Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Originally we planned to continue our trip south but a job offer in Perth arrived which we couldn't give a miss. So we stayed 3 ½ weeks in Perth - Marc had a part-time day job as a dishwasher in a lovely café and worked in a huge busy pub during nighttime.
I got to know the most money-driven, tight Greek restaurant owners but met fantastic people from Ireland, UK and Oz. We also got to meet up with Paivi and Jobo, the Finnish couple we had previously met in Exmouth. They had just returned from Carnarvon where they had 2 weeks hard work (14-16hrs/day) in a tomato packing plant.

We rented a little house a 20minutes walk away from the city centre. We had one flat mate, Sara from Italy. She was quite a character. Having previously lived a year in the UK and approx. 5 months in Australia one could assume that her English was pretty good. Well, she probably knew 30 English words. Marc asked her once what food they serve in the restaurant she worked for (which was Italian of course) and her answer was:

"Italy big, small - you understand?"

The few weeks in Perth were really nice - we realized that we had needed a break from being on the road. Having the luxury of a proper bed and shower, a TV and oven was great! Even though we only stayed for 4 weeks in Perth, we kind of started to have a social life which of course included going out, doing some shopping, etc.

We both liked Perth much more than we did when we first came here. i guess the weather made a huge difference. It is a really relaxed place, quite small and well laid-out.

christmas came closer and closer - it was really weird to see dressed up santas in the streets when the temperature was 30`c or hotter. some of the santas even wore shorts! we both didnt really get a christmas feel - i guess we just need the cold, mulled wine, ginger cookies and our families to enjoy it!!! (hello families!)

BUT - yes, there is a but - there was 1 thing that we both really enjoyed about this year's christmas: it was HASSLE FREE. no worries about christmas presents, no chaotic, stressed out shopping with 1000s other stressed out people... it was probably the most chilled out christmas we ever had and will have... --> to read more about our christmas celebrations you have to continue reading!

We also went to Fremantle (ozzies call it Freo) which is a lovely town just outside of Perth. Really cool nightlife (just out of our budget), nice restaurants, bars, etc. when we saw all the menus displayed outside we decided to give ourselves a treat and eat out after weeks of baked beans, spaghetti and chili. but then we bumped into julie and cindy, the french & dutch girls from the 9-people group we had met in coral bay a few weeks ago. julie stayed at a friend's place and invited us around. so we ended up having dinner and lots of wine in a really nice flat, stayed overnight and had breakfast as well.

it is really funny how you end up meeting the same people again even though western australia is so huge. the funniest bit of this story is that vanessa, the other french girl got a job in an AUSTRIAN CLUB - believe it or not, in Fremantle. An Austrian Club? I had to check that out! so all of us - Julie, Cindy, Nick, Marc and I went out to see her. Dead funny! there is this huge function hall decorated with photos of Austria, and at the bar they sell Liptauer, Almdudler, Soletti, Topfenstrudel etc. the clientele are expats from austria - all in their 70s and 80s - dancing the whole night away to the waltz... how cute!

The couple that run this bar as a 2nd job were so cool as well: Sigrid is from Innsbruck and Michel, her husband is French. They previously lived in Montreal and moved to Oz 6 years ago. their sons Florian and Lukas speak real Aussie Englisch, fluent French and Austrian German. How awesome is that!

A few weeks later and a few bucks more in our back pocket we continued our trip South.