In my last blog entry I promised you an indulgence tour through the Swan Valley. As this is only about 30km to the East of Perth and on such a tour you drive a few km and then stop at the next winery/brewery/chocolaterie/cheeserie/whatever else there is, I didn't wanted to use the massively fuel-consuming Holden Jackaroo of my host family but the Saab instead.
BUT the Holden with the basket on its roof is to high for the multi-storey carpark of the company where my host father Sébastien works. So he had to use the Saab to get to work this Friday :-(
I am not willing to pay some 20 litres of fuel per 100km to do a daytrip. So instead I got on the bus into the city center of Perth again.
Now you guys, I would like to introduce you to a bus stop in Perth and the phenomenom of 'hailing a bus' which you also have to do in the UK. When you see your bus approaching you hold out your hand, so that the bus driver knows that you want to get on the bus. Otherwise he might just drive past you (unless someone on the bus wants to get off at your bus stop, lucky you!).
Where is the bus? I don't want to miss it or it will drive past (I have never seen anyone get off at this bus stop!).
I changed the bus at the Esplanade Busport and drove towards the East of Perth to the Crown Entertainment Complex of Perth. I first walked down the Burswood Heritage Trail to some digging figure.
And then to this Swan Fountain which looked actually quite nice, especially when the sun came out between the clouds. It rained a bit on the way but luckily it stopped after a short while.
At shortly before 11am I made my way into the casino part of the entertainment complex. Which is a totally appropriate time to go into a casino, really, don't you think? This casino is open 24 hours of I think absolutely every day of the year!
There is some special theme about "Home of Sport" going on in the casino at the moment. It only catched my eye because I just saw the very left guy (Nic Naitanui) in an Aussie Rules Football game last Sunday.
See? Even the entrance to the casino has been redesigned. Nice!
Before I went inside the actual casino I wandered towards the hotel and bar complex and took some pictures of that stylish foyer.
Well, this is how a casino entrance should really look like, don't you think?
Before I could enter the casino I had to show my ID (do I look like under 25? Great!) and I had to put away my camera which was hanging around my neck. Apparently it is not allowed to take pictures inside. I wandered around a bit and didn't see any "No photography" signs but also nobody else taking pictures. After 10 minutes I took some pictures anyway and nobody said anything. Here they are. Just for you! You're welcome!
I think about half of the tables were empty. At this time of day I wasn't expecting it to be full anyway but there were still a lot more people, mostly Asians and elderly.
In this casino there weren't any signs warning you about the danger of gambling like in Melbourne. I was also certain that this casino was also only about a quarter of the size of the Crown Casino in Melbourne. After some research on the internet Melbourne has 500 tables and 2,500 poker machines whereas Perth has 220 tables and 1,500 machines. So about half the size but it still felt a bit tiny to me in comparison to the Melbourne casino (which by the way it the largest in the Southern Hemisphere).
At 11:30am I was bored and hungry and went outside again where I was just in time to witness these guys put some money into their truck and drive away.
At 12:15pm I was back in the city center where I made my way towards Chinatown in Northbridge past the Town Hall which I think is funny as it looks more like a church.
I got myself some Hokkien Noddles with seafood. Can you actually see the seafood? Me neither.There wasn't really a lot in there. What amused me was the fact that the Chinese woman asked me if I wanted some chili with it. What a question, OF COURSE! This happened to me a few times also in Germany and in the UK. The other (white) customers were not being asked if they wanted some extra chili :-)
This is the setting of Old Shanghai were you can also have Japanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Singaporean food and Hong Kong Dim Sum.
I left at 1:30pm and didn't really know what to do with myself. After having been to the Visitor Information to get some information for further trips in the future I decided to do a full circle in the red CAT bus (CAT stands for Central Area Transit). These buses are FREE and I took the following pictures from inside the bus. So I have no clue what buildings these are. SORRY!
This reminded me of the lanes and arcades in Melbourne. Maybe Perth has some of them too but these are still insider lanes that not everybody knows about or where you get special tours for.
After the full circuit with the red line I changed at this CAT bus station to the yellow line.
I think this is some sort of arena for music and stage performances. Not entirely sure.
It was 3pm when I changed into the yellow line and all the school children in the West of Perth got on my bus. And I was sitting in the very back row, so I couldn't get out at the Harbour Town Outlet Shopping Center as I had planned :-( In the city where everybody went off I decided to walk the rest and found this lane.
By 4pm I was a little bit frustrated as this day has absolutely not turned out the way I had planned it. I really wanted to go to the Swan Valley and of course I saw two Swan Valley Tour buses drive past me... So I went back to Northbridge and got me some churros with dark chocolate and white chocolate sauce to dip it into.
This motto suits me very well at the moment! I need some sugar for my soul.
Instead of sitting inside the chocolaterie (it was really full because of some birthday party or whatever) I went next "door" to the Northbridge Piazza and watched some news about Australia. Mainly the new budget plans, sport and the weather.
At 6pm I got finally back to the house and a package that Markus has sent me. I already received it this morning but I didn't wanted to open it straight away. WHY? Because I knew I would cry... He has sent me way too much chocolate, an inflatable neck pillow (this is such an essential when traveling! Why did I not buy it before?) and a really soft little towel. If the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy teached us only one thing then it is that a towel is the most universal item you can possess.
Yeah, so basically this day started out to be a Plan B and I HATE when a Plan A doesn't work out... I tried to make it interesting and tried to stay cheerful but I didn't really succeed, did I?
As much as I am happy to be in Australia and see and do so many things (and just the other day I was SO damn happy about seeing rare black cockatoos), there are also bad days where I just want to go back (especially when the job search does not work out as hoped for).
BUT I am not willing to go back now because there is so much more to see and do! If I go back now I will regret this lost chance forever! I just know it because that is how I am and not only me. Have a look at this list about 5 things that people regret before they die. The number one regret is to not fulfill their dreams when they had the chance and then they realize it is too late.
My next stop: who the heck knows???
Yours casino-comparing-and-aimlessly-through-the-city-wandering Stefanie
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Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!