Australia Adventures #5

After the zoo, we decided it was time for lunch. Teh Bear posted on reddit a few week prior to my trip asking fellow redditors where in Perth there was good food and fun things to do. I used that post as a basis for my food selection when we were in the city. I decided that Flying Taco sounded pretty cool, so I pulled up the directions on Suzy (GPS on my phone (Google's Navigation program)).

Now you're wondering, how did Suzy work in Australia?  Well, Suzy worked, but my phone didn't.  The internet in Australia is completely different than in America.  Be glad, my fellow Americans.  The internet there is sold via data plans.  You have to buy the modem, either usb or wireless, and usually those modems come with a certain amount of free GB.  My modem was $100 with 5GB, and I got a $30 credit, which was 699MB.  Teh Bear and I quickly figured out that a 30 minute Skype call used 400MB, so Skype calls would be limited.  I used the internet every day at work and when we went out, so I could use Suzy to get us around western Australia.  There are actually still Australia locations in Suzy.  I think she's trying to tell me something...

Despite Suzy getting us directly to Flying Taco, and there was even a parking spot almost directly in front of the restaurant...  They weren't open.  W.T.F Western Australia (WA)?  Something I learned about WA..  places close early (5/6pm) and will probably closed on random day(s) during the week, they will also close early on the weekends.  Despite all this, there isn't really much to do AFTER closing hours.  I was told that it would be different in Sydney and I was very grateful.

We then decided to try a different mexican restaurant, but it had completely shut down, so we drove around a little bit and found a strip of food places.  After finding parking, we ended up at Jus Burgers.  It was a little shop, a bit crowded, but it was delicious.

Proof:

First bite.  Lesson: eating pictures aren't very photogenic moments.

Excuse me while I wear this burger.  It was really tall for such a small burger.

Starting to laugh because the photos were being taken and I'd started to look like a gerbil with stuffed cheeks.

The burger I ordered was a "mini" so it was perfect sized for me.  It was pretty much a regular burger with a big mushroom cap on it.  DELICIOUSSSSSSSSS!!!!

I think this was from the zoo, but it's too pretty NOT to share!

After lunch, we struck out again.  I wanted to hit up some souvenir shops and we also wanted to see the beach.  We arrived at the Indian Ocean with minimal issues!!!

Hello, Indian Ocean, nice to meet you!

Hands in..  I tried very hard not to get splashed, but my shoes and pants just didn't make it.

Bahrain definitely helped me appreciate clouds!

Critters on the rocks.

SPLASH!

The perfect circles made me very curious.

The storm was rolling in, but the surfers didn't seem to care.

Footprints! :)

Can you find the birdie?

Just a casual stroll in the foam.

<3

As I was walking up the stairs to go back to the car, I noticed this guy!

The rules!

After playing in the water and photos, we decided to head up the coast and see what we could see. We ended up finding a water park/shopping center/restaurant plaza extravaganza! So much to do, we were a little sad we'd already eaten because there were so many options at this place we'd discovered (which I knew the name of, but now I can't remember). I did find some souvenirs (YAY, presents!). After we finished walking around the place, we decided to drive back into Perth so I could get some night shots of the city!!! I was really excited about this. I'd brought my tripod to Australia just for this opportunity. We were also on the hunt for more souvenir shops, but that was less important than the picture takin'.

My travel companion was very patient with my spaztastic self when it came to taking pictures.  He even taught me something about my tripod (which I might have known, but had definitely forgotten), the ability to flip the base to shoot in portrait orientation.  Which came in handy later in the evening.

After parking and doing some shopping, we headed towards the main street and towards this tower that was changing colors.  On the way to the tower, we noticed a building that was lighting up different colors.  I deemed this building "Teh Rainbow Building" and vowed to come back and shoot photos of it.  After getting photos of the tower, I took too many photos of Teh Rainbow Building blocked by the City Hall building.  After we had experienced the light show, we headed back up the street where we stopped at Teh Rainbow Building again... where I took over 100 photos of the building since we caught the light show again!!!!  Seriously, my travel companion was EXTREMELY patient with me.  I probably would have wanted to kill someone like me by this point.  We then decided we were tired and should head back to the resort.  I took some random long exposure traffic shots, but I was tired and the wind was blowing so my patience was short and the shots weren't steady, so I gave up and we headed to the car.

What you need to know about Perth...

Laying eyes on Teh Rainbow Building, holding the camera steady via the power box.

/squeal "IT CHANGES COLORS AND ITS A RAINBOW!!!!!"

A big moon rising.

The colored tower

These looked like calligraphy tips to me, but we could never pinpoint what this "work of art" actually was.

I'd say this isn't the tree that was "felled" to start the city of Perth.

We were very appreciative of the reflection of the lights on the other building.

The colored tower being colored!

More color!

A fountain in front of Teh Rainbow Building

Teh Rainbow Building blocked by city hall.  Wasted a lot of time taking pictures from this direction because I was sooooo excited about the rainbow light show.

Traffic long exposures, since my tripod was close by.

I tried to get the red/yellow light changing to green, but the lack of patience and the wind made it impossible.

You didn't think I was just going to hype up Teh Rainbow Building and not show it to you, right????  Pfffth.  100+ photos of that sucker says you will.  Better yet, instead of photo spam, I give you a .gif!!!!!!  Please excuse the way the building crawls across the frame, I was having to hold the camera at it's angle, so for 100 photos, I think I did rather well.

Teh Rainbow Building!!!!!!!

PS.  Teh Rainbow Building was truly my most favoritest thing in Perth.  You couldn't tell in the photos, but at one point, we realized there were letters scrolling across the building that said City of Perth.  Then it went into full on rainbow mode and I could barely contain my excitement.


PPS.  Making a 95 frame .gif out of super huge jpeg's (since they are significantly smaller than RAW files) proved to be a challenge.  As you can see, I WON (despite 3 forced photoshop crashes and 1 no-response-crash)!!!!





Want to catch up on the Australia Adventures???1st day off in Australia (summary)
2nd day off in Australia (summary)
San Francisco (photos)
Perth Zoo a, b, c (photos)
The Indian Ocean and downtown Perth at night (photos)
Caversham Wildlife Park a, b, c (photos)
Fremantle Prison (photos)
walking around Fremantle (the city) (photos)
Perth from King's Park (photos)
HMAS Ovens (submarine) (photos)
Sydney at night (photos and a story)
Sydney in the morning (photos and a story)
Australia Panoramics (photos)