Farewell to Perth

As I promised, I am now going to recap my last two days in Perth.

On Wednesday, we had our last class. We screened the movies and TV shows that we had created last week. Our kung fu movie was a big hit, and all of them were quite hilarious. Then we went out for milkshakes for Kaitlyn’s birthday, which was yummy. At night, we headed to the Fremantle Prison for a Torchlight Tour.




The prison (above) was built by convicts and held British convicts at first. Eventually it was transformed into a regular prison. In 1991 it was closed for health conditions (there were no toilets in the cells, you can imagine what these health reasons were). It was cleaned up, and now it is a tourist attraction. We arrived for our 10 pm tour absolutely terrified (above). We were given our “torches” (I was disappointed to learn that “torch” means “flashlight”), which we of course had to play with (above). So there were moments that were genuinely creepy, mostly because it was pitch black except for our flashlights and there were strange creaking noises. But there were also times when they added things for effect. Like, in the juvenile wing, the guide explained how one inmate decided to commit suicide by jumping from the 5th floor, so they installed suicide nets (above). While we’re all looking up, they drop a dummy onto the nets. That definitely made most of us jump. There were a few other instances where they had people jump out to scare us. But some things were creepy in their own right, like solitary confinement and the gallows. The last stop on the tour was the chapel, which supposedly has a very high occurrence of ghosts. I do not believe in ghosts (I think it’s a load of crap personally). However, supposedly when you take a picture and white orbs appear, it means that a spirit is in the room. When I was in the chapel, I took the above picture, which may or may not signify that there were ghosts in the room (you decide). The “orbs” are on the brown plaque on the right, above the right window, and there are lots on the red curtain if you blow up the picture. I might add that my lens was quite dirty when I took this picture, so I remain skeptical.

On Thursday I decided to give a proper farewell to Perth by walking to Kings Park via the downtown area. I went to the Hay Street Mall (above), a street closed off to car traffic like the Commons in Ithaca that has great shopping. Then walked towards the park and took these pictures of the skyscrapers. Then I walked over a bridge and up a huge hill to Kings Park, where I was delighted to be rewarded with an awesome view of Perth (the picture with the flowers).

Finally, I made it to the park, and I was really glad to finally see it in the daytime. The first thing you see when you enter the park is this street lined with huge trees (above during the day, and above during night). The tree street is right next to a huge cliff that overlooks Perth and the Swan River (above). After I walked through the column of trees, I came to a war memorial. The flame in the foreground is for the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the statue is for WWI. Near the memorial was an awesome view of Perth underneath palm trees (above). I walked along the path and saw some cool cactus-like things (above, I guess the correct term is succulents? Someone help me out here). Finally I got to this really cool glass bridge walkway thing (above). Walking through the park and seeing the skyline was an awesome send off.

I decided that I would move to Perth in a heartbeat if it weren’t for two (fairly large) factors.
1.) It is sooooooo far away from family and friends. And the rest of the world, also. It is closer to Bali than Sydney and is the most isolated state capital city in the world.
2.) The TV industry sucks here. There are not enough people that live in Australia to sustain many good shows being made, and the ones that are made are not based out of Perth.

So those things aside, Perth is the perfect city. Big enough that there’s always stuff to do, but small enough that I can walk alone during the day and feel perfectly safe. The people here have a really laid back attitude. And it is beautiful. The city itself is very clean, and it is within 30 minutes of several beaches and a short ferry ride to Rottnest Island, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. It is very much a beach culture, where it is not uncommon for people to go to the beach for a few hours after school or work. Anywhere I can be near water, I am happy. The weather is top notch, also. There are days when you can literally not see a cloud in the sky.

All in all, I was very sad to say goodbye to Perth. I hope that it is just a “so long for now” instead of a “goodbye.” I most definitely intend to return.