Tuesday, November 07, 2006

72, 72, 72

So I've been in Perth for five days now and I'm really liking the place. The title up there is a reference to an oddly spooky coincidence I noticed the day after my arrival - I flew in on Qantas flight 72, and went to my hotel which is on Route 72, where I was given keys to my room... #72. All very odd and of course totally meaningless.

The hotel was fine but more than a little dogeared, and not very quiet (it was peopled largely by other backpackers who are on the whole a lot younger and noisier than me) so after five of the ten days I'd booked there, and having got to know him in real life (we'd been talkking online and via Skype for a while before I left the UK) I've taken up the kind offer of a spare room at my new friend Eric's house, which is far comfier and far quieter, and has Eric in it much of the time which is nice because he's a lot more fun to hang out with than the noisy backpackers. In fact if it weren't for this inconvenient business of different continents I'd be introducing Eric to the Friday gang back in Edinburgh - I think you lot would like him too.

Meeting nice friendly new people has been a bit of a theme so far. On Saturday I went out on the local scene which was pleasantly relaxed. Arriving at "the Court" (Perth's main gay pub) I was asked for ID which made me laugh a lot as being taken for being 12 years younger than I actually am is really very flattering (also I'd thought to take my passport with me so proving that I am in fact 29 wasn't a problem) Inside I had a thoroughly lovely evening with some easy going friendly people before heading on to Perth's gay club, dancing a bit and meeting a man who was really awfully friendly indeed, whose phone number I got at the end of the night and who I very much hope to see again in the near future.

There've been plenty of relaxed and friendly daytimes too, I've spent a lot of time exploring Perth on foot (which is remarkably easy to do and very rewarding) visiting some of its excellent parks and generally soaking up the city and the sun (the latter steadily and through a good coating of sunscreen) I'm reliably informed that I must get some even stronger sunscreen before venturing to the beach, which I'm hoping to do soon and where I intend to swim in the sea a lot and generally enjoy myself.

All in all being here feels a bit like like being on another planet, but a very welcoming and relaxed one where I can readily converse with the locals (because we speak if not quite the same language then at least cross-compatible ones,) and where I already know most of the little functional details of getting around and generally functioning. Things like like how to how the pedestrian crossings work (the same as at home, but with different buttons and a rather startling noise,) and how to pay for things*. It's very different here in a way I'm very aware of all day, and yet it's never utterly alien, in spite of the otherworldly flora and fauna sprinkled liberally through the city and the almost perpetually blue skies.

Later in the month I'm planning on hiring a car and exploring the south coast and some of the Western Australian countryside which should be quite spectacular, and before long I'll get round to uploading some photographs too but for now I'm going to go out and enjoy another afternoon in this comnfortably odd and quietly engaging city.

* That part took a little while: Australian tills have chip & PIN like card readers but they're not for credit or debit cards at all, and the mag-stripe readers always ask which account I want to use because Aussie banks supply one bit of plastic for accessing all your accounts instead of one per account. There are plenty of little things like that happening which are all unfamiliar enough to make me feel like I really am somewhere completely other, without making life difficult or uncomfortable.

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