Sunday in the botanical gardens with wine

After having spent almost 6 days at sea, with the exception of visiting the small town of Esperance along the way – which may as well have been a sea day as it’s only redeeming feature was that I managed to find a cafe with decent enough wifi in which I could stream the latest episode of Rupaul’s Drag Race All Stars 4 (Trinity for the win) – a visit to the city of Adelaide was very much needed. I had not, however, anticipated for this visit to be on a Sunday and for this to mean that the city was pretty much a ghost town! 

In the morning, in my ignorance, we set off for the city centre from the port of Outer Harbour. Again we took the train and again this was relatively simple as we went from the end of the line to the other end of the line, Adelaide station. From there we proceeded to find somewhere to eat lunch. I had also not anticipated, however, that all of my cool restaurant suggestions from Time Out magazine would be closed as it was a Sunday! -Do the people of Adelaide not eat on a Sunday!? Do they not have a hungover brunch or a late afternoon Sunday Roast!? (Maybe that is just a British thing!?) – So instead we settled for a local Mexican Burrito fast food joint, Zambrero. With gluten free and vegan options, and with names like the “Power” burrito, this truly embodied the health conscious Australia that I had envisioned. Not to mention the millennial-pleasing trickery of making you think your lunch choice is a healthy one, despite the layers of sour cream and cheese you add to your burrito (even if it IS vegan). Surprisingly, the burrito was good and I ate mine within about 10 seconds flat (I was hungry). I even managed to finish my entire burrito, despite it being rather large, before some of my travel companions had even sat down with their food (again, I was hungry!).

After our lunch we decided to visit the National Wine Centre of Australia. We took the bus, along with the local homeless people (or so it seemed), as we had an all day travel card that we had purchased at the train station, allowing us to travel on all trains, trams and buses, for $10 AUD. Thank goodness we did, as the temperature was getting into the mid 30s (celcius) and the buses had lovely air conditioning!

At the NWCA we were treated to a (semi) informative FREE exhibition about the different wines grown in Australia. Unfortunately the only thing I can say I came away learning was that the different wine varieties come from the actual names of the grape (pinot-noir, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc etc). Probably not the most obscure knowledge and unbeknown to the average Joe, but something I (ashamedly) did not know and now do!

After this we decided to sit down with a glass of wine, well Prosecco in my case, outside in the seating area of tables and chairs and shade umbrellas. This which was actually really lovely as it is right next to the botanical gardens. You can pour and taste wine your own wine there too, priced by the measure you pour for each individual wine – the NWCA have one of the largest wine cellars in Australia. However as I was pretty much the only person drinking amongst our group, I decided it was probably best to avoid getting hammered by myself… this time!

After having drunk my prosecco, and feeling a little bit light-headed, we decided to walk into the adjacent botanical gardens. However as it was the middle of the day and at peak temperature, we decided after about 5 minutes or so that it was time to head back for the comfort of the air conditioned bus! We saw some lovely lotus flowers on our transition though!

Next, after a short stop in town and peruse around the shops, we decided to head back to the ship via the train. It was delayed and then took 40 minutes…so not the most pleasant of journeys, but at least it had lovely AC again!

All in all, Adelaide seemed like a small, but pleasant city, that seems to sleep on Sundays and that perhaps doesn’t live up to the culture of its nearby (ish) neighbour Melbourne or of the busy tourist driven vibes of Sydney. Still, if you like air conditioned public transport, this is the place for you! 

The Beginning

It was whilst swimming in the Indian Ocean on a beach in Fremantle, just outside Perth, Western Australia, that I decided to write a travel blog. It was during a conversation with our onboard wardrobe supervisor, Grace, upon the topic of “life after ships” that I decided this could be a good idea. She is also having – what I like to call – a “quarter life crisis”. Something which I feel comes to many millennial these days, who struggle to keep up in today’s success driven, dog-eat-dog, “life-fulfilment” seeking world. We were talking about where we saw our future after we had finished our current “exotic gypsy” lifestyle. This being where we simply go carefree from place to place, hopping all over the world on our multimillion dollar luxury prison…I mean ship (Just kidding about the prison part… well sort of kidding!). I decided that I love to travel and to explore new places and new experiences – I’m currently working a fantastic job which I love (I really do…despite the prison remark) which enables me to travel to places some people only ever dream of – so why not document it and write about my experience. Genius I say! Well… I actually can’t take the credit. It was, in fact, Grace’s idea. But I did give her the idea of going into HR. See….sharing is caring! 

So anyway, here it is, my travel blog (please note the witty name) and what a better place to start than in the land down under! Australia! Fremantle and Perth, Western Australia to be precise. 

So what can I saw about Perth. Well, we docked in Fremantle, which is just outside of Perth City (about 12 miles) so we decided to get the train into the city. Quite a simple experience as Fremantle is one end of the line, and Perth central station is the other. Once we arrived we noticed that Perth is a modern city, with a few skyscrapers, some building works going on and an abundance of shopping. I, however, needed to get my haircut. One of the perils of working on a ship is not being able to get a good haircut, as I do not fancy opting for a “stair-cut”- named so due to the fact that you sit in one of the crew stairwells and get it cut by someone who works in the house keeping or laundry department for $5 – so at every city where I have the opportunity of finding a decent barbers I trawl through google looking for a place that has the highest rating. This one seemed to be Uncle Joeys barbershop. So I dragged my travel partners for the day, Grace and Shelby, along to this barbers so they could sit and have a coffee whilst I have my haircut. – Uncle Joeys has its own independent coffee shop too…super trendy eh!?. 

Uncle Joeys itself is situated on the trendy Kings’ Street. King’s Street is full of hipster coffee shops, barbershops, clothes stores and knick knack stores -you know, the ones you end up spending loads of money in on things that you really didn’t want or need in the first place, but you know, you really couldn’t resist that golden pineapple ornament and blow-up unicorn! Alas a trendy barbershop awaited as promised, but unfortunately, a booked up one too. There was no walk-in spots so I had to make an appointment to come back at 2.15pm. Therefore we decided to go for some lunch. 

After a stop in said hipster knick knack store, where we asked the two young and trendy hipsters behind the counter where they recommended to eat, we ended up at Taka Japanese Kitchen. Despite the amateur style photographs of the dishes for the menu (always a discerning sight), I knew the food was going to be good because of two reasons; 1.) There was a long line 2.) 90% of the people eating in there were Asian…always a good sign! I ordered a bowl of ginger and soy chicken, with a couple of pieces of salmon and shrimp nigiri thrown on the side for good measure. It was tasty, as I had predicted, and Cheap too! My bowl, four pieces of sushi and bottle of water came to $19AUD…about £10. Lunch well done!

After lunch, and a quick stop in Zara and H&M – two shops seemingly quite difficult to find in many towns in Australia – I headed back to Unlce Joeys for my haircut. I had my haircut by a little irish fellow called Dom, who for a time, I found out, lived not too far from me in London AND we had a mutual friend! Small world eh!? The haircut was good but at $55 AUD, you’d hope it would be! 

We then returned to Fremantle as we wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach. Perth and its surrounding areas are renowned for its beaches. I was promised white golden sand and clear blue water, and boy did it deliver. We ended up at a little spot called “Port Beach”, a stones throw from Fremantle port where the ship was docked. The beach was sparsely filled with people, but as it was a Monday I suppose this was to be expected. Still it was a novelty to actually be able to swim in the water on an Australian beach in summer. Most of the other beaches we have visited on our tour of Australia have swimming warning because of stingers! But there were no warnings here. So, I whacked out my teeny tiny Aussiebums (such a cliché I know) and in for a dip I went. GLORIOUS!

After an hour or so at the beach (it was late about 5pm) we decided to go and eat in Fremantle before heading back to the ship for all aboard. We ended up at Bathers Beach House, a gastropub type establishment that claims to be Fremantle’s first beach-front eatery. Here I enjoyed a craft beer, some Kangaroo for my starter and the local fish for my main course (I’m so cultured, I know). We sat outside, just above and back from the tables and loungers on the sandy beach below, where we watched the sun going down over the horizon. We then grabbed an uber the short distance back to the ship.

All in all Perth was an enjoyable city. Some insider information – confirmed by the hipster locals – is that there isn’t much to do in Perth city centre itself other than shop but that the beaches are its main attraction. Perth City has some quirky and trendy places, you just have to know where to find them but for the best experience of this area…head to the beach!