Last week I returned from my trip to Western Australia (it's a state, not just a geographic description). I flew over to attend a fancy-pants Fulbright event that required me to hobb-nobb with high powered donors...and spend some glorious time on the beach. The Australian Fulbright Scholars to America were being officially announced at a presentation dinner/fund-raising event and "The Commission" asked that we American Fulbrighters attend if at all possible. They didn't pay our way or even provide accommodation, but for me it was a great chance to meet some of the other Americans in Australia and do some traveling.
Perth, as many will tell you, is the most isolated state capital in the world. Indeed, it is in the middle of freaking nowhere. Well, more accurately it is on the edge of nowhere. The distance from Canberra is similar to New York to LA, they tell me. Since I was traveling budget (meaning I only paid $650AU or so for my ticket) I arrived late at night and left late at night. But the in-between was excellent and made it all worth the travel hassle.
Fortunately all the American Fulbrighters (about 10 of us) were staying at the same hostel. Unfortunately, I was staying in a room with 7 strangers with a propensity to turn on the florescent lights at 4 am. But it's all part of the $25 a night experience. Since I arrived a day before the event, I buddied up with the other two Fulbrighters around and took the train to Fremantle, a coastal town famous for a rich history of shipwrecks and an excellent associated museum, a yearly blues festival, and the Little Creatures brewery. We found our way to two of the three during our time there.
Thursday evening, we cleaned up put on our suits or cocktail dresses and put on our scholarly faces for the Fulbright Presentation Dinner. It was a lovely evening (though I was absolutely exhausted from late-at-night-light-girl). However returning to the hostel in my fancy dress and heels did feel a little strange among the surfers, dredlocks, and beachbums.
Friday, we took it easy: all 10 of us found our way to a beautiful beach and just relaxed. I was happy to find that all of us were absolute UV-phobic so I wasn't embarrassed to spend 20 minutes slathering on the SPF 70 and basking in my sparkling whiteness. Here's a picture of the entire crew (not including myself).
There were some excellent art installments on the beach, of which my favorite were a colony of beach robots. Joel commented that he was "impressed" with the technology involved with our "robots of the future" in Australia. We are 16 hours ahead, you know.
Saturday, was the best day of the trip. We took a ferry about 12-16 km (I can't remember exactly) out to a little place called Rottnest Island. It was named that by Dutch settlers or explorers who thought that these little marsupials called "quokkas" were HUGE rats. These guys are everywhere and will come right up to you and even scavenge for scraps at your feet if you are at a picnic table. It's a little unnerving. They are the size of a mid-to-large cat.
Rottnest is motor vehicle free, except for a small bus system and some golf carts. The place is only 7 km around, but it is has some absolutely landscapes, sparkling little bays, and gorgeous beaches. We all rented bikes and did some excellent exploring.
We all commented multiple times how lucky we were to get "paid" (though not much) for this life. Here's me and the sun-setting over the Indian Ocean:
3 comments:
umm... were the robots all male? whose vision of the future is that?
Good catch about the robots, Alli...theyare obviously quite male.
My Dutch ancestors were probably trying to figure out how to market a rat with pockets. Do quokkas have
pockets? Artie would probably have a great time watching them from his window.
I'd been in a little bit of denial about the robots...I also noted the apparent anatomy but had chosen to ignore it. But yes, I think you are right.
It's a family beach! But people go topless and wear g-strings (both men and women) so it's actually a lot less explicit than reality.
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