A dirty bed, a Birthday and an Island

I got to Perth and managed to catch up with Nicole and Cat for a drink on friday night.  I discovered that they won't serve you a Whiskey neat in your average Australian bar.  After all the driving I had done, the traffic stress and the cold I was extremely dissappointed.  I returned the camper the next day, after getting slightly lost again.  This time before meeting up with the girls I was on a mission to have a shower, ditch my stuff, and change clothes.  I ended up checking in to the first hostel I saw downtown, Grand Central Backpackers.  I threw my bag into the room and went to the first shower and it wasn't until I turned around to start the water that I realized there was no head on the shower, just a pipe coming out of the wall.  Since I already had all my clothes off and organized so they wouldn't get sprayed I just used it the best I could, not something I would have expected in Australia.  I had been "upgraded" for free to one of the 4 bedroom dorms.  There was enough floor space in it to open the door, and that was about it.  The bathroom across the hall had a shower in it that leaked under the door onto the hallway carpet so the scent that lingered was, unique.
We had a rather late lunch, wandered around the city a bit, and then had some drinks at a pub.  This was where Cat busted out the balloons she had bought to celebrate Nicole's birthday with.  We had a bit of fun with these, nearly an entire evening worth of entertainment.  By the time we got hungry it was difficult to find a place to get food the girls could eat from, they're not kidding when they say that Perth shuts down early.  We ended up re-enacting the broometime crew's last night together and got pizza and sat on the sidewalk again, I deffinitely felt more out of place doing so in a city than in a little town like Broome.  Odd as it seems even though we didn't do anything too interesting, this was one of the most fun days I've had in Australia.  I guess it's amazing what a difference the right company can make.

Notice the tiny little Quokka by the tree they were everywhere

Nicole flew back to Sydney on a late flight Saturday night.  Sunday was a quiet day, but Cat arranged for the two of us to go to Rottnest island on Monday, as it was going to be the only nice day for a little while.  I got up at about 5:30 so that I could catch the train down to Fremantle and we could catch the first ferry to the island and get a full day there.  There are no cars allowed on Rottnest island and it is too big to walk around it, so the transportation options are either to ride the bus, or hire a bicycle.  Better yet, if you have a friend, there is the option to hire a TANDEM bicycle!  This is exactly what we did, and though Cat wanted to be the driver the front seat was too high for her.  Our tandem earned the name Bouncy (which is somehow a reference to Beyonce Knowles), because compared to the regular bikes I've ridden in the past, she had a fat ass.

Cat posing with Bouncy

There was an absurd amount of laughing for no reason, mostly becaues Bouncy was just so amusing.  We were an awesome team, there were a couple of girls who also had a tandem that we passed at least twice while they were walking their bike up a hill.  They were taking the direct route while we stopped and saw everything on the way and still made it to the far end of the island first.  There was a gentleman from Perth with his wife who told us about a sea lion colony down a particular track.  We followed his direction and walked our bike down the 4x4 track.  The sea lions were just chilling out in the water, all grouped together in one particular spot.  Cat and I decided that this would be a good place to have our lunch and climbed down for a closer look.  Don't worry mom, safety was my first consideration so I kept my helmet on until we were safely lunching.  After lunch we stopped at the first toilets we saw, since Catherine has to use them more than a pregnant woman.  I dropped her off, and then went to park the bike since we had missed the pullout and Bouncy doesn't swing around too easily, low and behold the bus happens to drive by once Cat was safely in the toilets and I'm there riding a tandem bicycle all by myself.  I wonder what those passengers thought of it.

Me by the sea lion colony

We decided to go for a little dip in the ocean since it had gotten quite warm.  The water was nice and cold, it made me think of how Grandma Milne used to walk around in the lake with her pants rolled up early on a summer morning when the water was chilly.  At the end of the day we caught the ferry back to Fremantle, I decided to check in to Cat's hostel, the Old Fire Station, definitely a cool place, decently clean and solid facilities.  From there we plotted our escape to the South West and I also managed to arrange a coffee date with Julia.  It was so nice to hear a Canadian accent again, we sound awesome!

Across the street from where Julia and I had coffee