Mira Publications: Perth - The first days

Perth CBD

Well here I am, I’ve said goodbye to Melbourne, and its rainy weather and have headed to the warmer climate of Perth. While I had always planned to come out here, I was able to make it even more worthwhile and synchronise it with the Hullabaloo Dance weekend. (My weekends have been quite swingy with Jump Town Jam in Canberra two weekends ago and Blues Before Sunrise in Melbourne last weekend.)

I landed Tuesday night and my lovely host Lauren came to pick me up at the airport. When I finally got out of bed on Wednesday, which wasn’t that late as my body was still on the Melbourne two-hour time difference, I took the train into the city. I mostly explored the CBD and the riverside. I also met up with local and interstate dancers for drinks at a Belgian Pub. Already, I was impressed by how caring the locals are, making sure I knew where I was going and how I’d make it there.

London Court

The CBD has a couple of Mall streets that are connected with different passageways. The most noticeable one is the London Court, which does remind you a bit of the old country. I resisted any shopping urges and made my way to the riverbank, where I found a tall glass building that sort of clashes with the rest of the scenery, aka the Bell tower, as well as some black swans. According to wikipedia, the river was named Swarte Swaene-Revier by Dutch explorer, Willem de Vlamingh in 1697, after the famous black swans of the area.

The Bell Tower

A Black Swan

Getting close to sunset by the Swan River

The Fremantle Prison

Fremantle – aka- Freo

The next day, I took the train out to Fremantle located where the Swan River flows into the Indian Ocean. I spent a couple of hours exploring before heading to the Little Creatures brewery for the weekend’s dance event meet and great. It’s a pretty little town with a lot of history. I found a second hand bookshop where I purchased some reading material, and also went to check out the prison from the outside. Built between 1851- 1859, it remained open until 1991.

The Round House

I then walked along the harbour filled with sailing boats and made my way to this circular building. The Round House was the first permanent public of the Colony and served as the first prison until it was replaced in 1858.

The view from the round house

Fremantle is quite the harbour as it’s the main access of the huge cargo boats from overseas and there’s not much beach space, but I did find this little alcove near the round house and took my flip flops off for my first wade in the Indian Ocean!

Well that was enough exploring for the day so I headed to the pub for the Hulla meet and greet and caught up with friends, old and new. Later on in the evening we made our way to the welcome dance, but first we stopped for some churros con chocolate. I hadn’t had any since my trip to Spain. They were quite tasty and I got to practice a bit of Spanish with the waiter! (And also got chocolate on myself! Luckily, I had brought a change of clothes.)

Clearly, after those first few days, I knew I was in for a treat. Awesome people, awesome dances, lovely weather, it was a perfect way to get back in the holiday spirit.