Perth

We arrived in Perth in the morning and settled down at McDonald's to go on the internet. We had no real plan except that we wanted to find jobs. It turned out that some of Annina's relatives that she wanted to meet lived less than 5 minutes away. They came and met us and took us back to their house. We were offered a place to shower, wash and sleep and it was a wonderful and welcome change from living out of the car.

That evening a huge storm hit. Apparently it had not been raining the whole summer and this was the first rain in a long time. First the clouds went totally dark, then it started to pour down and the wind also picked up to the point that it was raining sideways. They told us that in the center of Perth it was hailing as well. Then suddenly the power went off! The next day after 20 hours of no power we could finally watch the news. Over 150.000 houses had been without power and thousands of cars were damaged or destroyed from the hail. There were flooding everywhere as well. There was just to much rainwater and no one was prepared for it. It was a crazy first 24 hours in Perth!

We all wanted to find work in Perth and as soon as we settled in we started to look. It quickly became clear that finding a job would not be as easy as we first thought. We signed up at the job agencies and it seemed for a while that they would have something for me and Annina at an olive farm. But as time passed we didn't hear anything back and we gave up on that. Krista, the mother of the household works at the nearby petrol station and she has also been helping us look for work by asking the customers if they know about something. So far we have had no luck, but it seems as though it may change. More to come in my next update.

Krista has two teenage boys, Navarre (17) and Karsten (18). We have been doing stuff with them as well. Karsten has the same music taste (metal) as me and Matthias and also plays in two bands. Navarre is an apprentice chef. He showed me how to make homemade pasta from scratch. We had a lot of fun and I took some pictures of the process. Me, Annina and Navarre also went to see "The Hurt Locker" at the cinema, it's a really good movie!

We have also been exploring Perth. We have gone to the beach a couple of times, Krista has taken us to different restaurants and me and Annina has done some cultural activities. One day we visited the Perth library. They had an exhibition about Alice in Wonderland and also a photography contest on display. Especially the photographs were really interesting. Another thing we did was going to the Art Gallery. It was for free which was nice since I'm generally not that interested in art. However one cool thing they had was the old courts. The old court room was turned into a gallery, but the furniture was still there. You could also look into the holding cells where the prisoners were kept.

Kings Park is one of the biggest parks in Perth and a sight to see. There is a huge wilderness with walkways trough that makes you feel like being in the middle of a deserted forest. Then next to that are botanical gardens which are very beautiful. In the middle is a tree walk which gives you a wonderful view of the city and surroundings. We spent a few hours walking around and relaxing. On the way back we discovered a spot with an even better view of the city.

The Maritime Museum in Freemantle, a town just south of Perth, has a wall with the names of all the people who immigrated to Australia in the last decades. Annina's great aunt and her husband are on this "welcome" wall so we went down there one day to find them. It took a while since there were thousands of people to look trough but in the end we were successful.

We also celebrated Easter with Krista and family. The Easter bunny left bowls of eggs and chocolate bunnies for everyone and Navarre cooked a wonderful roast on Easter Sunday. After dinner we drove Matthias and Kristin to the airport. They were flying to Cairns. Because they could not find work and because of Matthias' psoriasis they decided to do the east coast and then go back home. It was sad to say goodbye. With that it is only me and Annina left with the car. For now we are staying at Krista's house while we find work. And then the plan is to keep traveling up the west coast.