A Day in Fremantle

Upon first impression, Australia is very westernized, well, with funny accents and driving on the other side of the road.   It reminds me a lot of California: downtown Claremont reminds me of Santa Clara, the suburbs around Claremont remind me of a wealthy Brady Bunch neighborhood with funky modern architecture, and Fremantle reminds me of San Diego.  I took the train to Fremantle and think I must’ve walked around every corner, every block at least twice. 

The city was quiet in the morning and I sat by the water for a bit reading my book. Fremantle has a lot of restaurants and cafes to sit outside at, secondhand book stores, Aborigine art galleries, seafood restaurants along the marina, a park with it’s own Eye, a Target, and the Round House which is the oldest building in Western Australia which used to be a 8-celled prsion even though Western Australia was a convict-free state. Seven hours is definitely enough time to spend there by yourself in a day. 

It was windy.

Downtown

 

 good luck stones

boomerangs

 Although I wasn’t bored, it was a little bit boring, or lonely, spending the day wandering alone without anyone to share it with or talk to about. Luckily, JD came to meet me and brought me to Little Creatures Brewery where they make everything on site and we ate KANGAROO! It came on skewers, perfectly medium rare with a side of a tomato salsa that tasted a bit too much like marinara sauce that wasn’t the right match for the gaminess of the kangaroo. The meat was good though, tasting a bit like lamb. The beer was good too.

 Typical, apparently, of WA, the service wasn't stellar, so instead of waiting to order round 2 and some pizza, we left to check out the Mussel Bar for some seafood and local wine. Good night.

 'Roo!

I have noticed, and liked, that in Australia, they are very proud of serving their own produce and products, displaying where they come from. The majority of the beers, even in an Irish pub, are Australian; I think all of the wines I have seen have been Australian. And for good reason – this shit’s good. Like Dad said, it’s probably an expensive country because they have a lot of imported goods, and maybe for the same reason, instead of exporting, they have a lot of Australian products to offer.