Australia: Perth!

So I just got back from a whirlwind and wonderful trip to Australia and New Zealand! I went to three cities in Oz: Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney, and then Beth and I rented a car and did a road trip around the South Island of New Zealand. Right before I left, my friend Kyle from the States and my friend Eric who lives in Maynooth (in Ireland) came to visit for a couple of days, which was fun and amazing and wonderful. More ND love whooo!

But (sorry Kyle and Eric) the main focus of this entry will be Oceania. To make it easy, I’ll divide this update into four chunks, one for each city and then one for NZ. To begin: Perth.

My first moments in Perth began with my almost-arrest. We landed, and right off the airplane there was this big “Welcome to Perth!” sign. Being a huge tourist, my first natural inclination was to take a picture. Apparently this is a $1,000 fine as I was in some sort of restricted area (there was a sign, although it was tiny and not in a terribly conspicuous place. I noticed it once it was pointed out but I never would have just seen it on my own). I was accosted by Australian border police and after a great deal of apologizing and groveling, they let me off with no fine. I didn’t have to cry, but I was fully prepared to if the need should present itself. I did have to delete the picture, though. Sad day.

My friend Christina from high school lives in Perth with her boyfriend, Chris. Their friend, Joey, and my cousin, Beth, picked me up at the airport. (Beth lives in Melbourne but flew into Perth to hang out since I was there.) Joey told me fun facts about Perth, including that it’s the most isolated capital city in the world, which is pretty cool. The next nearest city is a place called Darwin, and I’m pretty sure he said it was about a five hour flight away. Other than that, it’s just the Outback til you hit the east coast (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, etc).

Joey and Beth and I hung out at Chris and Christina’s until the two got off work. I had never met Chris before, so it was really good to meet him and SO good to hang out with and catch up with Christina. After their senior year of college (at ASU) Christina and Beth decided to do 7 months of traveling around Southeast Asia, which is where Christina and Chris met. Adorable story. She’s working there and he’s a native, so it was really fun to hang out with locals. The two of them and Joey and a couple of other Chris’s friends showed us a really good time: we went tubing on the river on Saturday and got a sweet tour of Perth beaches, etc.







Basically Perth was just good times of hanging out and being with fun people. The only seriously notable thing I can think of that happened was this conversation, which numbers among the most uncomfortable I have ever had.

So Saturday night, we went to a bar where a ton of Chris’s friends were. I met all of them, but since there were so many, I couldn’t keep names/faces straight, etc. Small piece of background information: Christina is originally from Arizona and after high school, went back to go to ASU. Beth also went to ASU. Usually, for sake of shorthand, they just tell people they are from Arizona because this makes it much easier. For this reason, everyone in Perth knows them as “the Arizona girls.” To continue:

I’m at the bar, ordering a drink. This guy overhears my accent and says, “you American?” This is the conversation that follows:

Me: Hi! Yeah, I am.
Him: oh, you from Arizona?
(at this point, I assume he is one of Chris’s friends and knows Christina, assumes that since I am American, I must also be from Arizona.)
me: Oh, no, I’m not, but I know those girls.
Him: What girls?
Me: Sorry, Beth and Christina.
Him: What? Who’s Beth?
(I now assume he must know Christina but not Beth, as Beth, like me, is just visiting.)
me: Oh, right. She’s Christina’s friend, living in Melbourne.
Him: Who is Christina?
Me: Chris’s girlfriend?
Him: Who is Chris?
Me: Chris Bates?
Him: What?
Me: Arizona?
Him: huh?
(we stare at each other blankly for awhile.)
me (tentatively): Arizona?
Him: I have no idea who any of those people are. I was just asking if you were from Arizona because I went to the Grand Canyon last summer.
Me: Oh. Um. I have to go now.

It was seriously so amazingly awkward and uncomfortable.

But other than that, it was just really fun and laid back. We just hung out and ate and drank and had a lot of fun. I guess a couple touristy things we did: we went to a farmer’s market and a prison that the British made prisoners build with their own hands (because Australia started life as a British penal colony). Ah, the Brits. Masters of torture.

Basically, Perth is lovely. A lot of people skip it because it’s so isolated and because there’s really not a lot to “do.” Frankly, had I not known people there, I probably would have skipped it as well. But I’m so glad I went – had such a good time!

Londytown

After the horrific traveling, I finally got to spend time in my favorite city!

It's probably not the best thing in the world for an Irish-American currently living in Ireland to admit, but I. Love. London. I don't know why, honestly. It's like an American city, but somehow sharper and cleaner and classier. I like cities that are neighborhood-structured, and London is definitely that. You probably don't hear this a lot, but I honestly think it has great food. I love going to pubs over going to some gross and sweaty nightclub, and London has no shortage of pubs and late pubs. I love the Tube. I love the diversity of the city (it honestly gives New York a run for its money in this respect). I love that I have an American accent so everyone thinks I'm a visitor (which this time, to be fair, I was) but I love surprising Londoners with my knowledge of the city. It's just unexpected or something and I relish it. I love how old it is and how they aren't afraid to show it. This is going out on a really hypothetical/tangential/theoretical limb, but Ireland is obviously an incredibly ancient society. However, they were really poor for a really long time (due to to Londoners... let's just ignore that detail). So when they got money, they tried to modernize really really fast and I think they lost of a lot of their heritage along the way, at least with regards to aesthetic detail. In a lot of ways, Ireland tries to be like America with regards to economics and politics and the brands they buy, etc, but they also try to look like America with regards to urban sprawl and the chains they choose to bring in, etc. In large part, this is obviously an attempt to forget about British imperialism, but it's still sort of jarring when you see how rapidly they've attempted to reinvent themselves and modernize. London doesn't even mess with that. They modernized naturally and didn't force it. Obviously this is due to external factors, like them having the money to do so and depriving Ireland of the right to do the same, but that doesn't change the modern-day nature of both societies and the bald fact that London just feels more NATURAL. They're like, "We've been around for forever and we're not pretending our country just started within the last 50 years." When I broke my foot in London, the hospital I went to had been standing since the 18th century. I mean, that's INCREDIBLE. It had obviously been revamped and remodeled, but stepping inside honestly felt like I was walking into a Dickens novel (or hobbling into a Dickens novel). Ireland is all new and shiny and modern (in a lot of ways... there are obviously exceptions), and London's like, "we'll build this new stuff, but let's not do it at the expense of tearing down this gorgeous old house that's been here since 1692." Anyway. That was a long diatribe but you get a sense of the ancient and timeless in London that can't be replicated anywhere in America or anywhere I've yet found in Ireland (although I'm sure I will and I'm also sure this is much more possible in Ireland than in America). I mean, you'll just be walking down a whatever street in London and you'll see a blue plaque that is like, "here's where George Orwell wrote 1984." And it's just part of the scene! I mean, when I was in Dublin, I remember walking around and seeing this old decrepit building that had a plaque that said, "This is the setting of some scene in Ulysses" (shamefully I've never read Ulysses so I don't know what scene it was). Next to that was a huge sign that said, "SLATED FOR DEMOLITION." ANYWAY. That's why I like London.

So on Saturday, after I finally got to my cousin Emmy's (she's going by Emily now, but I'm sorry, I can't make the switch... I just can't, it sounds unnatural in my mouth) she and her husband Bryan were in the midst of making a lovely Thanksgiving. They have a daughter, Tegan, who's a year and a half. They invited over two other couples and their small children and it was great to meet their friends and play with a ton of little kids. (By a ton, I mean three.) It was great times.

Sunday was a walk down memory lane. Emmy had a little kids' party to go to and Bryan had to work, so I decided to use that day to explore the old 'hood from when I studied abroad. I walked to my old apartment building and enlisted a 50 year old man who was smoking outside the pub across the street to take this picture:





hahaha YES. The Notre Dame kids who study abroad in London now have actually moved buildings, so I didn't like, happen to run into any kids that looked like juniors in college and ambush them and be like, "AHHHHH NOTRE DAME," but it would have been really fun to do so. Alas.

I also walked to my old school, got to stroll down Oxford and Regent Sts (two of the main shopping drags) and see how decked out London was for Christmas. I felt like I was in Love Actually. I found London's first Chipotle and ate a delicious burrito. London Chipotle has this weird curry taste to their food. It was not as good as America, but it was better than nothing. I hung out in Trafalgar Square for awhile and listened to the buskers and watched the street performers and it was just great.

On Monday and Tuesday (I didn't have class til Wednesday so I got to stay awhile) I hung out with the fam. Tegan is so. cute. Check her out:



she is all bundled and ready for the snow! We hung out and watched movies and went out in Putney (the neighborhood in which they live) and it was great.

On Tuesday, I had another terrible travel day but I don't want to talk about it. I got home safe and it's fine and let's not dwell.

Sooo weird... I will be home in 10 days.

Love to everyone!