City of Sun

With 355 sunny days a year, Perth is the sunniest capital in the world. Seeing as Manchester seems to have 355 rainy days a year, this fact blows my mind.

With all that sun, Perth is an incredibly relaxed city. In fact, I’m writing this blog sitting on a bench by Swan river, watching a guy rollerblading past and a couple on one of those weird golf cart things is laughing at me. It sounds so cheesy it couldn’t possibly be true, but I promise it is! So over the past week I’ve been exploring this down-to-earth city and its colourful streets, amazing food, beautiful art, and interesting people.

Anyone that has travelled with me will know that the first stop is always the zoo. Perth Zoo is spacious, green, and innovative in some aspects of design. Although I don’t agree with certain decisions (elephant direct contact? Lawsuit coming right up.), the zoo is now one of my favourites.

After this necessity over with, I explored further. At first glance, Perth may seem somewhat dull. But my one main rule in travelling is simple yet important: be nice to locals. They know what’s going on. And that’s how I found out about the rooftop cinema, the amazing tapas place, the art festival, and good beer (I don’t even like beer, which goes to show how nice it was! Trust me not to remember the name).

But as a biologist, cities usually aren’t really my “thing”. With its amazing King’s Park, Perth has me sorted there as well. As well as the park, the train takes you to Cottesloe in half an hour, which is home to an amazing white sand beach. Best of all, a very busy ferry takes you to Rottnest Island – home to the quokka. If you don’t know what this is you have been missing out on life and need to start googling right now. I’ll forgive you for not finishing this post.

All in all, if you’re looking to come to Perth to get wasted like a teenage schoolgirl, give it a miss. It simply hasn’t got enough going on, nor does it sell enough alcopops. But if you’re looking for a relaxing vibe, good food, and an eclectic mix of people, Perth will be as much up your street as it is mine.

But despite the sunshine, relaxing, quokkas, and food, I can’t help but miss my Mancunian life sometimes. As I was having ice cream and a macchiato in this place called San Churro (the holy Churro? Genius!), a group of friends met at the table next to me. With a pang of remorse I remember doing the same just over a week ago in my trusted Caffè Nero. Finding a balance between the old and the new will take time. So for those amazing people I so selfishly left behind, here is a quote from the fabulously folky Jamestown Revival:

“And I’ve got a, a heavy heart, and a, a heavy mind. I sing a song for all I’ve gone and left behind. It’s weighing on me.”

(Don’t worry, I won’t actually sing. You’ll all be far too glad I left if I do.)