Impending Perth Trip

After three months of barely doing anything, it has become time for me take a real excursion. Now, before you judge, you need to realize how easy it is to become complacent. I have a job, a great place to live, and some good company, but now I hear the call...Western Australia is calling and I shall answer.

I embark of January 8th by train from Broken Hill to Perth. It is a two-day trip accross the Nalaboor , the sparce, yet beautiful wasteland of the western desert. I will be armed with only T.S. Eliot to console me. (Ha! As if I'd give that pretentious bastard will get anymore of my valuable time). It will be two days in a seat (sleepers were way too dear), but apparently the trip is well worth it.

Once in Perth, I shall spend the next ten days with our former exchange student, Erin Watt! Yes, you all the remember the wonderful times when my father answered the phone, "Do you wanna talk to Erin Watt or Aaron Whatt" (Whatt being an approximation of how my father says our last name). She shall show me the town, or at least put some dots on public transit map for me. I've never been oppossed to seeing cities alone. I fondly look upon the time at age ten when we were in Duisberg for an EF meeting. Knowing that I would be bored sitting in the hotel room, my father unleased my childhood self upon the world with 50DM and a...dotted public transit map. Or that time that I toured Boston at age 12 alone, with $20 and a...dotted public transit map. Actually, looking back at my past experiences, before the age of 18, I've been around the following cities either alone or with one other similarly age person armed with only a map of the bus system: Duisberg, Munich, Rotterdam, Heidelberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Boston, New Orleans, San Antonio, Washington DC, and finally Gary, Indiana. Maybe the last one is lie, you'll have to work that out yourself.

I will see the sites, enjoy some great company with old friends, and hopefully hit up some of the nightlife. Now that I'm single again, it is time to learn how to hit bars and clubs without the crutch of another friend. I'm a classic bar wallflower, sipping beer and playing trivia with the little handheld consoles, hoping that my next new friend is BrainMaster69, and also hoping that I will embarassingly destroy him/her with my terrible collection of random knowledge. These days need to be put to rest. Being out of college, meeting people is not as easy as it once was, and not being so shy is a lesson I need to learn. What better place to do it than Australia, where just opening my mouth starts a conversation about my accent?

After a lovely ten days in Perth (I'm using positive adjectives already. My optimism will make the trip a good one, it is called mind power.) I will take a ten-day safari tour up the coast of Western Australia. This is a small group excursion in 4WD vehicles. We'll hit state parks, coastal resorts, dolphin havens, and pretty outback communities on our way to Broome. It is all inclusive; we'll be staying in a four-star tents, hostels, and farmhouses. May be a bit of a rustic trip, but I've always loved sleeping under the stars. Hopefully, I won't be bitten, maimed, poisoned, head-hunted, or left-for-dead with no water and no civilization for 200Km.

The final two days will be spend in Broome, very close to where that new movie Australia takes place. It is said to be one of the most beautiful and isolated cities in the whole country. The I shall fly back to Broken Hill.

Western Australia is its own little world, separated by endless desert from everywhere else in the country. Many people on this side never even get the chance to see this area. Let's just say that people here are a little jealous of my trip.