My Red Bull Holliday

Thursday was the day. I had waited all week and it had been a long week but the girl and I were finally flying out to Perth. I had to work in the morning because we had a big concrete pour on but I finished at about 1 and damn was I happy to be out of there. It had rained all morning and I was soaked and the concrete wasn't looking too good either but in the end it turned out ok. I rushed home and did some last minute packing before heading to the airport with the girl.

We got to the airport a little early so we could get some lunch and buy some magazines and stuff for the flight. We boarded the plane and we were off. We were flying on a brand new Boeing 737 that had tv screens in the seats. They announced over the loud speaker that the tv's had not been working very well so instead of paying for it everyone could have the service for free. We were pretty excited about that and started surfing the channels but in the end it didn't work at all for the whole flight. It sucked but it was kind of funny.

We landed and got straight into a taxi and headed to the hotel. The first thing I noticed about Perth is that it is a very clean and nice city. It is a lot like Adelaide but just a bit bigger. We got to the hotel and checked in. We had a little suit and in the end we didn't get a balcony which we were very disappointed about but soon got over it. We headed straight out of the hotel and looked around. A lot of the shops were closing because it was getting late so we bought some food to have in the hotel and grabbed a coffee and then headed back to the room. It is so weird walking through a city that you have never seen before. Its a weird type of lost. You know where you are going but you don't know anything about how to get there or whats on the way.

On our short walk around the streets we saw a place that we wanted to have tea at. We were very under dressed because we didn't realize just how classy the restaurant was but we sat out side and I don't think anyone noticed :) The food was excellent. the company was even better and the girl and I just had a really good time. We ate and ate and ate and drank and drank and drank and then when we went to leave we paid and paid and paid, lol. It was ok because we had a few courses but we still parted with a couple hundred dollars. It was fun though.

We got up early Friday morning and headed to the Perth train station to catch a train up to the Aquarium. We had about a half our before the train got there so we did a bit more looking around before catching the train. The whole train was empty which was a bit weird but the trip was quick and we were there before we knew it. We caught a bus from the train station to the Aquarium and for some reason didn't pay anything?

The Aquarium was situated on a huge marina that had hundreds of boats mored there. There was a shopping center on the marina so the girl and I had Subway for breakfast before walking around to go in the Aquarium. The girl and I toured the Sydney aquarium at the start of the year and that was amazing but this one was even better. The exhibits were incredible and we got there just in time to see them feeding the seals. We spent a good 2 hours looking around before busing and training it back to Perth. We had planned to go down to Fremantle in the afternoon but ran out of time. We decided instead to head to the Perth Mint. I know that touring a mint doesn't sound like the most exciting thing but it was actually quite good. They melted a whole gold bullion down and then re-molded it and I nearly got thrown out because even though they said absolutely no photography I took a photo of the girl holding a gold bar on my phone and in about 4 seconds two security guards came up to me and asked me if I was taking photo's. I told them I was just checking a message and then kinda ran away.

Our hotel was situated above a bar called the Hula Bula bar so we decided on going there for a few drinks before we went for tea. We had bought some beer the day before so we had a few in the room and after having a couple at the bar the girl and I barely made it to the restaurant after stopping half way for more drinks. The bar was a crazy tribal Fijian styled bar with huge cocktails and the restaurant was a Swedish styled buffet called Miss Maud's.

After eating more than we should of we headed back and crashed because we had another huge day ahead of us.

Saturday started early again and we were up and away before I even really woke up. We had a quick bite to eat at a place called Dome which is a coffee chain over there and then caught a taxi to the Perth Zoo.

I have been to a lot of Zoo's around Australia and its always a bit odd going to a zoo in your own country because there is always tourist sections with kangaroos and all the Australian animals and thats not that exciting for me because with the farm I have grown up with seeing those animals all the time. I still enjoy seeing them but you just don't want to spend hours watching them. The Perth zoo had a huge Australian section that we cruised through. It was cool to see and there were a lot of birds which were great. The Zoo had a wide range of animals and the only problem was that because we were there so early a lot of the animals were still asleep but it was still enjoyable.

We cruised from the zoo to have a quick look at the Red Bull Air Race qualifications but only stayed for about a half hour because we had a whole day of it Sunday and we were both starving. We grabbed Subway and chilled in the room before walking around the Hay street mall so the girl could do some shopping.

It was a bit poor but Saturday night the girl and I did nothing. We chilled in the room and watched movies on TV. It was a bit of a waste because we were in another city but we were both absolutely stuffed and it really was what we wanted to do. The V8 supercars were racing in Bahrain so we stayed up to watch some of that and then we slept like logs.

Another early morning Sunday and we caught a taxi over to the other side of the Swan River to get a good spot for the race. We were early so we got a great spot right on the water front in front of a huge screen. The whole day was amazing, absolutely amazing. It was like watching a F1 car in the air. It was about 30 degrees so the girl and I drank about 12 bottles of water each and about 6 cans of Red Bull and even though we sat in the sun for about 6 hours we only just got burnt which is pretty good considering how pale we both are. It was such a great day and I really think we might do it again next year.

We headed back to the hotel to grab our bags because when we got there on Thursday we were told they had double booked our room so we were staying in another one of their hotels for Sunday night. We didn't really mind and they threw in breakfast and a bottle of wine so it was all good. We showered and recouperated in the new room before heading back to Miss Maud's for tea again. We ate and ate and ate again and then we headed out to the Burswood Casino. It was in a huge entertainment complex and it was really nice. The Adelaide Casino is nice but very small but the Perth Casino was much larger. We cruised around and saw everything and gambled a little but didn't want to lose too much money. It was a really nice way to finished such a great day and when we finally made it back to the room I felt like I was going to die. So we slept.

Our last day came way too quickly and having to contemplate packing everything up and heading home was way to hard so we caught the train down to Fremantle and toured around for the day. Fremantle is a lot like a suburb we have in South Australia called Port Adelaide. We saw all the sites including the Maritime Museum where Australia II, which won the Americas cup, is located. We saw a really cool candy store and watched them make hard candy and then trained it back to Perth to get our bags and before we knew it we were back in Adelaide. It was a bit surreal being back and god I wasn't looking forward to work the next day but it had to be done. It was such a great trip and I really didn't want to come back. I think we might go again next year.