24th - 26th Dec 2016: Meeting point Perth

So...now a bit delayed further reports. Since we are constantly in a different place from now on, there will be several, but shorter posts.

Since there were no public long-distance transport services on Christmas Day, I had to start my journey to Perth on Christmas Eve. This time the destination was the Northbridge district. Covered in speculoos, there was a Christmas movie night with 'It's a Wonderful Life' and 'Santa Claus' at the hostel on Christmas Eve. I must admit that it made me a little homesick. It was very unusual to sit alone on Christmas Eve on the other side of the world. But no worries, visitors from Germany are coming the next day. So, to avoid hanging around alone all those hours until then, I joined other backpackers in the common room the next day. And even though the hostel wasn't exactly top-notch in terms of furnishings, the people there were really cool. Most of the guests had been living there for a while and seemed like a group of friends who also warmly welcomed strangers. When Basti arrived in the evening, it became a really funny group with a bit too much liquor (cheap from Germany) and cheap bagged wine. This devil stuff is called Goon and is one of the few affordable alcoholic drinks here.

After a few drinks, we gave each other language courses. It turned out to be just as difficult for us to say 'summer salt' in Finnish as it was for Asians to say 'bratwurst'. The latter mainly failed due to the rolling of the R sound.

Lastly, we felt it was our duty to wake up our French colleague in the dormitory to introduce him to 'The Official German Soccer Team Drink'.

After waking him up again the next day with the alarm clock, I think he was the happiest person about our departure. Now it was time to go to the car rental and finally start the trip. However, karma played a nasty trick on us right at the beginning. Since we had to wake up the Frenchman the day before and ripped off the cork when presenting the Asbach bottle, the cap no longer held properly. The result was a soaked backpack and a broken digital camera. That was now broken electronic device number 2. Let's hope there won't be a third one with my laptop. Otherwise, I couldn't bother you with this blog anymore.

The rest of the first day was spent buying provisions and getting out of Perth. In the large supermarkets, you can scan your goods yourself.

In addition to food, we also bought decorations for the car interior. After the transformation, our red Hyundai Accent looked like a real man's car.

Interior decoration

When we started driving, we felt a bit of Christmas spirit again when we saw a house decorated in American style, which is rather unusual here.

About 2 hours south, the first overnight stop was a rest area where sleeping in the car was allowed without camping costs.