Moondyne Joe Festival in Toodyay

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[EN] Hello loves!

I'm still trying to publish more than one post per week but at the moment it doesn't really work. One the one hand it sucks because I have so much more to show and tell you guys, but on the other hand it's good because it means I spend my time working, training Muay Thai and enjoying myself on the weekends.

Yesterday for example I had a lovely day in the countryside. We went to Toodyay, a place one hour North of Perth, that hosted a Moondyne Joe Festival.

And you're like: "Moondyne who?"

I learned that this guy is a local legend. He was Western Australia's most famous bushranger and petty criminal. He is so well known around here because he managed to escape from prison several times. There even was an "escape-proof" cell built just for him. Toodyay is one of the places where he was locked up before he was eventually put in Fremantle Prison in Perth and later died in the Fremantle Mental Asylum.

The festival in Toodyay however was not only in memory of Moondyne Joe, it was also held as a festival for vintage cars. Hey, it's a rural community, so why not combine two fun things to create the town's biggest event of the year?! 

[DE] Hallo meine Lieben!

Ich versuche noch immer, mehr als nur einen Post pro Woche zu veröffentlichen aber das klappt im Moment nicht so wirklich. Einerseits ist das echt ätzend weil ich doch noch soo viel zu zeigen und zu erzählen hab! Andererseits ist es aber auch gut, denn was mich vom Bloggen abhält ist die Arbeit, das Muay Thai Training und die schönen Sachen, die ich immer am Wochenende unternehme.

Gestern zum Beispiel hatte ich einen sehr schönen Tag auf dem Land. Wir sind nach Toodyay gefahren, einem Ort der ca. 1 Stunde nördlich von Perth liegt. Dort fand ein Event namens Moondyne Joe Festival statt.

Und ihr jetzt so: "Moondyne wer?!"

Ich habe gelernt, dass dieser uminöse Kerl hier in der Gegend ziemlich bekannt ist weil er Westaustraliens berühmtester Bushranger und Kleinkrimineller war. Zu seinem Ruhm kam er, weil er etliche Male geschafft hat aus dem Gefängnis auszubrechen. Man hat sogar nur für ihn eine "ausbruchsichere Zelle" gebaut.

Toodyay ist einer der Orte, an denen Moondyne Joe eine Weile hinter Gittern verbracht hat. Zuletzt wurde er aber im Fremantle Gefängnis in Perth gefangen gehalten und starb dann schließlich in der Fremantle Irrenanstalt.

Das Festival wurde aber übrigens nicht nur zu seinen Ehren gehalten, nein, es war auch ein Treffen für Oldtimer Autos. Hey, Toodyay ist ein kleines Kaff, also wieso nicht zwei spaßige Events vereinen und somit die größte Sause des Jahres steigen lassen?!

// cardi: jeanswest (thrifted via good sammy's) // dress: c&a // belt: thrifted // bag: swapped via kleiderkreisel //

[EN] Which car is your favourite? Or do you dig the old Russian army motorbike? Leave me a comment. ;)

Have a lovely day!

 [DE] Welches Auto findet ihr am besten? Oder steht ihr eher auf das alte russische Armee-Motorrad? Lasst mir einen Komnmentar da. ;)

Tschö tschö, bis zum nächsten Mal!

The Aquarium of Western Australia

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[DE] Hallo ihr Lieben!

Ich bin vorm Fernseher kleben geblieben und es ist spät geworden. Ich wollte aber unbedingt vor dem Schlafengehen noch den Post hier raushauen, deshalb mal schnell die Story: Jarryd hat mich letzten Sonntag mit einem Trip zum AQWA Aquarium of Western Australia überrascht. Das war soo toll und lieb von ihm!

Das Aquarium befindet sich im schönen Perther Stadtteil Hillarys und liegt direkt am Meer. Man kann dort sogar mit Schildkröten, Rochen und Haien tauchen wenn man etwas tiefer in die Tasche greift. Wir haben uns allerdings nur für den normalen Besuch entschieden und haben uns alles in Ruhe im Trockenen angeschaut.

Spektakulär ist das sogenannte Schiffswrack Aquarium, durch das man mit einem Laufband gefahren wird. Man fährt (oder geht) quasi durch einen kreisförmigen Tunnel aus Plexiglas mitten durch das Aquarium und kann alles um sich herum sehen als stünde man selbst im Wasser. Es war SO cool!

Ich liebe Unterwasser-Dokus! Ich gucke die immer auf YouTube und hab mich in diesme Tunnel gefühlt, als wäre ich selbst mittendrin in so einer Doku!

So und nu lass ich mal die Fotos für sich sprechen.

Gute Nacht!

[EN] Hello loves!

I got hooked on one of these stupid pawn shop shows on TV and now it's already late. I really wanted to publish this post before going to bed though, so here's the background story: Last Sunday Jarryd surprised me with a trip to AQWA The Aquarium of Western Australia. That was such a good idea and so nice of him!

The aquarium is located in Perth's beautiful suburb Hillarys which is directly by the sea. They even offer diving adventures with turtles, sharks and rays there if you pay a bit more. We, however, decided to just pay the normal entry fees and stay dry.

What I found really amazing was their so called shipwreck coast aquarium, which you can enter by foot or on a moving walkway belt conveyor thingy. You are slowly carried through a round underwater plexiglas tunnel that makes it look like you are standing right in the middle of the open sea. It was SO cool!

I love underwater documentariess, I always watch them on YouTube. This time it felt like I was part of such a documentary myself.

And now I let the pictures speak.

Good night!

the giants

Hello loves!

I know this should be a Valentine's Day post because the blogosphere is full of belated ones right now, BUT screw Valentine's Day because I have something better: art! I also don't celebrate Valentine's Day and forgot to prepare something romance-themed for the blog.

So art it is instead. Big art. Giant art. The Giants!

The Giants are two huge puppets brought to the Perth International Arts Festival by the French mechanical marionette street theatre company Royal De Luxe.

If you are interested in the whole background story you can find an article about it here.

The Giant Little Girl and the Giant Diver roamed the streets of Perth last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They each walked different routes through the city and surprised the audience with actions like riding a giant scooter, taking a giant wee in the street or taking a giant shower before going to sleep in a giant bed. Pretty gigantic huh?!

Their strolls were always accompanied by a parade of musicians, volunteer helpers and of course the puppeteers (all dressed in red velvet in over 30°C by the way).

Jarryd and I went to see the Giants on Sunday on their last day of performance and it seemed all of Perth was there to say farewell - oh boy, it was so crowded!

Also the people sadly were a bit aggressive about having the best spot and view on the sidewalk and got a bit too snappy so that I spent most of the time telling these idiots to leave me the f*** alone. I moved back and forth to not have everyone's head in my pictures and as soon as I moved people around me were like "Don't you dare blocking my view, I've been here since 8 in the morning!" It was exhausting and made me really angry, ggrrrr....

The parade was still fun though and I was able to enjoy watching the giant puppets walk around regardless.

In the very end they shot confetti rain and vintage postcards into the air and I picked one up as a souvenir because this is something I'll probably never see again in my life: guys in red velvet suits operating giant lifelike puppets in the name of art. Crazy!

Afterwards we headed to La Veen Coffee and Kitchen, one of my favourite places in the city, to rest a bit and fuel up with coffee. And as if giant puppets wouldn't be enough art already, I also have some colourful outfit pics from our subsequent graffiti stroll for you. Ha! My blog has never been so artsy!

// dress: h+m // tote bag: ebay // shoes: target //

All outfit pics were taken by Jarryd. Thanks Babe!

Hope you enjoyed this!

Have a lovely day!

my first 3 months in Australia

Hey hey!

I arrived here in Perth on the 24th of October 2014, so today it is time for me to pause for a moment and look back on the last 3 months. So much has changed and yet so much has stayed the same. I left my old life and home behind to experience something completely new.

I had never left Europe before, I had never been to Australia - it was so scary and exciting to fly into the unknown.

So let's see what has happened, what has met my expectations and what was completely different from how I imagined it.

// palm trees in the city // cbd skyscrapers // view from mundaring weir // a germany brick // babe and I at Toastface Grillah //

The city

My expectations: I am not exacly well-travelled so I could only try and get impressions of Perth from Google and Jarryd. He didn't really do a good job in making me excited about moving here because he had been living here for most of his life and said it's quite boring. However I was so thrilled about moving to the other end of the world that I pictured it to be big, pulsating and exciting.

What I think now: I have explored quite a bit of the city and its different suburbs now. For a European like me it appears HUGE because the Australians here do not live on top of each other in jam-packed apartment blocks. The city spreads out wide and outside of the centre you hardly ever see buildings with more than two stories.

Furthermore it's not boring at all here, very much the oppposite. There are awesome eateries and cafes everywhere and the city if sull of art, music and events. Very popular here at the moment are food trucks and food markets as well as upcycling and handmade products that are preferably sold on little markets and street festivals.

The weather

My expectations: HOT! I expected it to be unbearably hot every day with a burning sun that would cause me skin cancer and daily sunburns. I hate heat and was really nervous about if I'd be able to cope with the Australian summer. Sweating is just not my cup of tea at all...

What I think now: I totally overestimated it! It is a rather dry heat here and luckily a constant breeze from the nearby ocean makes it absolutely bearable. There are those odd days when it's 42°C but in general I'm happy that my expectations were wrong.

As an inveterate German I however have to admit I miss rainy, cloudy and grey days a bit. No one understands, I know. That's just me...

// perth skyline // there's a beautiful sky with fluffy clouds every day // one of the many graffittis around town // iced latte from the daily at swanbourne beach //

The insects

My expectations: Horrible! I have a big fat insect phobia and that's no exaggeration. I heard so many horror stories before I came here, especially about spiders! I was so worried about not being able to handle the many big and dangerous insects here.

What I think now: The same unfortunately. I have become a bit more relaxed about the quantitiy of encounters because I do not come across yucky crawlers as often as I expected. However if yxou come across an insect here it's always either huge or venomous or both. In my first week here I already met a Redback spider, one of the small but dangerous ones. Two weeks ago I had my first Praying Mantis sighting and then at work we had the biggest freakin cockroach I've ever seen in our office. It's really not a piece of cake at all for me, I'm trying to keep my cool but the phobia just really freaks me out. I have decided to tackle it with hypnotherapy soon.

The money

My expectations: I was told everything is more expensive than in Germany. Especially Perth has the reputation of being the most expensive city in Australia due to the many well-paid mining workers living here. Then again I was also told that the wages are obviously higher here than in Germany. So I hoped these two aspects would simply balance each other out.

What I think now: Well, I'm not 100% sure because I have not lived on my new job's wages yet. I've been working in my new job for one month now and next week I'll get my first payment. However I have already calculated my cost of living and think it will be okay. I won't be rich but it'll be enough to do all the nice things I've planned to do (weekend trips, dinners at nice restaurant, a new laptop, a new tattoo etc.).

// fun at kings park // breakfast at sprolo // la paleta makes the best popsicles // swanbourne beach //

I could actually list a million other things here but this shall be enough for now. Maybe I'll do another recap after 6 months then and talk about the other aspects I didn't mention today.

Congratulations if you made it through and read it all, I know my ramblings can be a bit long sometimes. So thanks for reading!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Australia Day

Hello loves!

Thank you very much for your sweet comments on my last post.

I have recovered a bit and was able to relax. I think a lot of the pain in my foot is caused by mental stress so it was good to mentally calm down a bit. Putting my mind at ease has soothed the pain in my foot quite a bit.

It's healing veeery slowly though, so annoying!

Anyways, now I'm back to blogging and for a smooth re-entry after a one week hiatus I only have a short post with snapshots for you.

// cardigan: h+m // dress: h+m // belt: thrifted //

Yesterday was Australia Day, so happy belated Australia Day to all Australian readers!

My first national holiday over here! I dressed in the colours of the Australian flag, Red, White and Blue, because that was the easier version. Australia's national colours are actually Green and Gold but my closet does not offer this combo (because over half of my clothes are stored away in my dad's basement in Germany).

We had Jarryd's family over for a late lunch, then played video games, had drinks and later dessert. Chicken, beef, salad, puff pastry snacks, trifle, we had it all. That's the reason I couldn't eat much today! Still total food coma from yesterday!

It was actually not very Australian of us to stay inside the airconditioned house all day but I am happy we did because it was bullshit hot outside.

I'll be back with picture-heavier posts soon and wish you a happy Tuesday!

Tomorrow is already hump day and the next weekend is almost in sight so hang in there people!

Toodels!

Guildford

Hello hello!

Last Saturday it was pleasant sunny weather so Jarryd and I decided to get out and spend the afternoon doing something nice. After googling back and forth for new coffee shops we could try out (because Perth has quite a lot of them left for us) we decided to head to a suburb called Guildford.

The actual café we wanted to visit, Little Guildford, looked nice from outside but was closing when we arrived. They're only open until 2pm on Saturdays, a phenomenon that seems to be common here in Perth. Even though Australia originates from the British culture with fancy afternoon tea tradition, most coffee shops here close around 4pm on weekdays and even earlier on weekends.

 // shirt:pull+bear // dress: h+m // bag: ebay // shoes: vans //

Coffee-thirsty as we were, we started walking to find another café nearby. On our little walk we came across the Stirling Square Park with its old canons and iron gates - a perfect spot to take some pictures and pull some silly faces, hihihi...

I also fell in love at first sight with Guildford's old post office building, which is so picturesque, it looks like a film set.

When we were both getting hangry we continued our search and discovered the most adorable shabby chic country style tea house and café I've ever seen: Maddison Cottage.

Never in my life have I seen so many quirky metal chairs, fences and bird cages! And the mismatched cups and saucers, oh so cute!

After cappucino, latte, a toasty and a piece of cake the no longer hangry boyfriend and I were happy again. Time to explore the little stores we had seen on our way there before! And what makes a lovely Saturday afternoon with the boyfriend and coffee even better? Antiques!

There are some nice antiques and vintage stores scattered around James Street and some of the backstreets. I don't have money to spend at the moment but I still love to look at all the old knick-knack.

Another very interesting and rather unusual find on James Street was the Museum of Natural History and Academy of Taxidermy. I might sound like a creep but I've always dreamed of discovering such a hidden gem of a place somewhere unexpected!

We couldn't say no to the 5$ admission fee and were not disappointed. The building turned out to be a beautiful former movie theatre built in the 1920s with artdeco ceiling and the old auditorium being the exhibition room.

Stuffed animals mixed with replica, dinosaur statues and lots of other weird interesting things framed the aisles.We spent more time in there than I had expected simply because we found the creepiness paired with surprise, disgust and curiosity so entertaining that we couldn't tear ourselves away.

We didn't have to drive far, got out of the house, didn't spend much money and still had an awesome afternoon - I love it when that happens! We saw canons, a creepy doll in a wheelchair, stuffed animals, dinosaurs, had coffee and explored a suburb I'd never been to. A perfect little weekend adventure if you ask me!

Do you guys do that too sometimes?

Is there anyone here from Perth who can recommend more lovely secret tips about hidden gems, be it cafés, museums or whatever else is out there?

Leave me a comment please!

Happy Tuesday!