Perth

Day 30
I finished packing up my bags and went to reception to check out. I grabbed my last cup of famous Melbourne coffee and walked around before going back to the hostel to relax and collect my bags to walk to the bus station where I took the bus to the airport. Perth is 3 hours behind Melbourne so my flight left at 3:10pm and landed at 4:15pm. Once I landed, I jumped on the bus to my hostel (Spinner’s Backpacker) and got settled in to my room. The hostel had a party bus come to bring people to one of the local 80s bar which I joined, through the hostel you got 2 free drinks and a free hotdog at the bar. I met a couple of girls on the bus (some worked at the hostel others were long time travelers at the hostel) that I hung out with for the night. It was a fun time and around 12ish a bunch of us decided to walk back to the hostel, which was about a 20 minute walk. The hostel had an open floor plan on the main floor with a reception desk, a pool table, a kitchen and a couch with a TV for Netflix. Some people stayed up to watch a movie and I decided to go to bed because I was exhausted with the time difference and the day of traveling.

Day 31
Today I decided to have a lazy morning watching Netflix in bed and getting ready for the day around 12:30ish. Traveling long term is a lot on your body and with limited time I am constantly on the go so I have to remember to listen to my body and have some lazy days so I don’t burn out. Before leaving the hostel, I was speaking with the owner (while he was in my room changing one of the beds) who said they recently reopened after several months of renovations. He is originally from Perth so he gave me some recommendations on what to see and what to skip out on, and suggested a place for me to grab lunch. He even had me move to one of the other beds in the room that was the most comfortable bed in the hostel (it really was). He was a very chill, down to earth guy who had that surfer vibe to him. After grabbing a sandwich for lunch, I got a taxi to cottesloe beach (one of the famous must see beaches in Perth) where I hung on the beach, watched some Netflix and swam in the gorgeous water. The sun was really hot, so after about 3 hours I walked to the train station to go back to my hostel. I did a HIIT workout in my room since no one was in there; I am surprised how much I miss a good workout. I showered then ate the second half of my sandwich and packed my bags for my full day wine tour the following day.

Day 32
Today I went on a day long wine tour in the Swan Valley, a wine region about 35 minutes North of Perth. The tour started at 10am, after getting on the bus in CBD, we made one more pick up stop before making our way to our first destination. Our first winery of the day was Lancaster Winery where we tried 6 different wines, white and red and had cheese and crackers. There were 13 of us on the tour, half my age and half older (UK and Aussies). I clicked quickly with 2 girls from Perth, Catherine and Tegan who were friends that worked together in the mining region in the outback of Australia. We started chatting about the different wine regions and I had mentioned that I originally really wanted to go to Margaret River (a wine region 3 hours south of Perth) but without having a car it wasn’t doable. We stayed here for about 45 minutes and then got back on the bus and drove 5 minutes down the road to another winery where we did another tasting and then had lunch. On the bus Catherine and Tegan invited me to join them in Margaret River for the weekend because they had an extra ticket to an Aussie rock concert. I was so excited and we started talking about the plans for the following day. If you have never traveled alone you wouldn’t understand how you can become so connected and so close with people in such a short period of time. I know to many this seems like such a dumb thing to do, go away with complete strangers for a weekend but it is easy to trust your gut when traveling alone. After lunch we hit another winery, a brewery and a chocolate factory and then we headed back to Perth. Tegan and I got off at the first stop to get her car and then drove to my hostel to pack up my stuff and put it in the back of her car. Once that was done we went into the city and met up with several people from the wine tour who all decided to go out. It was a great group and we went to a couple of bars in the city before all parting ways. I was spending my last night in the hostel so I grabbed food and went to bed because I had to be up early the next morning. I would definitely recommend this tour, it was a lot of fun and as always really nice to just show up somewhere and have someone else plan the day.Read more