Burswood

For our last day, we had planned another walking tour with Two Feet and a Heartbeat. But first, we went to King's Park and had a very good view from up there over Perth. And as coincidence wanted, it was Reconsiliation Week, so we could experience a memorial upon the fallen Aboriginal people, listen to didgeridoo animal music and see a bunch of youngsters dance to it. I was sad that we haven't experienced much more from the Aboriginal culture.
However, we had to get to our walking tour, so the bus drove back into town and left us with the Founder of TFaaH, Ryan.
He was way more professional and good in his job, so it was quite nice to follow him around town and learn a bit of history. Not much that I could remember now, though. I just remember that the reason the London Court was built, was to get more English people to invest into the very much unwanted colony of Perth, by looking like a little piece of England. Humans just like familiar things and obviously it worked out.
After the tour found an end, we had some free time in the city, so Lana and I looked for lunch and found some very good Ramen place. Afterwards, we headed back to where the bus would pick us up to bring us back to the Crown Metropol. For the first time, the bus was before its departure time and we would have nearly missed it. Luckily, we were able to catch them at the red traffic lights.
We had a couple of hours to chill and make ourselves ready for the big gala tonight. I had a wonderfully long bath, soaking all my stressed bones and muscles, finally relaxing a bit. Then it was time to meet up and we were escorted into the Crown Mansion.
That was really a Mansion, hidden behind several gangways and doors. Here, Justin Bieber and PINK, had stayed for a while and you could see why. It was huge! Three master bedrooms with balconies and bathrooms (each having a whirlpool like tub, a Japanese style toilet, a shower and a make up table), two offices, a "childrens" bedroom including the bathroom, a sauna, a gym, an enormous living room with terrace and pool downstairs, a gallery like upstairs living room with billiard and a bar. Holy shit that must be expensive to rent out!
I was fascinated by this place and extremely thankful that I could experience it without paying any money for it.
We got a warm welcome from Neale, the CEO of HelloWorld and a bunch of other people from Tourism Australia, Western Australia Tourism, Ats Pacific etc.
But what was special, was the first real Welcome by an Aboriginal Elder. She shared her tribes songline with us and greeted us the most traditional way. That was super cool.
After every speech was done, we could finally party. I'm not much of a dancer, but I loved seeing all of my (now) friends enjoy themselves. Module 2 was really the fun group though, as the women from Module 1 (because it was all just women) were rather hesitant and quiet.
As I didn't like to dance, I rather explored the huge mansion with Lana. Neale has said we should feel at home and so we did. We jumped on the master bedrooms bed, played football with a ball shaped cushion, took photos at the photo booth, stole the very heavy and nice pens and did some acrobatics in the gym. It was so much fun!
There was only a little bad taste to it and that was the food. The entrees where alright and half of them vegetarian. However, the main barbecue was just meat (and three salad leaves). Betty and I asked for some veggie food and got some very dry, disgusting tasting pastries that we couldn't swallow at all. What a shame it was.
It was also shit that they threw us out at 11pm already. Because of "safety" reasons. What bullocks is that? Everyone was really pissed (at least from Module 2) and so we decided to stay together on our last day for some more time. We wanted to go to the Casino but wouldn't be let in because they thought we were either too drunk (most actually weren't) or we couldn't present a valid ID (they would only accept Australian ID or our Passports... please). So, after another 30min discussion, we headed to Lisas room and just sat down talking. I got very tired around 2am, so I left the after party. Just in time though, as shortly after that, security came to Lisas room and smashed the party. But my people were smarter. They just went a floor down to yet another ones room and sat together until 4am. Good times, good times. I'd really gonna miss these bunch of people. We became so close in the last 12 days, it was weird thinking we'd split up again and maybe never ever see each other again. So Lisa got the word round, that we should all come together next year for a Reunion. We'll see how this turns out. However, I met a bunch of great people around the world, that I might be able to visit one day in their home countries.Read more