Thursday, January 11, 2018

Perth

On a Long Day of Travel and Godless International Communism

Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark
Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark, 2018
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Sydney Blue Sox vs. Perth Heat
Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark
Australian Baseball League
Thornlie, WA, Australia
7:10 PM


Outside the Game:
I think that somehow when I tweaked my leg the day before, I also tweaked my back and didn't realize it, or hurt in overcompensating for my leg, as I slept poorly and woke up a couple of times because of back pain. And I wouldn't even have the massage room to comfort me later.

I persevered and finished packing before walking down to the train station to catch my bus back to the airport. The only improvements on this front was that because I got on at the embarkation point, I got a better seat, and the long registration process for the WiFi did not need to be completed again for the return trip. Buses remain the devil.

Melbourne Airport
Melbourne Airport

I got to the airport and, familiar with the process at this point, I checked in my carry-on and headed through to security. This marked my only real incident with Australian air security for my trip. I carried my toiletry back in my small backpack that I took with me on board. I hadn't run into any issues to this point, so it was without thought of problem that I dropped my bag on the scanner and went through the metal detector. On the other side looking to retrieve my back, the security officer snagged it as it came out and motioned me over to the back. He asked me if I had any aerosols in my bag, to which I boldly answered that I did not. He then asked if he could open the bag, which I agreed to without reservation, and he quickly pulled out my shaving cream.

Now, see, what I had forgotten was that I had done some shopping in Melbourne and picked up some extra toiletries, including shaving cream, which was, in truth of fact, in an aerosol can. I immediately apologized and told him he could toss it, to which he looked at me funny. He took off the cap, squirt some shaving cream into a bin, put the cap on and handed everything back to me. Years of being beaten down by the TSA had served me well again.

Thusly through my shake down, I stopped at Hungry Jack's for a MegaMuffin before needing to board my flight to Perth. Now, Perth to anywhere in Australia is the longest flight you can have in Australia. The go-to joke when someone belatedly catches up to the conversation is to say, "Thanks for joining, Perth." It sits at least three hours behind in time zones and is a four-hour flight from the eastern cities. Most people in Australia see it as a long and grueling flight, but after 22 hours of travel, four hours is a walk to the corner store.

I got onto the flight and was in the same row with a rather large lady, but there was nothing too awful. We had a breakfast, and I was able to watch the rest of the Hoages biopic and get in a solid nap or two. It was largely uneventful.

Until we came in for a landing. The pilot came on and said that because of winds, the landing could be a "might rough," and he was not kidding. The plane was tossed around like a toy, with most of the passengers just managing to keep down their breakfasts before we mercifully hit tarmac. Everyone, including the pilot, was excited to be off that plane.

However, Perth Airport was the most disorganized airport I saw in Australia. While it was undergoing some renovations, there was no clear signage, and after looking futilely for the supposed bus to downtown, or even an information booth, I gave up and grabbed a cab to my hotel in the middle of the city center.

This was another apartment hotel in the middle of downtown, although the street I was on was a little worse for wear, with a large population of no fixed address. I checked into my hotel, and immediately had a problem with my room card, which was dutifully replaced. I got into my room to unpack and get settled in, when I almost immediately realized that I had left the wall plug for my power converter plugged in at my hotel in Melbourne. Also, my back was acting up again.

After sorting out my room a little, I went to the front desk to ask for an electronics shop and a pharmacy. Both were around the corner in the main city mall. I bought a new wall plug and an entire new power converter, just in case, at the electronics shop and then headed to the chemist to get something for my back. The muscle rubs were behind a counter, and a nice Asian pharmacist asked if I needed help. She asked what was wrong, and I described my pulled back muscle, she asked me about any other medications I was taking, and then suggested two products for me and told me how to use them. This struck me as exactly how a pharmacy interaction should go. I made my purchases, as well as grabbing a bath bomb at the Lush store at the end of the mall, and went back to the hotel to drop everything off.

I applied the muscle rub to my back and then, as it was still early in the afternoon, headed out to the Perth Mint. This involved taking the free "circuit buses" that Perth used. I went to what I thought was the stop, and a bus passed me by until I caught the next one at the next stop, which eventually got me to the mint.

Perth Mint
Take that, Canada

The tour of the mint was excellent, giving some history about the mint, showing off the world’s largest gold coin and some of the biggest gold nuggets in existence, as well as ending with a demonstration making an actual gold bar from the furnace. The back room of the tour let you see how much you would cost if you had your weight in gold and make commemorative coins of various complexity.

Perth Mint
Freshly minted gold bar. Get it? Minted?

I tried to get the circuit bus back to the hotel, but the bus skipped my stop again, leaving a longer walk to the hotel. I eventually found out that the maps that the hotel was giving out were old, and the stops had been updated, so the stop I thought I was at had been discontinued. I made a visit to the Coles in the market street for some supplies and then went back to the hotel to run a bath in the first tub I had in Australia.

My back was already feeling better thanks to the rub but soaking for an hour in a hot tub of water with a bath bomb made everything much, much better. I got dressed, grabbed my game bag, and head out.

Because there was no easy mass transit option to the stadium, I asked the front desk to call me a cab. And then I realized that I didn't have any money on me to pay the cab. So I asked where the nearest ATM was, and I ran off there to get cash before the cab showed up. But there was no ATM where it was supposed to be, and I had to go to the shopping street to get money. By the time I hoofed it back to the hotel, the cab was waiting. I got in from the street, and the cabbie told me that he was waiting for someone from the hotel, and I told him that was me.

It was a bit of a drive to the stadium, and I got talking with the cabbie. It inevitably turned to American politics, and by the end of the ride, I had given him a not-so-brief primer on American politics, separation of powers, and the impeachment process. We also talked a little bit of sports.

He dropped me off at the park, and I did my external shots and then headed inside for the game.

After the game, I had the good idea of getting the cab call number at the hotel, so I was able to call a cab back to the hotel in good time, and the ride went faster at night without as much "traffic," or what passes for traffic in Australia.

Even with the jetlag, I was asleep as my head hit the pillow in my nice new room.


The Stadium & Fans:
Home to center at Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark
Home plate to center field, Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark

Perth Harley Davidson Ballpark is the unfortunate victim of corporate naming rights. The ballpark was certainly one of the more "minor league"y parks, for lack of a better word. If you transported it to a single-A league in America, it would not seem out of place at all, especially with the corporate naming.

The ticket booth outside leads to a set of stairs leading up to the ballpark. The stairs, and many other places in the park, were plastered with alcohol awareness campaigns, to the point that I began to wonder about how much of a drinking problem there was in these parts.

In the area behind home plate, there was a covered picnic area and a covered bar. Like many contemporary ballparks, the promenade extending around the stadium had stairs descending to the seating bowl and field. The fold-down seats extended from just past the bases and behind home plate in a single row of seats. The area behind home plate was covered with fabric awnings to provide some shade, and the press box was a separate structure on the promenade. There were "luxury boxes" of seats with a table and a picnic umbrella along the top of the seating bowl.

Standing room areas extended the length of the outfield, but not behind the wall. There were small concessions in left field, as well as a bunch of shipping containers repurposed for various duties. Out in right was Dugout Kiosks concession, with the merchandise trailer out in deep left. A high-school level digital scoreboard sat in left-center recording balls and strikes (underneath another alcohol awareness ad).

The Heat are usually the tops of attendance in the ABL, whether it be from community outreach, a large ex-pat community, interest in baseball, or, perhaps, nothing else to do in Perth. Perhaps all of the above. There was a decent crowd that evening, even with the park being perhaps the most out-of-the-way from city center in all of Australia. And the crowd seemed to be into the game, and not just the between-inning antics and races and giveaways. One oddity was the top of both dugouts--safely behind a lot of netting--were play areas for kids. A good place to let the little ones run around while being watched, I imagine, but something about the whole scenario didn't sit quite right with me.


At the Game with Oogie:
Gatorade and gravy fries
Gravy fries and Gatorade

As I got to the game with only a half hour before gametime, I quickly bought a ticket in the covered home base grandstand and then did a quick trip around the park for pictures, before grabbing some merch at the stand in left field and then grabbing some gravy fries from the concession stand before heading to my seat.

At the top of the stairs, I ran into the mother and aunt of the Heat's announcer. They seemed surprised to see me again, but I asked them what purpose could I possibly have by lying about my trip. I headed down to my seat just before the start of the game. I was in a row by myself with families in front and behind me who kept to themselves. It also was the closest I came to being chilly in Australia, with a breeze coming into the stands as the night went on, I almost thought about a jacket. I watched the extended contest and then called a cab to get back to my hotel on the way out.


The Game: 
First pitch, Blue Sox vs. Heat
First pitch, Blue Sox vs. Heat

The game between the Sydney Blue Sox and the Perth Heat would end in the worst travesty of baseball I had ever witnessed, for a number of reasons, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The visiting Blue Sox went in order in the first, while the Heat jumped out early in the bottom with two doubles and a home run plating three runs. A two-out walk and single threatened again before a grounder to short ended the inning 3-0, Perth. Sydney got one back in the second with three singles, while Perth stranded a one-out double on third, leaving it 3-1 Heat.

Sydney stranded a two-out single and double in the top of the third, while the Heat got the bases loaded and nothing across in their half. Both teams went in order in the fourth (though the Heat had a leadoff double picked off trying to steal), and the Blue Sox repeated the trick in the fifth. Perth turned a hit, a stolen base, and a deep single into a run in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 4-1.

The Blue Sox for their part converted three singles of their own into a run in the sixth, while Perth went in order. Sydney busted out in the seventh, with a leadoff homerun and five singles turning into an efficient four runs, while the Heat had only a walk and single in their half, leaving it 6-4. Sydney got a single and Perth went in order in the eighth, and the Blue Sox did the same in the top of the ninth.

The Heat staged a rally--if a sad one--in the ninth. The inning started with a walk and a hit batsman. A passed ball made it second and third. A strikeout followed, as did a short single to bring in one run and load the bases. A grounder to third got booted, and in came the tying run, with the bases still loaded, but two outs ended the threat, and we went to extra innings.

Godless communism extra innings.

Unlike the godless communism in Spring Training games, where they just end in a tie sometimes, this form of godless communism is even more insipid. Because the ABL ballparks are in suburban areas, or were built in areas that were overtaken by suburbs, noise laws come into play after a certain hour, so the ABL adopted the international extra innings rules used in the WBC and other contests. After the ninth inning, innings start with the two previous batters mysteriously on first and second, which can speed up the game by starting a man in scoring position.

The Blue Sox started off the top of the tenth with a double steal attempt. The runner from second made it to third, but the runner on first made it second on an errant throw into right field, but then got tagged off the base for a caught stealing 9-6. A single brought in the runner from third, but a liner to second started a double play that ended it at 7-6, Sydney. Just when you thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, the bottom of the tenth started with a walk to load the bases, and then two hit batsmen to drive in the tying and winning runs, sending the home fans out happy with an 8-7 Heat win.


The Scorecard:
Blue Sox vs. Heat, 01-11-18. Heat win, 8-7.Blue Sox vs. Heat, 01-11-18. Heat win, 8-7.
Blue Sox vs. Heat, 01/11/18. Heat win, 8-7.

Again, this was in the BBWAA scorebook, due to the absence of any scorecards in Australia. This game kept up the pattern of more than average home runs, doubles, walks, and errors that I came to expect (although the Heat had no errors in a game--a first). But the real story of this game was the godless international communism extra inning rules.

As described above, I had to figure out a way to score this monstrosity. I put an asterisk above the added players with a note on "International Extra Innings Rules" and put them at their based with IEI in the appropriate corner. I further noted the "Godless International Communism" on the scorebook. Here's to hoping I'll never have to deal with this again.


The Accommodations: 
Adina Apartment Hotel, Perth
Adina Apartment Hotel, Perth

 For my short-ish stay in Perth, I was at the Adina Apartment Hotel in city center, which, if you haven't guessed by the name, was another of those apartment hotels. Sadly, it was a studio apartment, with a giant room with a King-sized bed and couch and end table on one side, and the desk, TV, closets, and full kitchen on the other. A side door led to the bathroom, which had my first full tub in Australia, and after nearly three weeks, it was very, very welcome, even it couldn't make me completely forget about the massage room in Melbourne.

The key feature of this room was the furnished balcony off the living room. The wicker seats and table overlooked the pool on one side and downtown on the other, and it became my favorite place to relax, eat, and have my evening tea.



On Bell Certification


Civilized breakfast, Perth
A civilized breakfast
Friday, January 12, 2018
Perth, WA, Australia


Outside the Game:

I was up early with the jet lag, and so puttered about my new room extensively. Armed with my decaf tea and some cereal, I adjourned to the balcony to have breakfast overlooking the city. It was very civilized. I showered and got dressed and eventually headed out to my day.

I stopped at the train station by the bus stop to figure out the ticketing situation for the next day's trip to Freemantle and then took the circular route buses to Elizabeth Quay. The zoo was actually a short ferry ride away from downtown, and having procured my ticket, I took a lovely summer morning boat over to the other dock and then walked the short distance to the zoo, got my ticket, and went zooing.

As this was the next to last zoo opportunity I was going to have in Australia, I was intent on seeing some Tasmanian Devils. I marched straight to the exhibit, and I was told by an attendant that they were just out, but after looking around and waiting for ten minutes, they were nowhere to be seen. She said to try back later. My consolation prize was finding most of the koalas in the large enclosure were awake, which is something of a miracle for animals that sleep nearly the entire day away. It was a quite nice zoo, with more lazy kangaroos, and the rest. There were orangutans, which are always worth the price of admission for me, as well as a preserved section of the old zoo cages to show what conditions used to be like for the animals in less enlightened times.

Napping koala
Koalas, literally all the time

I had a burger at one of the concessions stands for lunch, finished viewing the exhibits, and then grabbed the ferry back to Elizabeth Quay. As I was at the Quay, I walked around for a little bit before heading to the Swan Bell Tower. In addition to being a good vantage point on the harbor, it was also the home for historic bell stand and the oldest bell in the southern hemisphere, which they inherited from a church that burned down in England. As part of the festivities, you can sign up to learn to play the bells, which I obviously did. An old Scottish couple and myself were put through the paces, and then got to play the bells themselves, which is harder work than it appears. At the end, you get a certificate as an official bell chimer, which I have going for me now.

Oldest bell in the southern hemisphere
The oldest bell in the southern hemisphere

The Western Australia Museum, one of the biggest attractions in the city, was closed down for renovations, but some of the exhibits lived on in other areas of the city while the main building was being worked on. At the convention center, there was an animatronic "Dinosaur Discovery" exhibit, with dinosaurs you could control from digital panels and make move and roar. The exhibit was pretty much filled with families and children, and the man-child from America. I don't care. I had fun. It was fun, and you didn't have that fun.

Dinosaur at the Western Australia Museum
Raar

After I had my fill of dinosaurs, I went to the bus terminal to get back to the hotel. I had a bit to wait, so I had a meat pie from one of the concession stands before heading back to the hotel. I took a shower and organized a bit before visiting the hotel's sauna room and then having a little nap to take the edge off.

I went out into the evening for a little walk around the city center, getting myself more acquainted with things and just taking in Perth at night. I grabbed another bath bomb at Lush, visited some parks, and then had dinner at a Nordic smorgasbord restaurant connected to a hotel down the street from my own. I was pretty hungry even after the meat pie, and I ate a lot. I definitely earned my money back on the all you can eat. There were three deserts involved. The waitresses always stopped a little when they saw me with another plate, but as I kept putting it away, they didn't say anything. I have to wonder and worry about eating so much that jaded smorgasbord waitresses made note.

Anyway, I waddled back to the hotel and had another welcome soak with the bath bomb before having some evening tea on the balcony and watching some TV in bed before hitting the hay for the night.


The Accommodations: 
I spent a good deal of time in the hotel room this day, between the lazy morning and evening, and the stop-off in the middle of the day.

My favorite parts of the room were easily the tub and the balcony, perhaps in that order. The balcony was a lovely view of the city, and there was something very cosmopolitan about eating and drinking out there.

The tub was my savior after the lost love of the massage room in Melbourne. Soaking my feet and back for the first time on the vacation made all the difference in the world.

It wasn't without a little pain, however. The way that the tub spigot was positioned in the middleish of the tub as a solid fixture literally came to bite me in the ass. As I was trying to get out of the tub, I slipped a little, and a butt cheek got gauged by the tub spigot, carving a tiny curve of ham out of my ass. I was able to tend to the wound, and it caused no permanent damage, but et tu, tub?



On Being at the Ends of Australia

The ocean at Fremantle
The sea from Fremantle
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Perth, WA, Australia


Outside the Game:
Thanks to the jetlag, I woke up extra early again the next morning, giving me time to putter about the apartment and have another civilized breakfast on the balcony. I got showered and dressed and headed to the train station to catch my ride down to Fremantle.

Perth Underground Station
Perth Underground Station

Perth the city, while on the Swan River and close to the ocean, isn't actually on it. Perth's port of Fremantle is at the very tip of Western Australia, and perhaps the last bastion of civilization for a long while.

I was on a quite early train, and the only people in the train car with me were a Canadian couple and young Aussie guy. We passed the short ride mostly in silence and were all quickly dumped out at Fremantle Railway Station. It was still early in the morning, but it was obviously going to be a hot one, even at the beach, and the short walk down to the edge of land felt a lot longer than it was.

I was headed to the Western Australia Shipwreck Museum, and as a testament to how early it was, I got there before the museum even opened. Another older couple and myself huddled in the shade waiting for the doors to open, and when they did, the worker was a bit surprised to find a line waiting for her.

The centerpiece of the museum was the shipwreck of the 17th-century ship the Batavia, which had a sordid story of a mutiny by the survivors that led to most of the crew and passengers who survived the wreck being murdered, and it was only by luck that the officers of the ship found out in time to defend themselves and murder the mutineers right back.

The HMS Batavia
The hull of the Batavia

The ship itself was well preserved and quite the spectacle. An entire gallery had been built around the remains, as well as a reconstruction of a building portico that the ship had been delivering to Australia. The museum had further exhibits on other shipwrecks in the area and the like, and I spent way too much money in the gift shop.

After that, I walked (in the shade as much as possible) over to the main Western Australia Maritime Museum on the other side of the peninsula. As luck would have it, they were having an exhibit on Pompeii and the attempted naval rescue after the eruption, which was something I was ignorant of. It was mostly speculation, but it was interesting nevertheless. The rest of the museum was more mainstream nautical fare, with ships hanging from the ceiling (with one you could--cautiously--board), and a rather large exhibit with some disturbing mannequins of the Australia II which won the America's Cup, featuring the futuristic com-pu-tar that the team used to design their revolutionary boat. The World War II sub that was usually open for tours was closed on that day, so I was only able to glance at it from the windows of the museum.

The Australia II
Living history

With another gift shop stop under my belt, I went over to the Roundhouse, a small fort that was the first prison in Perth before the convicts quickly became too numerous and had to be moved to the new Fremantle prison, built, of course, with prison labor. Fremantle, I found, was a bit of an artsy town, and from the Roundhouse, you can look down onto a Fremantle street painted down its length with yellow shapes that resolve into concentric circles when viewed from the Roundhouse.

Bon Scott
Highway to Hell

My next goal was finding a statue of original AC/DC front man, Bon Scott, who was a proud Fremantle resident. The location on the map wasn't precisely specified, so it took a bit of walking in circles before I found it, standing on a statue Marshall amp, right by the boardwalk. It being lunchtime, I stopped in at the nearby Cicerello's Fish and Chips for some lunch in the shade, before hitting the Sky Ride Ferris Wheel just across from the statue, because I like high places. And it was also in the shade.

Cicerello's Fish and Chips
Fish and chips and fish

I was trying to find the Fremantle Jail, and eventually stopped in at the Fremantle Visitor's Center, which pointed out the error of my ways and got me going in the right direction. A short, hot walk later, and I was having a tour at the jail.

The large, local jail is the mainstay of Australia, and Perth's was extra special in that they didn't have indoor plumbing for the life of the jail (which was in operation until the turn of the current century), and there was a long explanation about "the buckets." When we stopped at the gallows, the tour guide related a story of a tourist who thought it would be funny to take a selfie with the hangman’s noose around his neck, and promptly slipped and nearly died, which is why they had to bar off access to the gallows area now. There was also a kid in our group that ran around and into things constantly. So, he was either screaming while running or screaming in pain. I felt sorry for his parents, who looked mortified, but sometimes you just have to lock your kid in a closet. I'm just saying.

Fremantle Gallows
The wrong end of it

I hung out in the AC of the prison gift shop for a while before heading back into the main strip for dinner or things to do. I was out of cash, and I had to go back to the tourist booth to get directions. Armed with currency, I found an arcade nearby, which was thematic for the beach, I suppose. I loaded up a card and played a bunch of skee ball, light rifles, and that tower stack arcade game. I did well enough with tickets that I was able to get an original series Star Trek mug and some random little stuff.

The heat had worked up an appetite, so I stopped at an Italian restaurant in the main tourist drag for dinner. Eating outside with the breeze was actually cooler than in the restaurant with their week aircon, so I sat in the shaded alley and ate way too much food with cheese (and no bread on the table, again). I literally ate myself bloated.

I managed to waddle my way up the hill to the train station and got back to the city center and drag myself back to the hotel room. I soaked in the tub and then watched some TV while I did some organization before heading to sleep.

Fremantle Station
Fremantle Station



The Accommodations:
I didn't spend much time in my room at all this day. There was no mid-day stop in for a shower and a nap, and without the nap, I was out pretty quickly after cleaning all the day's grime off me in the tub.



On the Sky Falling

Brush fire in Perth
The signal fires are lit! Gondor calls for aid!
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Perth, WA, Australia


Outside the Game: 
 I had my last lazy morning in Perth, puttering about and another civilized breakfast on the balcony before getting dressed and heading out to the bus to King's Park.

King's Park is about twice the size of Central Park in New York City, but most of it is near wilderness, with a "manicured" section about the size of Central Park at one end. Before going on another semi-long plane flight (and my last one for the trip before returning), it seemed a good idea to go out and get some fresh air again.

I exited at the stop at the entrance to the park, as opposed to the one further on near the visitor center, and I regretted the decision immediately. It was just about 10 AM, and it was already stifling hot.  I was armed with water bottles, so I managed to make the walk up the tree-lined road alive, stopping at some war monuments, and of course, the requisite statue of Queen Victoria. Arriving at the visitors' center, I quickly ducked inside into the aircon and talked with the staff for a bit. They asked me tons of questions about America, and I told them how cold it was back home right now, and the day in Melbourne with the 100-degree temperature differential. They said there would be a guided tour of the botanical garden a little later, so I said I'd be back for that and went next door for a breakfast sausage roll at the concession stand and refilled my water bottles at the fountain.

State War Memorial
State War Memorial

With some time to kill, I visited the State War Memorial near the center, and then marched off to see the "DNA Tower" just outside of the botanic garden. Staying in the shade and pounding water, it was tolerable. The tower itself was a small circular lookout tower with winding staircases to the top that looked like the double helix, hence the name. I climbed to the top, and it gave an impressive view of the surrounding area, and the true extent of the park, which went on and on in nearly all directions. What was concerning, however, was how wobbly the tower was at the top. It wasn't swaying like a drunkard or anything, but it was moving perceptibly so that you kept checking your footing. With the small crowd that was at the top, this became troublesome, and I went back down and headed back to the main area.

DNA Tower
The surprisingly flimsy DNA Tower

I chugged the last of my water and refilled the bottles in the fountains before heading up to the meeting point for the tour. On this hot afternoon, it turned out just to be myself, and my tour guide, a transplanted Englishman who volunteered at the park. He took my around to all the sights of the garden, and he was especially fond of all the different tree types, so I got quite the arboreal lesson. There was a particular plant that sort of appeared to be a stereotypical native wearing a grass skirt, and he told it had an unfortunate colloquial name that I won't share here. But I did learn all the different types of eucalyptus trees and walk over the glass Federation walkway, which had a lovely view of the harbor and river. Although I was holding up alright, he asked if we could take a break, so we sat on park benches for a while as we watched a young child chasing around birds. The guide said the boy was right to do so, as the birds, in addition to being loud, were quite clever, and people daily lost sandwiches to the birds when they looked away for a minute. I don't think this particular child has his family's food interests at heart; he just liked making the birds make noise and fly away.

Federation Walkway
Federation Walkway

As we were just turning around to head back to the entrance, the sky started to take on a brownish-red hue. This is not the color one expects to see the sky. We were deep enough in the trees that we couldn't see what was going on, and even the guide had no explanation as to what could be causing it. The color got deeper and deeper, and we eventually hit an observation point and saw the source of the coloring: a huge plume of smoke in the distance that was slowly covering the area we were in due to prevailing winds. The guide immediately thought it was a bush fire outside the city, and that is what is was once we got information back at the visitor's booth. But we both quite enjoyed the unnatural shade, at least, for our trip back to the entrance.

Brush fire starts in Perth
Is the sky, uh, supposed to do that?

By the time we were back, the sky had an even brown haze in all directions, although the source plume was still clearly visible. I thanked my guide, and then tried to grab some lunch at the cafe. There was some disarray when I arrived, and I spent a long time waiting for my food. Even longer, because they decided to give my order to some other person, and I had to wait for them to make another fish and chips for me. While eating at the table, I managed to get my very white shirt in some very red ketchup someone had left on the table, so between that and the sky being on fire, it wasn't my altogether favorite day in Australia.

After stopping into the gentlemen's to try and pre-clean my shirt as best as possible, I headed to the bus stop to get back to the hotel. I stopped off at London Court, a quaint shopping arcade made to look like an olde-tyme London shopping street and then did some book shopping and grabbed another bath bomb at Lush, where I was on first-name basis with the staff at this point.

London Court
Ye Olde Streete

I took a nap and a shower and set off to do some administrative tasks. I had planned to do some laundry and mail out another package to myself when I ran into two planning problems. One was that the hotel did not have a laundry, and two, that is was Sunday. Day blindness is generally a good thing on vacation. If I forget what day it is, I'm probably enjoying myself. However, Sunday meant no mail service, and the office didn't open until 9 AM the next day, and I wouldn't be able to risk it and make my flight.

So back at the hotel, I managed to pull together a clean travel outfit for the next day and pack up the rest of it--and all my Perth purchases--into a very overstuffed suitcase. I then went out and had dinner in Chinatown at a dumpling house and did some walking around. I headed back to the hotel for a good, long soak with my bath bomb before climbing out for my last balcony tea in Perth and then watching some TV before turning in.


The Accommodations:
Nothing of note at the hotel, except that they didn't have an on-site laundry. I'll forgive them because of the balcony, however, just this once.


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2017-8 Australia
Melbourne

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