Day 22 - Second Impressions

Found on my Night Drive (Perth)

Happy New Year! After blogging yesterday, I was tired (long day), and it was getting dark in Perth. So of course I did more driving! I went round and round the busy, winding city streets (quite fun with the manual transmission). Once in a while, I’d come upon something familiar and realize I’d been there a couple weeks prior. But it all looked so different. Also, my first visit had been an early, sunny Sunday morning with nobody around. Last night was New Year's Eve, and all the beautiful people were out to celebrate. The radio music as I drove was outstanding. I was in The Zone. It was brilliant.

I finally settled in at a dark parking lot of Victoria Park with my book The Fatal Shore (in case you haven’t figured it out, I love the book The Fatal Shore and long blacks. You should see how giddy I am when I do them together. Too much fun to be legal!). There comes a “tap tap” on the window. I had drawn the attention of a beautiful French Canadian backpacker woman and her French boyfriend. They were getting something out of the parked car next to me. She couldn’t believe I was reading, and alone, on New Year's Eve and insisted I come to the party her group was having off in the dark lawn of the park. They were all French! Amazing how this French theme keeps repeating. I told them how the French had claimed Western Australia in 1779, but they didn’t know what I was talking about or care (they wanted to party). So I joined them, for a little while.

French Group Celebrating the New Year

Here’s a picture of some in the group. See the two people bending over in the far background? They were in the process (unbeknownst to me) of playing a practical joke on everyone. They were feigning ‘she lost her grandmother’s earing – everyone come look’. So we all (including me) started over to join the search. Then there was laughing and everyone started walking away. “Did you find it?”, I asked. ‘No, it’s just funny to see everyone looking’, said the male prankster as he pretended again to search the ground like a blind squirrel looking for a nut, only this time mocking himself. I paused as we re-grouped around the table, and then I said, ‘ah, I think the French have a different sense of humor than the Americans’. Everyone laughed hard and almost simultaneously switched from laughter to strong blame and pointing at the one who started it (the male prankster). (I think French and Americans are the same in that we each have our “characters” – right Timmy (to a co-worker back home).)

This was a great group, but sadly I chose not to spend much time with them for I felt slightly spread out in the dark, unfamiliar park, with strangers present and strangers at large. I was worried I might lose my laptop and camera in the parked car out of sight (burglar), and I was tired anyway. So, I said good bye and thanked them for the Statue of Liberty, and off I went. I put in my ear plugs at 10:30 and went to sleep, not bothering with the rest of New Year’s Eve. You could claim that I’m boring in some ways.

French Group on New Years (Victoria Park, Perth)

I stopped by Victoria Park in the morning, hoping to say bye and thank you to the woman who initially tapped on my window and invited me (turned out to be a French Canadian, actually). She was away, visiting the Swan River. But her companions were there, and I said hello and wished them well. I characterized the French on Day 16 as being easily insulted. I did not mean it in a negative way necessarily, but to any extent to which it is negative, I could not possibly extend that impression to this great group. I loved them and their warmth and their good nature instantly.

Perth from Kings Park

This morning, I saw Perth in a completely different way than when I visited two weeks ago. I immediately found someplace (Kings Park) to do my running. What a beautiful asset it is. It's preserved, raw bush land, right in the middle of the metropolitan area. I had just spent two weeks touring the bush – I know what it looks and feels like. Kings Park was incredibly real – you could get lost in it (but you’d be found quickly). There was a maze of various paths and routes you could take through the park, and it was big for its type. I finished off my visit to Kings Park with breakfast at a café on a hilltop overlooking the city People here seem happy, healthy, and content to live and let live. Perth is big to me, but not too big. It seems to be a nice combination of many pleasant features. Perth rocks!

Pathway through Kings Park

I named this blog “Second Impressions” because I see Perth in such a different, deeper, and more positive way the second time. I absolutely love it. What’s the saying about people – ‘nothing like a first impression’? Do you think there should be one ‘nothing like a second impression’?

If you come here, budget for woo-tah (water). You’ll buy lots of that.

I’ve decided that Australia is primarily composed of three ingredients (everything else being an add-on): Red sand (the closer you get to the center), white sand (near the oceans), and orange sand (in between). The ants love it. Really – go kick around in any undeveloped area, and you'll be walking on some type of sand.

Okay, now we fly to Darwin (via Alice Springs).

Breakfast View (Kings Park, Perth)

Ant Hole in Orange Sand

Ant Mound in Orange Sand (common)

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Day 22 – Second Impressions

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