I had such an amazing day at the Perth Royal Show! Saw gorgeous cats, enjoyed the sun and well, enjoyed the day in general! More to that later on!
To "celebrate the last day of September" (and the first day of October), HF (my mum's friend) and I went down to Hillary's Boat Harbour. Actually it was HF's idea as he had not been to Hillary's for a long time, and he was craving for seafood platter. He used to come over to Perth almost every year and did lots of cool stuff like windsurfing - as he has relatives here. But this trip was because of his niece's wedding, and we decided to tackle the seafood platter together, a day after the wedding.
We didn't expect it to be warm that day, and both HF and I rocked up in jackets and stuff like that. The moment we stepped out of the car, we regretted it. So off went the jackets!
Took a quick walk around the actual "boat harbour" before lunch...
And we finally settled down for lunch when HF managed to find the place!
Here's his favourite seafood platter. I made him go for grilled (instead of deep fried) fish as I am extremely health conscious. Anyway I took most of the healthy stuff, while he went for the fries - as I don't eat fries. I took the salad though!
HF wanted to go for a big seafood platter but I didn't want to - as I didn't have much of a big appetite. So we decided to go for seafood pasta...and we loved it! We split the shellfish 50-50, and HF made me eat the prawns and squid. I think I ate most of the squid that day.
In general...the seafood platter and pasta were DELISH! :D HF and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and we plan to come back again - if I'm still in Perth studying. No idea where I'll be next year.
HF had to make a call after that, so I walked around the jetty.
Shops on the side of the water - where boats were supposed to be parked. And guess what - THEY HAD SAN CHURROS!! Well we didn't go for this branch - we went to another one in the city before dinner - because both of us happened to be chocoholics!
The jetty - a popular spot for people to enjoy the sun...
And some were even jumping off the jetty into the sea! It was pretty funny watching them. One group of young teens even sabotaged their friend by throwing him into the water!
It might not be obvious here...but the water is cold! Well - that's according to one of the boys...
Hillary's Boat Harbour from 3 angles - from where I was standing.
There was also an amusement park on the other side. I think the water's pretty shallow.
Anyway here we go - the boys throwing each other off the jetty! One jumped in with his shirt on and got laughed at!
The boys only stopped "monkeying" when other people came over to the jetty...but I swear it was really funny watching them dive in! Taking pics of them required timing though, and I had to anticipate when they were going to jump in.
Watching them jump in made me feel like doing so too...but you know, I can't jump in wearing T-shirt, jeans and ballet flats...and my camera has to stay dry!
Went down to a nearby beach for a short look. Apparently this whole stretch of beaches is really popular amongst people in Perth.
Maybe not this one, but the next one we went to (Scarborough Beach) was really really crowded. Possibly even more crowded than Cottlesloe Beach on weekends!
This beach was quiet but relaxing...no wonder people enjoyed chilling out here!
But in Scarborough Beach...well, there's almost no way where we could just chill out and enjoy the quietness. There were WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE.
And even the description "way too many people" was an understatement.
Some people managed to find a good spot to enjoy the sun though...
While I chanced across another group of teenage (or maybe young adult?) guys having fun in the water.
People were enjoying the scenery and the breeze...
While the same gang of boys enjoyed jumping into the water! I took quite a number of pics of them. Oh and I was standing at the side when a huge wave suddenly came in and my feet took the brunt of it! GOSH...the water was frigid! No wonder the boys were shivering and laughing when they got out!
Later on I got splashed again, and my jeans got wet. Took me ages to dry it!
There were also surfers and other random shenanigans going on...like seagulls flying...
And this is only a FRACTION of the number of people there on Scarborough Beach...
Took a quick walk around while attempting to dry my jeans and warm up a little. It felt really comfy walking on the soft, white sand though! And I knew that this beach was clean.
One last shot of the beach, before HF and I left for Joondalup - another northern suburb. So basically I've now been to the city beach stretch of Perth! YAY! One more tick off the list!
We stopped by at Northbridge for some hot choc. HF had a mixture of white and dark choc, while I went for my usual dark choc in soy milk. It was GOOD as always...and then HF brought me out for dinner with his family. It was one of the biggest culture shocks I experienced, and that also marked my very first time into a casino - more specifically, Burswood Casino. So many people were out on that night, and many were dabbling with jackpot machines and stuff like that. I'd probably never spend so much on these stuff...
Anyway it was quite an interesting experience as the security guard thought I was underaged and nearly banned me from entering! Even HF's mum thought I was barely 18, when in actual fact I'm already 21.
A dinner at a Japanese fine-dining restaurant marked the end of that day, and HF brought me back to my apartment after that.
And I guess that's it for now! Coming up - will be another series documenting my travels with my good old buddy Steph, plus her mum Jenny! Jenny was an amazing driver...and that really made our trip even more amazing! Stay tuned!