Day 10 - Quiet night with the volume turned up

Breakfast of Ham-pions

April 18th, 2015 
(figured I should start dating these..)

The bed is getting more and more uncomfortable as the days go on and random noises don’t help (a loud, explosion-like bang at 5am, for instance). I kept waking up from being uncomfortable, but forced myself to go back to sleep because I had plans to go out on Saturday night and wanted to avoid falling asleep around midnight, again. The Italians teased me for sleeping in so late (1pm!) and said they were heading out for Fremantle. I ate the leftover burger from last night and packed my bag for the gym before writing this.

I had packed my bag before eating because I wanted to be able to just grab it and leave, so I did just that. The problem was that I didn’t double check what I had in it and walked all the way to the gym without any of my gym clothes. My new phone (Nexus 5) has an app called “Fit” on it that decided my goal for walking per day was an hour. I got most of that in just from going to the gym and back twice. 

Random concert in the cultural center

English Andy and I had agreed to wander around Perth talking to people, but for different reasons. He wanted to get better at speaking to strangers, and I wanted to meet more Australians. We started by asking how they felt about foreigners invading ‘our’ country, as a joke. It didn’t really go over too well, as they didn’t seem to know we were joking. It might have also gone badly because I think there’re actually groups of people who legit don’t like foreigners. Bad call, but I thought it was worth a laugh. We switched to making it a competition of who has the better accent. To be honest, I didn’t expect anyone to pick Canadian over English, but we totally would have won if it weren’t for two British people picking their own accent.

The French had planned to go to this Comedy/Music event at a nearby pub and I had agreed to go. Andy seemed keen as well, but we happened to miss their departure and never locked down the details of what bar they were going to. We played a game of chess in the back smoking/lounge area.

Andy, brushing up on his Japanese
(He doesn't speak french)

The Staff were drinking at a table beside us with a new guy, English Reese. They invited us to join, and while I wasn’t feeling the greatest, but I thought I might as well meet some of the staff and go out at least once this weekend. The goon started to flow. Apparently red goon is the worst wine possible, which was what I was drinking. Can’t tell the difference, luckily, so cheap wine is still on the menu. I think I got all their names, and some of the residents as well. The guy who burned his arm the other day also joined in. Turns out he’s French (Actually, I think it might be Reunion Island) and he goes by the name Paco, though I think he said his name was Erwin. Kiwi Haydon was hanging back until I invited him to the table and offered some goon. He has said a number of times that he ‘has no friends’ and that he doesn’t desire them because that will make him feel bad. I don’t think he realizes that I consider him to be a friend. At some point in the night, he told me that he heard you could get a RSA (the aussie ‘smart serve’ equivalent) for $7. He didn’t know the details, so I asked who had told him and he said that people just blur together - no one stands out. I said I tend to stand out because I’m tall, to which he said that I stand out because I have a good personality. Quite the compliment coming from a guy who seems to swing toward being a misanthrope.

Andy and his mother's feet (made to scale)

We went back to Mustang bar again, though this time it was a lot busier than before. Scottish Martin had given me a fair amount of gin back at the hostel. I thought it would be fair to buy him a drink at the bar, and get one for myself while I was there. One cider. One gin and cranberry. I handed them a $20, expecting change back (you don’t tip; I guess it’s included) and they told me I still owed 30c. I used to not drink in Canada to save the money, and that was when drinks were half this price.

Super interesting pool table

I’m not sure if I just got unlucky with the people I spoke to, but it seemed like a lot of people were rearing to fight that night. Even talking to a girl might get her, or a guy with her, to threaten to kick your ass for simply standing there. I generally laughed it off, and probably came close to getting hit a few times because of it. The thing is, I’d even straight up tell them I was just coming to talk, and they’d still say that I better get out of there before the boyfriend came back. I guess I’m a shit disturber because that made me want to stick around more than if they’d said nothing, but ultimately nothing is exactly what came from any of it. Some of the guys were looking to meet girls, but didn’t seem to want to actually talk to them. Not very uncommon, really.

Live band playing good dancing music

We left Mustang and one of the staff (German Kathleen) said her phone was stolen, though it’s possible she just dropped it. We headed to a bar called “Library,” but Andy and I decided to find food and skip that bar, though I can’t quite recall why we chose not to. Though Andy was a bit more timid earlier in the day, the drink helped bolster him up enough to go around with me, asking about cheap food. I highly recommend doing this when in a new city that has people wandering about because you can find some cool places and meet some interesting people. At this point, the threats largely stopped and I was even given free pizza by a table of married Irish women. The people kept pointing us as places they liked, but which weren’t much cheaper than any other place ($13-15 a plate). There was this hotdog/sausage stand that had a lot of pictures but didn’t have prices listed, so I asked why they weren’t. The guy kind of gave shifting answers, allowing me to barter him from $6 down to $4 for a sausage (bonus!). We sat and talked with a girl who was waiting for a ride, and she told some stories which I remember to be amusing, but can’t quite remember any of the details about. We talked to a group of three girls who, again, told me from the get-go that the guy picking them up would flip out if he saw us standing there, and once more, it made me want to point out the ridiculousness of it.

How the night felt at this point

Let me get this straight, ladies: this guy is going to drive up on this one-way road, stop, put it in park, jump out of the vehicle which is parked in the middle of the street to run up to me and my friend to fight both of us, all for simply standing here. Is that right? Apparently they thought so. The guy pulls up, the girls get in and tell me that I give Canadians a bad name. Sorry, Canada (not sorry). In one day, I get told that I have a good personality and that I’m a disgrace to my country. Can’t win ‘em all. (Side note: a few locals/backpackers have told me that Perth/Melbourne are known to have more rowdy guys looking to fight. Who knows, but so far it seems like that might be true (Gone aggro, mate!))

It was 3am when we got back to the hostel, though it didn’t feel that late. Funny, since I had considered going to bed at 10 that night. The devil spooned me for a bit until I fell asleep.