Being a tourist

Today I took the opportunity to take my first walk into the city. It’s about 5.5km (one hour on foot) along a cycle path on the north bank of the Swan River. It was a cloudy day, but still warm enough for shorts and a T-shirt! I passed some lovely features as I walked along the water, but had to take a detour on the outskirts of the city centre due to building works.

I want to live here!

The main shopping area is a few streets back from the river, also on the north side. The riverbank itself is occupied by the CBD, with loads of gigantic skyscrapers overlooking the city. Although some shops are closed on Sundays, there was still plenty to see and do, including a few “malls” and loads of cute boutiques. I grabbed some lunch at Woolworth’s of all places, which is a huge supermarket chain here. There are so many fast food restaurants here! Not just McDonald’s and Burger King, but the fried version of pretty much every nation’s food. I’ll do my best to stay healthy in this greasy city, but no promises!

My main aim of trekking in the heat for an hour was to set up a phone contract so I could contact some friends and my boss, but I did a fantastic job of forgetting my passport (turns out to be pretty essential in such processes when you’re not an Aussie citizen), so that’ll have to wait ‘til next time.

On the walk back, I exited the city via the Bell Tower, a huge structure made of glass and copper. It even chimed the hour as I was passing! Back on the path home, I was lucky enough to see a couple of dolphins; Lindy mentioned that they’d seen some a few days back and it felt just like home seeing them bobbing around just off the shore. The video really doesn’t do it justice!

Eliza: A statue Lindy told me about. Apparently people are always rowing up to her and dressing her in weird clothes 

Back at home, Ivana and I took a walk to the nearby supermarket to get supplies for the week. It was here that I realised I only needed enough for 5 days, as I’m moving on from our little apartment on Friday. I’m just getting settled in! We paid around $20 (about £12) each for basic groceries (fruit, salad, eggs, cereal, milks, pasta and sauce, washing-up liquid etc); not too bad considering I’d been told to expect everything to be hugely expensive. Back at the apartment, we rustled up some spaghetti and a big salad, followed by some yummy coconut cake that Ivana’s Grandma had made for her. Not sure how she managed to sneak that across the border, but it was delicious so I’m not complaining!

It’s an earlier start tomorrow; Lindy is meeting me here at 9am for a short orientation in the lab and hopefully I can familiarise myself with the campus a little better (when everything is open!). I’m going to spend the evening reading over the research papers she sent me when I got accepted and of course watching The Australian X Factor!