Hey everybody! After arriving in Perth and traveling around it has been non-stop! We are finally getting a hang of driving on the other side of the road and there have been a few less curse words when we accidently turn on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. One of our best discoveries so far has been that we have finally found free internet! Now, you might be saying, why are you freaking out so much about getting on the internet when you are in Australia?!?! Well…after having to shell out enough to start out our own Broadband company free internet is a hot commodity and something that is cherished among Americans who are so used to hotspots at every coffee shop or bumming internet off of a neighbor (which is illegal and you shouldn’t do…). So ultimately, our local Dome restaurant/café in South Perth is officially our new favorite place!
On the plane ride from San Francisco to Sydney Qantas airlines had some Australian television shows for passengers to watch and Alexander and I were immediately pulled into Bondi Beach. This show follows the lives of the professional Bondi Beach lifeguards in Sydney. Basically we became addicted to the adrenaline pumping, life saving, life guards that the show follows. Luckily a new season of Bondi Beach, Bali! has just started which follows the lifeguards as they go work in Bali during the off-season in Australia. This show is equally as addicting and has officially become our Wednesday night television program…makes us sound like locals right??
In traveling around in our stylish four-door hatchback (not to be confused with a station wagon) Toyota Corolla, we have traveled all around Perth, gotten lost and then headed back again. There have been a few things that we have realized along the way:
1. It seems that every highway in Western Australia makes a giant circle and sooner or later you are going to stumble upon where you started.
2. There exist about three fast food chains in Western Australia: Red Rooster, Hungry Jack’s (which is actually Burger King posing as something else), and of course McDonald’s...It shows how different Australians
3. Everything closes around 5:00 P.M., except on Thursdays when grocery stores stay open a bit later.
4. People do more drinking here than actual eating thus why very few restaurants are opened during eating times.
5. Running a yellow light will cost you $150, running a red light is worse.
6. Kayakers can be confused for many marine animals.
When Alexander and I had decided to venture half-way across the world and engross ourselves in a new culture we were ready to try and do just about anything! But when it came time to trying one of our favorite Red River Revel treats in a different country we were sorely disappointed. When we arrived in Sydney our orientation leader, Amander, told everybody that they had to try a meat pie with ketchup. Hoping that it tasted somewhat like a Natchitoches meat pie Alexander and I were sold and decided to go to one of the most famous meat pie shops in South Perth (which happens to be a block away from us). This place looked incredibly promising, there were articles from newspapers raving about the pies, the lady who worked there was in pictures with famous people, and around the area it was not uncommon to see businessmen diving into a pie on their lunch break. After our great experience in eating the “Australian Zoo” we were ready to try another Australian favorite. Alexander went for the sausage roll (basically the same concept just ground up sausage in a pastry shell) and I went for the traditional meat pie. The outward appearance looked great, it was a little different than the Revel pies look but it seemed to be basically the same thing. Upon first biting into the pie I immediately felt like I was eating some warmed up Puppy Chow stew. Now, I am definitely not trying to bash the Australian meat pie by any means, but I really think that if they were to try the Red River Revel meat pies they would immediately change their recipe and adopt it in a heartbeat. I decided to get a second opinion and told Lindsay that it was really great and she should try it. After she confirmed the Puppy Chow taste we decided that Australian meat pies were not for us and decided that we will adopt the sausage roll as the new meat pie. But…if you are in Australia you should totally try a meat pie, you’ll love it!
After our meat pie experience Alexander and I focused on what we knew a little better as far as the experimenting in our food selections went. We decided to stick to Japanese and Italian for a little bit before venturing out again…and of course we’ll still keep Tim Tams in our bag of Australian snacks!
After hotel hopping for a bit we decided to stay in an apartment style hotel with a cute little kitchen to cook in and to simply enjoy the weekend. The most exciting thing about the weekend was that the preliminary-final footy game was on versus the St. Kilda Saints and the Hawthorne Hawks! It was sooo exciting and although the Saints got killed (similar to their recent game against the Broncos in the States…maybe it’s their name!) the game was so exciting to watch and I absolutely can not wait for the Grand Final next weekend (basically the Super Bowl in Australia)!!!
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading and I miss you all!
