Perth, part one: of bambolas and cupcakesniffers

Early Saturday morning my suitcase and I made our merry way back to Sydney Airport. On the train I made the acquaintance of two rather likeable Aussie boys, leftover from Friday night and still a little drunk. They asked me questions and told me very serious stories all the way to my stop, and one of them even broke out in "If You're Going to San Francisco" when he found out where I was from.

As I was disembarking, he asked, "So was it worth the sixteen dollars, this train ride?" I replied, "Oh yes, definitely."

Several hours later I landed in Perth, on the far side of Australia. I was greeted at the airport by LIV, one of my most favorite peoples on the whole internet, carrying refreshments and a sign with my name. She did not even abandon me when the airport security dog outed me for having contraband in my bag. (A tangerine peel from New South Wales, gasp!)

My gracious Perth beautifuls had already arranged way ahead of time who would watch me on which days. Saturday was a Liv Day.

After dropping off my suitcase at the House of Bambola, we trained it into the city. There we:

meandered 'round the shopping district;

dipped our feet in the Swan River;

rinsed them off in the bell tower/rocket ship moat;



dropped in on a friend of Liv's at his work;

and hunted down one Em at her work.

Look, Em made this sign. She really does have a thing for cupcakes!



And blew bubbles in the subway, of course.






As it was a hot day and I was itching to see the Indian Ocean, we went next to the beach. There, we:

stood in the waves for a while;

took some instant photos with my Diana;



encountered some teenyboppers;

and lolled around in the sun talking in that peculiar getting-to-know-you way of blogger friends who've known each other for ages but only just met.

It was wonderful.











On our way home (car full of wind and late sun and music...) we stopped by the apartment Liv owns but doesn't live in.



After a freshen-up at the House of Bambola, we went over to Em's gingerbread cottage of a house and I was handed off to the cupcakesniffer herself.

Preview: