for a long weekend — the longest time off that I took in Australia. We spent time in Perth, Fremantle, Rottnest Island, and the Margaret River region. I had been to Perth on a short business trip and knew that it was quiet and not much reason to stay in the CBD, so we looked at the suburbs on the beach and selected Cottesloe Beach which is usually listed among the top beaches of Western Australia.

Closed at 5pm on a Friday Night

Our trip to Western Australia didn't start off well — my luggage was left behind in Melbourne as the Jetstar plane had too much weight. Of course, they didn't tell us and we had to wait at baggage claim until disappointment before we found an agent (not Jetstar — airport staff) who told a group of us that "she had heard some bags were left behind." So she wrote down the address of my AirBnB and said to leave it with her (on her second week).

Although I only really needed shorts, long-sleeve sunshirt, and a sunhat, I had come from work in business attire so I was not prepared — and we had a trip early the next morning out to Rottnest Island where you could snorkel. Since we were staying at Cottesloe Beach, I figured we'd just find a beach/souvenir shop and buy cheap shorts — remember, Australia is the home of Rip Curl, Billabong, and Quicksilver. We had heard Perth was a little slow; people say that it is 3 hours and 25 years behind Melbourne. So when we arrived at 7pm on a Friday night pretty much everywhere was closed in Cottesloe. We drove 20 minutes down to Fremantle, where all three surf shops were closed at 5pm. Target was even closed at 7pm and the huge Fremantle Markets was closed.

At this point I was looking for scissors to cut a pair of jeans from luggage that we did get (who doesn't like Jorts?) and we came across an Indian/Nepalese market with a random assortment of clothes. He had one pair of shorts that was perfect for a "big guy like you." And he had a sun hat too — pretty pricey but it solved the problem. We also met Queen Lucy — who claimed that she was the social mayor of Fremantle and that they were building a statue of her.

It was now about 7:45pm and many restaurants were open in Fremantle so we stayed. Very cool place — it was the original large city in Western Australia as it is the port and had a lot of historical buildings reflecting all of the money made in the various mining industries. Over time, the centre of commerce moved 10 miles inland to Perth (which is new and nice but a bit sterile) but Fremantle remains the social centre of town. We went through a couple of old hotels/pubs that could have been out of the American wild west, as well as Victorian and Georgian buildings.

Perth Is an 8am City

The next morning we were out for the day at Rottnest Island (separate upcoming post) and after our day trip, we made it back and our luggage had been delivered to our AirBnB. We went to get some great sunset pictures along the beach before we had dinner in one of the three restaurants (which stopped serving food at 9pm). But the next morning, we figured out the vibe of Perth is outside during the day, not nightlife. At 8am it was bright and sunny and the streets were full of runners, bikers, and people walking for morning brekkie. Many more places open for breakfast than dinner. Walked down to the main town beach — the landmark beach house was under construction, but still a nice area with a bunch of parents watching their kids in lifeguard and surf classes.

We returned to Fremantle on our way out of town to Margaret River and spent some time at the markets — a mix of nice stuff and crap — and had lunch and wandered around a bit more through the town. Found an old prison, very small and for local crimes. But we didn't visit the historic Fremantle Prison which housed the convicts from Britain who eventually became the leaders of Fremantle and Perth.

On the way back from the Margaret River, we did a quick tour of the CBD — the city was a little more interesting as people in Perth were out celebrating Cup Day as well (but not a public holiday in Western Australia) and we saw men in tuxedos and women in ball gowns walking through the city. We ended up making a quick tour through Kings Park and Botanic Gardens and taking pictures overlooking the city before heading to the airport.