FREO

Sunday morning Milea & I packed up our tent & headed into Fremantle, or known here as "Freo." We fell in love with the historical buildings & beautiful coastline. Right away we found a little cafe on Market street for coffee & breaky. The city reminded me of a larger Athens or Charleston. The buildings aligning the streets were so colorful & unique, only two stories high. The city dates back to the 1800's when English settlers established whaling companies in Bathers Bay. Soon after, England began shipping convicts into the city. Milea & I visited the Freo Prison. The picture is of us outside the gate to the prison yard. We opted out of the tour, but scanned the informational center & some of the exhibits within the main gate. The living conditions of the inmates were horrendous, but really interesting. It seems that all of Australia dates back to the convicts. After the prison we went to the Markets-- something Freo is known for. We had so much fun moving through the sea of people, scanning the wide array of fruits, jewelry, & other random goods. I saw some beautiful opal rings (opal is only mined in Oz) & I was sooo tempted, but they were expensive... Milea helped talk me out of it. After the markets we ventured to a few more historical sites: the Round House (oldest remaining building in WA, built as a gaol or prison), the Shipwreck Gallery, & the Whalers Tunnel which was built in 1837 to move goods into the city. We then stumbled into the Little Creatures Brewery-- which happened to be the beer we had the night before! It's only brewed in Freo & the guys who worked there were hilarious. He was shocked that we came from a place that was "land locked." Before driving back to Perth, we got WA's #1 fish & chips at Cicerello's. Everyone from Perth told us to eat there for lunch. We sat outside on the dock, watching the boats in the marina, & dunking our fried lunch into tartar sauce. YUMM.

Tom had his birthday party at a bowling alley on Sunday. The bowling alley was really small (no Brunswick) & we had to drive about 20 minutes to get there. Bowling alleys aren't very common here. It was fun watching the kids because I hadn't really been exposed to many Aussies kids since I've been in Perth. How ironic... Anyway, it was fun & a little crazy since the kids were all hopped up on sugar & junk food. Tom gave me 2 roses & a card to thank me for coming. He is so cute.