New ground

A couple of hours ago, the plane I boarded early this morning on Bali landed on Australian ground. It’s hard to estimate how long and for how many years I’ve been dreaming about visiting this continent and now it’s finally happening.

I’m in Perth, a city I barely knew existed earlier but since that was the place I happened to find an amazingly cheap flight ticket for, that’s where I ended up. Right now I’m trying to get acclimatized to the new environment but it feels like that shouldn’t be too hard. The lack of humidity is a welcoming aspect. That makes the steady 30 Celsius degrees a bit more bearable than they’ve been for the last 3 months in the Southeast Asian countries.

I am always so fascinated about the way my expectations play tricks on me. This time I had the feeling that Perth would be pretty small, rugged, dirty, a bit unpleasant and that it would not be much around since it’s basically the only major city on the west coast. When I was riding the bus into town I realized how wrong I was. This city is beautiful.

I expected some kind of brown desert and was welcomed by green parks, lakes and neatly laid roads. It’s extremely clean and I think it’s the first time coming to a new place when I’m not overwhelmed by derricks, cranes and construction work. Most things already seems finished.

I was also a bit shocked about the calmness and the lack of people. After visiting huge and tightly packed places like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, this city is almost empty. It’s a relief to be able to walk the streets or take a nice stroll in the park without having to navigate and squeeze yourself between people.

I am definitely thrilled to explore this place further, later cross the continent to Sydney, hopefully spot some kangaroos during the way and overall have a good time. If you have been in Australia before, (or if you’re here now) I would love to hear your experiences.