December 29, 2018–March 11, 2019

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Margit & Christian

And once again we ran from a harsh Austrian Winter! From the end of December 2018 until mid of March 2019 we took refuge in Perth, Western Australias sunny and warm capital (just like we already did once in the summer of 2014). So again we relocated our home office to an apartment on William Street in a green and quiet part of Mount Lawley, a booming  residential area with many pubs and bars and home of the amazing and exotic Hyde Park, just a 5 minute walk away from our cozy little flat . But that's not all. Perth has much more to offer: the newly reconstructed Yagan Square which connects the Asian dominated district of Northbridge with the Business Center, and further on leading to the also beautifully and newly refurbished area around Elizabeth Quay down by the Swan River. And let's not forget about the huge and beautiful Kings Park with its tremendous views over Perth's grand skyline. Last but not least all the city's numerous white sandy beaches with their turqouise water shimmering under a bright sun shining out of azure blue skies. Yes, Perth is an amazing place to refill your soul with pure Summer. So if you are curious you are most welcome to join our ride!

Sorted bottom-up

The last days rushed by quicker than we could say Perth. Some things we did for the first time, some things for the umpteenth time ... but eventually all of them for the last time. One important place we had not been to yet during this stay was the majestic and beautiful Kings Park on top of Mount Eliza with splendid views on the Swan River and the beautiful skyline of this great city we were honored to have called our home for the last 10 weeks. So we decided to go up to Kings Park twice during our last week, had coffee in the cozy café, sat down in the grass to read but first and foremost enjoyed the stunning views downhill.

Christian said his goodbyes to the Robertson Tennis Center in North Perth, particularly to Karl, his faithful and patient hitting partner from Johannesburg doing his studies here at Perth University. And finally Christian had the opportunity to play on grass for once in his tennis life and it was indeed beautiful (not so his performance though but that did not matter as much really!). And then the day before our departure arrived and the rain came with it, just in time during our final jogging session in Hyde Park – apparently Perth was also very sad having to let us go. On Monday morning Central European Time, after 3 flights and 25 hours in the air we landed in Wien Schwechat in extremely windy and bumpy conditions without our checked in bags who got stuck in a very messy Heathrow Airport. Equipped with just our hand luggage and to make our return into the cold a wee bit easier and smoother we directly went straight to the center to our most favourite bar for a pita bread. And well, yes that was about it.

Thank you all dear readers for showing your interest and following us down the sunny and warm Western Australian Road. It was a pleasure!

Do you remember our neighbour in the flat under us? Well, to cut a long story short: He was  eventually evicted and left only after a few days eventhough he legally had two months time to do so. Apparently he was happy to leave. Suffice to say so was everybody else in the apartment block! We already booked another apartment for our last ten days though so we had to relocate. It was only a 20 minute walk away but we had to carry everything ourselves. Fortunately our new apartment block had a swimming pool on its premises. Guess who took a dive after the "luggage workout"? On Saturday we celebrated our 15 year anniversary! All romantics among you will agree that this of course had to be celebrated with a beer tasting (and pizza!) in Australia's most iconic brewery: Fremantle's Little Creatures! On Sunday we decided to show our stuffed bellies at City Beach for a final time! Emotionally the day was something of a mixed bag: happiness and sadness alternating each other by the minute. What else happend? On the following very hot Monday (39 degrees!) our quiet and beloved Hyde Park served as a huge fair during the annual long Labour Day weekend. So since jogging was out of the question, Christian went for another hit on the tennis court! And inbetween all those stories we always had time for beer and coffee! But that's something you already know ...

Welcome to PART II of our personal favourites which of course is the gorgeous Hyde Park. A gem in that part of Perth called City of Vincent, basically just around the corner of where we reside. A paradise for all kinds of birds, exotic or otherwise: ducks, white ibises, lorikeets, coots, corellas, black swans, ravens, cockatoos and the one with the famous laugh: the great kookaborra!!! And home of beautiful and diverse flora and an amazing venue for weddings, birthdays or parties of any kind, with friends or with family, big or small, for a day out to relax, take a nap or read, to get a coffee, to picnic and BBQ or to go for your jogging rounds under shady trees. It became our second home and it will be in our hearts forever. It's the most beautiful place to spend your most ordinary day! But let the pictures speak for themselves, we mixed them randomly on purpose. Basically just like we experienced the park ourselves – a daily mix of everything over a span of 10 weeks. If you are not stunned by those impressions ... well go and see your doctor. Your heart must be made of stone!

Our stay in Perth is slowly coming to an end but before we deliver impressions of our final stage here we would like to introduce you to two of Perth's so many beautiful attractions that we grew particuarly fond of. Part one is the amazing street art one can basically find everywhere in this great city! We took the following pictures over the course of the last ten weeks. We hope you are as amazed about them as we were and still are!! Enjoy!

The days after we came back to Perth from our mindbending trip down to the Southwest we took it slowly but quickly found joy again in those many things Perth has to offer. So first of all Margit went shopping (what else is new?!). Then we went down to Chevron Gardens two more times. They not only show concerts during the Perth festival (you remember Cat Power two weeks ago?) but also offer to just listen to those on their premises with pizza, beer and gin & tonic (that's at least what we hedonistically chose). So you can't see the stage but the music is still good of course, as is the atmosphere obviously. We tried different cinemas: again in our beloved theaters Luna Leederville and Cinema Paradiso (by the way: Stan & Olli is highly recommended!), followed by a free screening of Back to the Future just around the corner in our Hyde Park's soft grass on Sunday evening and then a few days later we were just simply stunned by the Rooftop Cinema in Northbridge with views of Perth's skyline in the background. So it's safe to say that Bohemian Rhapsody was just the perfect movie for this absolutely amazing venue. For the rest of the week we consequently stuck to our happy hour routines as well as our sporting routines. Christian eventually (better late than never!) found a tennis club in North Perth in which he immediately felt comfortable and was well received by the local players. The picture showing the bulky items and furniture placed on the sidewalk shows a project called the "council clean up". You can put basically all your unloved stuff on the side of the road and it is being picked up by the council. So for a couple of weeks the sidewalks in the city look like a big landfill site of bulky stuff.

So, have you recovered well from all that beauty of PART I (nooo, we are not talking about us)?  Well then, welcome to PART II of our trip through the amazing region of Margaret River. We will keep this intro as short as possible and as short as the things we saw and experienced allow us. The scenery, the beaches and other culinary elements grew more seductive by the minute. Again we visited Prevelly Beach but this time instead of watching the surfers having their fun we went for a quick dive into the refreshing waves ourselves. Since the waters were quite cold we needed to warm up. Where better than for a coffee and a cake at the Margaret River Chocolate Company? On the following days we continued our "Beach Research" and each beach we found was more beautiful than the previous one. Conto Beach, Hamelin Bay (where we experienced close encounters with gentle stingrays) Dunsborough Beach (with its seemingly endless shallow shore) and the wild Canal Rocks were mind-bendingly gorgeous! And most of them were either deserted or scarcely visited – simply amazing! Inbetween we took refuge in our lodge, kept watching the amazing wildlife in all its diversity, could not believe the beauty of the woods in Cape Lleewin-Naturaliste National Park and again gave in to culinary seductions more than once. On day 6 we sadly had to leave all of this behind and say goodbye, but not before thanking our terrific host Brad who together with his wife Sabina runs this gem of a lodge in a welcoming way we have only rarley experienced before. Grown up in the remote outback and having been a "security" for basically everthing in these harsh conditions (catching venomous snakes, crocodiles, lizards  etc. from inhabited areas and releasing them again somewhere else), being a free diver in the Indian Ocean and a cyclone emergency coordinator for trapped miners in the Outback Brad is now  treading calmer waters, that is running Pinda Lodge with his wife, but he is obviously doing that with the same commitment and love.

When we came back to Perth on Day 6 we were so full of impressions of summer that we immediately had to go to the cinema to watch Mads Mikkelsen's attempt to survive the "Arctic". And that definitely cooled us down again!

On the day that followed Cat Powers concert we took off for a holiday to the southwesternmost part of all of Australia – Margaret River: Town, wine region and river all at once! Fancy vinyards, seductive choclate and liquor producers as well as dairy factories and berry farms challenge your inner strenght to live a healthy life and stick to your diet you are usually so consequently commited to (well, OK, not always!). Beautiful woods and the most pristine beaches and turquoise shimmering  water of the Indian Ocean do the rest to find yourself with a dropped jaw and your soul recharged with energy. We started off with a nice breakfast in Perth's center, followed by the pick-up of our rental (again a small KIA). A 3 hour drive later we arrived at Pinda Lodge – a paradise in the middle of a paradise! On the first three days (arrival day included) we enjoyed our room and porch at the lodge, took pleasant walks in its surrounding woods, had lovely dinners in the town of Margaret River, visited a vineyard for lunch and a berry farm for dessert, watched cheeky wildlife and adored the audacious surfers at Prevelly Beach! So, you think that can't be topped? Well, we recommend you wait for PART II then ...

Well, only two days after we returned from the beautiful Swan Valley, we were ready for the next event. The great American singer-songwriter Cat Power (with Carla Geneve as support act) was on the set list for the Perth Festival at the marvellous Chevron Gardens, a nice little venue put up just right in the centre of Elizabeth Quay. We have been looking forward to this for weeks, but on the day we were ready to go Margit had tons of work to do and unfortunately had to give up on that musical night and let Christian go to enjoy the great Charlyn Marshall all by himself (together with other thousands of fans as well of course). So, before the concert started Christian strolled through Perth all by himself, enjoying his day off, inhaling the air and spirit of this grand city for the umpteenth time and leaving you with the pictures you will find below. So, that would actually be everything to tell for this chapter … IF there wasn’t our neighbour below us who gives us plenty of stories to tell.

For your sake, dear reader, we cut the whole thing right to the chase. The neighbour in the apartment just below us, let’s call him Brian for now, has some special issues with himself, with people around him and the odd bottle of beer and very likely other toxic liquids. For weeks he has verbally abused and terrorized the whole block, preferably shouting the infamous inflationary four-letter word as often as possible … to himself, his girl (basically cut from the same cloth to be honest) and the whole world actually. When he sleeps we don’t know. The more frequently he had his outbursts the more frequently the police came. But since he did not react aggressively towards them, they could and did not take any kind of action. But at one point he crossed the line. The night before the aforementioned concert seven (!!!) police officers showed up. Four of them in SWAT like uniform ready to storm the flat (because recently he refused to open) but had to be sent away because he eventually did open the door.

Let’s cut the long story short (which we promised you at the beginning of the story, you are right about that … so we apologize!): The police hand cuffed him and took him away. His girl was apparently examined and of her face close-up pictures were taken before also she was brought away with a large bag, probably to a sheltered house for women. Brian came back sometime in the night though, again shouting parts of the night. This time probably only to himself in the mirror, which is indeed comprehensible since we met him in the backyard on the next day for the first time, fully intoxicated. And to be honest we would also swear and curse to ourselves if we looked like he did (and very likely does every day)! We left on the morning of the day after that (ironically a complete silent night inbetween by the way) for a holiday (on which we are right now!) so on our return we will of course keep you updated about that vacation and certainly even more so about our dear friend in the apartment below us. We can leave you with a teaser though. The council of owners decided that Brian will be evicted from this flat (he himself is just a tenant) but we don’t know how long it will take to really throw him out. We will let you know!

In the week after the Chinese New Year celebrations several things happend. First of all the temperatures dropped from near 40 to under 30 starting with Monday. According to the ABC (Australian Broad Casting) the last 5 days of the past week have been the first ones with consecutive temperatures over 35 degrees since January 2014 here in Perth. And THAT was exactly the last time we were here. So now we wonder: is  there any connection or is this just a conincidence? We are seduced to find out in another 5 years. Well, let's get back to the core topic of this entry: the Swan Valley! As of course all of you know the river running through Perth and eventually opening out into the Indian Ocean down South in Fremantle is called Swan River. And Northeast of Perth along the River lies the Swan Valley, a sunny area with fertile soil suited best for growing grapes which makes this part of Western Australia one of the best areas for vineyards in all of Australia. So we took a train from Mount Lawley to Guildford, one of those lovely places located in the Swan Valley. There we had a delicious and extensive breakfast (let's call it brunch then, shall we?) and at around noon met up with Bobbi and Tristan, our hosts who offered to show us this beautiful land over the course of the afternoon! We spent a lovely day not only visiting vinyards for wine tasting but also went to see producers of all kinds of delicious sins like liquors, chocolate, honey and mead (wine or liquor made of or with honey!).

Well, so why did we choose to make this particular trip on a Tuesday? Why taking a day off and not going on the weekend? Well, you have to know that the apartment block we are residing for our stay has a new roof installed because ... and now read carefully ... the current ASBESTOS (!!!) roof will be removed and replaced by modern material. So for the removal of the aforementioned asbestos everyone had to leave the buiding for basically the whole day! The whole roof construction will go on for two weeks and believe it or not but for most of that time we will literally have no roof over our heads ... meaning: we can see the blue skies through the fan over the shower! No kidding! So let's keep fingers crossed Perth will stay as dry as ever for the next two weeks!

Only three days after our return from Penguin Island we were ready for our next event. This time we did not have to walk long. In Northbridge, basically just around the corner we found ourselves right in the middle of the Chinese New Year festivities. Numerous spectators could watch and experience lion and dragon dances, parades, hawkers markets and many other shows and performances. Most of those of course in Chinatown, but also on James Street as well as on Lake Street. So we strolled around, inhaled the many differnt scents of all those delicious food stands and enjoyed the hot sunny air of this week's last day of the current heatwave, gave in to sweet and savoury seductions and by the end of a beautiful day ended up in our most favourite pub back in Mount Lawley: The Flying Scotsman! For a pizza and a beer. Cheers!

We came back from our short road trip on Monday late afternoon. Well, and you will not believe it, only 3 days later, on Thursday we had even more encounters with the local wildlife. This time it was the marine fauna who we payed a visit and our tribute! We had to get up early to do so because first we had to walk 30 minutes into the center, catch a train for Rockingham which lasted another half an hour and then deal our way through the rural bus system to catch bus line 551 (whose driver was the most helpful bus driver we have ever met and we are pretty sure he was a tourist guide back in the day, and the most friendly one too!). 20 minutes later we stood in front of the Penguin Island visitor center from where we not only caught a ferry to the Island itself but also a 9o minute discovery ride (over waves meters high ...  nooooooo, not really, just a bit bumpy is all!). We saw jumping dolphins, diving see lions  and even caught a glimpse of a sting ray (look carefully and you will find it!). And of course last but not least the smallest living penguins on Earth who run under the very scientific and most inventive name ever: Little Penguin! If that was not enough, the whole island is full of bird life, among those countless pelicans and other feathery friends of which we were too lazy to look up their accurate scientific names (surely much better than the poor Little Penguins'!)! Enjoy  the pictures and while you are at it: Don't bother if your jaw drops, it happend to us too!

For those of you interested in an insight to spiritual aboriginal believes regarding wildlife please see the last photo in this gallery!

Just before dusk settled we returned back from the Pinnacles. Not to Perth yet though but to lovely Yanchep National Park, only a few kilometers north of Perth but beautifully located around Loch McNess with your typical Australian wildlife featuring kangaroos, koalas and many exotic birds. We checked into a room at the Old Yanchep Inn with beautiful lakeviews and indulged in their culinary specialties which in our case meant one or two (or three ... whatever) pints of ales, a traditional but delicious pub meal and a good breakfast in the morning sun! During the day we strolled through the National Park (which also has a brand new campsite), in the shades of the typical white gum trees, palm trees and of course eucalyptus trees who not only give this area but all of  Australia this relaxing scent of a natural massage studio! After two nights we returned back to Perth, fully refreshed and prepared for another week of urban sins. But not before we took a brief dive into the Indian Ocean on the beach of the small village of Yanchep, just a few minutes drive away from the National Park.

In the week after the spectacular Australia Day we had to recover (some might argue from too much beer and cocktails – we say ... well ... OK, from too much beer and cocktails ...). So we took it easy. Margit went to Fremantle for some shopping  and together we strolled to and through the quiet neighbourhood of Subiaco and other parts of town. And somehow we always ended up in a café, a bar or a pub (or worse: in ALL of them in the course of a single day ... bloody hell!)  to quench our thirst, still our hunger or simply indulge in mere hedonism – again (pffff)! But the weekend came quickly and before we could say KIA we already seated ourselves into a small version of it and off we drove up North to the Pinnacles (roughly 2 hours from Perth – yes, even with a  small KIA): a desert of peculiar (but amazing and beautiful) stone formations whose exact origins are unsolved to this very day! So, if you are curious feel free to join us for our ride!

In the week after the temperatues reached 41 degrees (see our last trip to City Beach) everything went downhill – weatherwise. On Wednesday and Thursday not more than 21 degrees were shown on the official thermometers. Add the wind and some drizzle and suddenly it became quite chilly and uncomfortable. But on Friday summer was back on air – just in time for Australia's biggest day; Australia Day! Like lemmings (without the fatal drop into the sea though!) we followed the flow through Northbridge, on to the center, down to Elizabeth Quay and eventually Langley Park. Beer and cocktails were our constant companions as well as the golden sun in the bright blue sky, moderate temperatures around 30 degrees and the light breeze of the "Fremantle doctor" in our hair (facial hair in Christian's case). At 8 p.m. sharp, just when the sun completed its  dip into the beautiful horizon of South Perth, the annual amazing skyworks on the Swan River started and stunned not only us but tens of thousands of spectators for the  next 30 minutes along the whole Esplanade, South Perth, the majestic King's Park on top of  Mount Eliza and many other parts of town. After that we headed home ... well, not without having  two more cocktails at Yagan Square in the center! And again like 5 years ago we asked ourselves: Was this skyworks indeed necessary for a simple birthday? Well, see for yourself!

Well, the first time since our arrival three weeks ago it has beeen really hot! So far we had a moderate summer with warm days around 30 degrees and cool nights around 15 BUT on the past weekend we had an audacious encoutner with the first heatwave of  2019. The temperatures crossed the threshold of 40 degrees so we did the only reasonable action that was left to do and refreshed ouselves in the Indian ocean – again! This time we chose beautiful City Beach, the closest beach to the city center. We were in good spirits and a summerly mood, so we played with the oncoming waves like dolphins (or probably like toddlers who don't know better) ready to evade oncoming Great Whites effortlessly. Back in the city center we were chated up by Raymond Mearns, a Scottish comedian obviously looking for his breakthrough in sunny Perth and advertising his show with the utmost personal dedication (this hot day must have been like hell for anybody from Scotland!). As it turned out he worked at the same IBM plant in Greenock as Christian did (around 10 yeras earlier than he though). And so both dwelled on their (almost) mutual past, two boys sunken deeply misty-eyed in their memories ... for a minute or two. Then he remembed  he had to recruit some more potential spectators for his show and we continuted our way back home – the deep yellow sun slowly sinking into the horizion to the West on our left. And we did not forget about Breaveheart Raymound! As he is in town for the next few weeks we will very likely go to see one of his shows in the Brass Monkey, a beautiful pub in the heart of Northbridge!

And then it was time to pay the newly constructed Elizabeth Quay a visit. It makes a wonderful place to spend a day under blue skies and a golden sun. Beautifully located down by the Swan River, a wide and open area surrounded by modern architecture and inspired by lovely and imaginative sculptures, decorated with exotic plants and trees and guarded by the green hills of King's park to the West. Some parts are still under construction but  this did not keep us from having a relaxing day crashing into one or two of the numerous bars and cafés along the way. Enjoy!

On a beautiful Sunday we left for a day trip to Fremantle, a vibrant town south of  Perth, just a 30 minute train ride away. Many local day trippers, tourists, buskers, street artists and locals contributed to a lively and positive summer flair. Enjoying ourselves very much we roamed through the crowed market, stopped for coffee and cake, strolled down to South Beach for a rest (passing the huge shipyards on the way) and returned to town hungry and thirsty for a pizza and a beer at the iconic Little Creatures Brewery before heading back to Perth just before the sun set beautifully over the peaceful horizion. The "Fremantle Doctor", the beloved local breeze blowing inland daily from the Indian Sea was with us all day!

On the days that followed nothing really remarkable happend. We went to the cinema once more, had more coffees and cheescakes in North Perth and Leederville and Margit decided to try the local hairdresser.

Exactly one week after our arrival we decided it was time to have a lovely day at the beach. The closest to the center is Cottesloe Beach located by one of Perth's beautiful suburbs by the same name and only a 20 minute train ride from the center away.  So we packed our swimsuits, sunscreens and bath towels and off we went. On our return to the center we had some beers to cool us down!

Well, there is the RCA Arena in Perth, located on the Western side of Yagan Square in an area with many new buildings, pubs, cafés and restaurants. And the Arena itself is ... well ... let's say also a new and modern building ... in it's own unique way. A local couple who we met on New  Year's Eve told us that Perth residents describe the planning and eventual construction of this venue as drawn on a piece of paper, then scrunched and thrown away but eventually retrieved from the litter bin and built the way it looked on the "descrunched" piece of paper.  Well, see for yourself (on picture number 4)! Once inside though the arena is beautiful, modern and definitely worth the visit! For Thursday during our first week we had tickets for the encounter Switzerland (Belinda Bencic and Roger Federer) versus Greece (Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas) right in the middle of the front tier section. For the final on Saturday which again featured Switzerland, this time versus Germany (Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev) we found ourselves further back on the upper tiers but witnessed a thrilling encounter going the way of Switzerland with a very spectacular and close matchpoint! On the even more hedonistic side: The lounge on the ground level supplied us with important nutrients like coffee, beer and gin and tonic. Cheers!

During the first few days we just explored our neighborhood Mount Lawley with its bar and café strip on Beaufort Street, found something to eat at the Hawker's market on Forest Place in the center and enjoyed a movie at  the Luna Leederville outdoor cinema. Other than that nothing spectacular happend (except ... well, there was something peculiar happening: Christian wore his woolen hat during the late night outdoor cinema event since it was quite chilly for his kind of "haircut").

After a journey that lasted 29 hours, taking 3 flights via London and Kuala Lumpur we eventually landed in Perth at 1 a.m. in the middle of the night. It was late when we finally crushed into our bed, so consequently we got up very late in the morning (or afternoon for that matter). This in fact had an upside since it was New Year's Eve and we were able to party hard and long (well, not really). Christian's backpack wanted to spend an additional night in Kuala Lumpur though and was only delivered more than 24 hours later on Tuesday morning local time . Since he put on his last fresh underwear three days earlier on Saturday morning before heading to Vienna airport the eventual change of clothes was happily anticipated by Christian ... and ... well ... highly appreciated by Margit.