Five days in Perth now, which is longer than I'd originally intended, but I've been having a fab time. I've been staying at the Emperor's Crown hostel and there's a lovely crowd here, so I've been making the most of having some friends and have been forcing them to sight see with me. Bully, me? No frickin way. Just some gentle persuasions. So here's a rundown of the last few days for your reading enjoyment... Tuesday: After finishing my laundry (hi five to no shrinkage!), buying a new camera, purchasing a lonely planet and eating curry I was invited by my room-mate Claire to a free poker tournament. Needless to say I got knocked out fairly easily, but did pretty well before then - well considering the last time I played poker was on one of those little game machines that you get in pubs. I iz well cultured innit. Wednesday: Hot. Very hot. Sat around the hostel for a bit, sweating profusely, and then joined Claire on a trip to Scarborough (like the one back home but in Australia) where she works in a Hotel bar. Spent the whole evening drinking with some rowdy Australian regulars before a late return to the hostel to watch some Steve Irwin DVDs. Now THAT's Australian - crikey! Thursday: Decided to make a day trip to Rottnest Island, which you can cycle around and has all sorts of nice snorkelling and what-not. Roped in a nice Dutch fellow from the hostel called Woely (pronounced Wooly, yes, brilliant) and marched down to Freemantle to catch the ferry. Only, by the time we got there we'd missed the ferry, so it was all pretty pointless really. However we did have a lovely day in Freemantle. Rented a scooter car which I enjoyed thoroughly - squealed my way round the town at a top speed of 50km/hour. Then caught some sun and took a million photos of the sunset before a damn fine feast on the seafront and a train journey home. Freemantle is super old for Australia and has loads of cute colonial style houses. Even saw an archealogical (...?) dig where they uncovered a pub wall and let us touch a very old teacup. Oh, and I got hit in the face by an aboriginal girl at Perth train station for not giving her a cigarette. There's just no pleasing some people. Note to self, maintain defence stance at all times. Friday: Road trip! Up nice and early to rent a car and set out for a drive up north. Claire very kindly organised a rented car, and declared herself driver (fine by me!) for the day. Claire, Woely, a chap who works with Claire called Felix and my fair self rocked up the west coast to a tiny town called Lancelin. It backs onto some large and exciting sand dunes, so we had a go at sandboarding. Well, when I say sandboarding - I simply sat on the board and hurtled myself down some dunes whilst screaming loudly. It was pretty darned fun. Once we'd managed to get sand into every single orifice that you probably wouldn't want sand to be in, we went for a dip in the sea to wash off. Swapped sand for salt essentially, but it was a vast improvement. Not a particularly pleasant beach as we had to fumble through some manky seaweed, but it was definitely worth it for a good wash. Then further up the coast to Cervantes and the Pinnacles. These are a bunch of ancient pillars that stick out of the desert and look very cool. We managed to be there for sunset so once again I took about a million photos. You'll all get to enjoy them at some point no doubt, lucky you. The car journey home was sweet because I slept for the whole thing. That's my kind of car journey. 3 hours went by in no time, and we got back to the hostel about midnight to crash out and get salt all over my bed. Saturday: Met up for a BBQ and some drinks with Phillos, a friend of MeJulie's back home. Loads of fun catching up with a different crowd, and tasting a total of 3 different Aussie ciders. Yum. We were supposed to go to an International Beer Festival, but as we arrived we met several groups of slightly upset Australians who all seemed pretty unanimous that we shouldn't bother going in because, and I quote, 'there's no sampling, 45 minute queue for beers, not many beers and it's s***'. Enough said, so we saved our money and went to the pub instead. Good times. .......which brings us up to today. Another chore day sorting out accommodation for tomorrow, packing my bag which I'd manage to tear apart over the last few days, buying a few bits and pieces and generally making sure I'm ready to head on out. All in all Perth has been fab. Took a while to get used to it being so quiet after 2 weeks in Sydney, but it's a nice enough place. I think it's probably better if you know people here who can show you around, but there's heaps of days trips you can do. Got a very pleasant 8.5 hour bus journey tomorrow to look forward to, so I'm stocking up on sweets (I've developed a rather annoying addiction to The Natural Confectionary Company jelly Snakes... snakey good) and drinks and hoping to get quite drunk tonight so I can enjoy a nice little nap tomorrow. Fingers crossed I get a window seat otherwise my unlucky neighbour will no doubt be having me dribble on their shoulder for a good few hours. Because I'd be sleeping, I don't just generally dribble. Adios! xx