First Days in the Central Business District (CBD)



Perth from the top of Jacobs Ladder

We spent the first couple of days exploring the CBD (only a 10 minute walk from our apartment) and venturing into Kings Park. There's a 242-step staircase called Jacob's Ladder just around the corner from our apartment that takes you from the banks of the Swan River up into the Park. Some of our early impressions of the city were of people running, biking and sweating.

Sense of Direction: Way off. I started seeking help from the compass on my iPhone. Something to do with the curviness of river (it really doesn't run east-west only) and possible the fact that the sun is in the northern part of the sky.

 

Central Business District Mall

The CBD runs primarily along two streets, Hay and Murray. Various sections are blocked off to vehicle traffic. A couple blocks have free wifi so we ended up gravitating back to those areas a few times to send photos and emails. Mostly though this was a time for recovering from jet lag (no small task).

At first everything in the CBD was quiet (too quiet....). There was a 50-70% sale in most stores for Boxing Day but the streets were practically empty and many of the restaurants were closed. In America, the lack of crowds would be a catastrophe. In Perth, it was to be expected since everyone was on holiday.


 

Coffee



More coffee (see tiny Chris at bottom)

Groceries!! 

Crisis averted

 One of the first things we did was to find a grocery store (there's a kitchen in our apartment). As you can see, rumors about the absence of peanut butter (from our dentist who visited 15 years ago) were greatly exaggerated. Chris will be able to survive in Perth.

The greatest shock has been the price of food. We knew it was going to be expensive, but weren't prepared! Not only is the beer expensive ($10 at a restaurant; $2.65 for a beer in a can from a grocery store) but the vegetables are outrageous. It's hard to find anything less than $4-5/kg. Right now the exchange rate is about 1:1 so it's easy to do the math. Of course, this is the city and we've heard that things are a bit cheaper in the surrounding areas.



Chris BEFORE

Hat Hunt

The sun really does feel more intense here. One of the first things we bought was a tub of 30+ sunblock. We began searching for hat that would cover Chris's neck and face. Lots of strolling through stores until we found it. Now he has nothing to fear from above.
 

Chris AFTER



Park at a Hwy Interchange across from the Mounts Bay Apts

 Beginning to Explore Kings Park 



Kings Park is a 1,000-acre natural area and landscaped park on the Swan River in the middle of Perth. It is a central place for public functions on holidays (picnicking, playgrounds, lawns, visitor center, etc.) and a place to see and learn about native vegetation of western Australia. We have a lot more to explore. Especially natural bush areas. I love that dry stuff! The Boab tree is native to the Kimberly region (far northern area of Western Australia and are relatives of the more well-known Baobab tree of Africa. The nuts on the tree are reported to taste like sherbet. What kind of sherbet they didn't say (and note that they did not say that they tasted like sorbet). They (there's an even larger one estimated at 750 years old just behind this one) were saved from destruction during a highway project and shipped all the way to Perth.



Kings Park trail in the bush

 

Boab tree at Kings Park