Chilling in Perth: Part I

I have spent the past couple of weeks reveling in the fact that I get to be in one city for more than three days and also being utterly delighted about the fact that I am back in Australia again! Our time in Perth has been very relaxing and enjoyable, and Andrew has been excited about showing me his hometown since the very beginning of the time we started dating. We flew there separately from London, since airline bookings are complicated, and I had the delight of being able to fly Emirates, which is hands down the best airline I have ever flown in my life. I have to say, after flying several international airlines like Emirates, Air New Zealand, Aer Lingus, and the like, I am absolutely embarrassed for the state of the airlines in the US. Not only are the fleets in the US incredibly old and outdated, but the technology available on international airlines is approximately 123098 times better. (Seriously, US airlines. BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES.) And I was stunned in delight to find the array of options I had on Emirates, even in economy! The flight attendants came around with little warm towels at the beginning of the flight, later delivered menus with choices for our meals (which were actually really good), and were super attentive and nice. And the touch screen I had at my disposal was absolutely unbelievable: a choice of at least 100 different movies, full episodes of about 50 different TV shows in all genres, thousands of songs that you could add to your own personal playlists, about 30 computer games, and full map capabilities where you could track the flight and even see the view out of the cockpit and below the aircraft through special cameras they have. AMAZING!

My flight connected in Dubai, which was also an insanely cool experience. Even though the local time was 1 AM, I have never seen an airport so busy. I pretty much walked around gaping at the number of people and shops in the airport. Normally you can pick up a little bit of the culture of a city from its airport but not much, but in this airport you could definitely pick up the exotic nature of the Middle East and the intense commercialism that represents Dubai. It was awesome. I got some sleep on my next flight, but not that much (that was really only because I could not stop playing with my touch screen), so I was pretty tired when we arrived in Perth. Luckily, that was around 6 PM local time and it was already dark (it’s winter in Australia for those of you who don’t know), so I only really had to eat dinner and go to sleep!

A little background on Perth: it has a population of about 1.5 million and is the capital of Western Australia, which is an enormous area of land that only actually has about 2 million people. (Population demographics of Australia fascinate me.) Andrew was born there and has lived there his whole life (until he went to study in Sydney), and absolutely all of his extended family lives there as well, which is an odd phenomenon for a person who has her relatives all spread out over the country. (And also, the two sides of my family do not mix at ALL, so it’s kind of weird to realize that everyone in Andrew’s family knows each other…haha.) Perth is definitely a city for those who love the water. It is situated on the Swan River and Indian Ocean (it is very spread out, with only a small central business district), and everywhere you drive, you get absolutely stunning views of the ocean and white sandy beaches. Andrew’s grandmother’s house (where we stayed the majority of the time) is in a suburb of the city and about a 5 minute walk from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, which is where Andrew spent basically his entire life before going to college. Pretty much everyone is involved in water activities in some way, whether it’s sailing, yachting, scuba diving, or a combination of all of those. Andrew’s family has an absolutely gorgeous boat called Anastasia, which we were on every single day (even if we were just chilling at the jetty). It is the love of Andrew’s life and apparently like a third child to his dad…haha.


By an unfortunate and ironic turn of events, it rained every day for the entire first week we were in Perth. Andrew was so upset by this since he really didn’t want me to see Perth in the winter, but what could I do. When Andrew was in America, it didn’t rain in Perth for literally three months straight, so it was kind of funny that the day we got there, it started raining nonstop. We didn’t let that stop us from having fun, though! I met two of his best high school friends, and we spent a bunch of time the first few days hanging out on the boat while Andrew happily pattered around fixing things in the engine room and stuff. I was absolutely stunned by how amazing this boat is. I should have realized that it is really like a little house because Andrew and his dad actually lived on it for 8 straight months while they were sailing around Australia, but it didn’t really sink in how functional everything was until I saw it in person. It has a back deck with a table and chairs and a ladder up to the deck where the boat is driven. The upper deck also has another mini boat and couches where people can sit. The front of the boat has another boat which one would take on diving excursions and such. The inside has a full living room, kitchen (with fridge, freezer, two sinks, oven/microwave, and stove), three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. Did I mention there is a killer good sound system that you can hear both inside the boat and out on the deck? And there are tons of hidden compartments everywhere (under couches, tables, floors, etc.) that contain ropes and buoys and diving equipment and so on. Everything is so compact – it’s absolutely beautiful and really comfortable too.



Anyway, I got to experience many aspects of boating firsthand, starting with just sitting on the boat and exploring it, and then later in the week getting to be on a sailboat for an actual (albeit casual) race! One of his best friends is a professional sailer and we got to sit on the boat along with the team as they did a social race on the river by the yacht club.


I have only been on a sail boat once before and really had no idea what to do, so I just huddled in the back and ran across the boat every time the boom swung back and forth, kind of terrified it was going to smash into me…haha. What I really was not prepared for was the way that the boat literally tips COMPLETELY onto one side when you are sailing at the correct angle into the wind. Thus, you absolutely have to be on the side of the boat opposite from the sail, or you would literally be IN the water. Kind of scary. But I knew I was in very experienced and professional hands, so mostly it was just extremely fun, and I loved feeling the wind as we zipped across the water. We also had dinner that night at the yacht club with Andrew’s adorably British grandmother, who we stayed with most of the time. She is super old-school British and adores Andrew, which is really cute to see.

Our first weekend in Perth, we first went to Fremantle on a Friday afternoon, which is a bustling suburb of Perth with its own small city feel – it has its own harbor, shops, restaurants, bars, etc. We went to the Fremantle Markets, which are honestly some of the best markets I have ever come across in my travels. They date back to 1897 (which is quite old for Australia) and consist of more than 100 colorful stalls selling everything from adorable soaps to jewelry to all sorts of delicious international foods to very fresh fruits and vegetables. I was absolutely delighted to browse around and find fresh food, since I ended up cooking dinner for Andrew and both his grandmothers that night.

The first Saturday we were there, we took the boat out for the first time since it was finally not pouring rain. I got to see how the boat was fueled and attempted to learn about all the correct start-up procedures. Luckily Andrew’s friend Adam was there so I just watched them do everything. Then Andrew drove us to the main city center of Perth via the Swan River! It was exceptionally cool getting to see everything from the water while being utterly comfortable on the boat. I have to admit, it was even more amusing to see the jealous looks of awe we were getting from all these old men when we pulled the boat up to a jetty right outside a restaurant and docked it there. We then had lunch, looked around a little bit, and drove back to the yacht club. Definitely a supremely cool experience. :)


This is getting kind of long so I will post one more entry about our second week in Perth as soon as I get a chance!

Coming up: relatives time galore and a deserted island paradise