Nov 30 - Two Flights and Perth Struggle

Woke up shortly after 6 AM today, after nodding in and out of sleep all night on the airport chairs. It served its purpose and saved us a night in a hostel and a bunch of extra travel to and from the city, but it certainly wasn't ideal in terms of waking up refreshed. We wandered to the terminal and checked in for our flight to Melbourne, then did security, exit customs, etc. which are always such a chore to go through with a mess of lines and a poor set-up. The flight was alright and we got movies (although no meal as we had just base level tickets this time) to keep us entertained. I finished watching Dinner for Schmucks, which I hadn't quite finished before we landed in NZ almost a month ago, then a bit of Invictus (but got bored), then Date Night (which wasn't anything special). Brennan just opted to sleep, as he wasn't feeling so great (from the McDonald's he is guessing). Got off in Melbourne and we had 5 hours until our next flight over to Perth. Tried to check in but it was too early to drop bags, so we had Subway and then sat on a bench for a couple hours (there was no good seating in the waiting area of the domestic terminal). We went back to Jetstar to check-in and drop our bags literally one minute after we were allowed to, and the lineup was massive. 45 minutes later we got to the desk and tiredly checked our luggage then lined up for security and then waited by the gate. I had a couple Krispy Kreme donuts (they have none in NZ or Perth) that I have been craving since I left Australia. Boarded the plane and there were no TVs! What a ripoff; stupid discount, no-frills airlines... Listened to music and tried to awkwardly sleep on the too short, too narrow seats with minimal leg room (although a bit better than the last Jetstar flight from Christchurch to Auckland). When we landed in Perth we had to wait on the tarmac for 57 minutes before a gate was ready and we were allowed to get off the plane. Then went through entry customs and got our bags and went outside.

Wham. Mega heat. I think it was 37 degrees today in Perth and it definitely felt like it. We hopped on the air conditioned bus to the city, but it was a city bus, not a shuttle and thus went through a bunch of residential areas (that looked a bit sketchy like a slum), made a bunch of stops and took quite some time to reach the city center. We hopped off eventually and walked to the YHA. We hadn't booked ahead as there was plenty of room when we checked yesterday. Well there wasn't any room today. So we had to go on the internet and scout out a different hostel. Almost everywhere in the city was full. And here we thought Perth was supposed to be LESS busy than the east coast for backpackers. We found one with room eventually and used a map to make our way through increasingly sketchy areas to get to it. Check-in was a gong show and we ended up in different rooms and there is no air conditioning (keep in mind what the temperature was today) and it's generally run-down, but it's been WAY too long of a day, so we said whatever, let's just stay here a night. "Cash only, guys." Of course. Got money from an ATM and paid the front desk then dropped our bags into our respective (yet equally dark, hot and smelly) rooms. We wandered until we found a Woolworths and got some shampoo (as ours had run out our last day in Christchurch) and looked for a pharmacy for Brennan's head/stomach ache. Unsuccessful on that quest, and kind of got turned around in the process, so getting back (in the dark which unexpectedly arrived at like 7 PM) took awhile and showed us even more of the city's dodgy residents and neighbourhoods. It's not so much dangerous sketchy as it is just dirty and slummy. All around the downtown and between the airport and downtown. Things are really not looking promising for Perth and our future in it as working citizens. We're going to check out of this slum hostel tomorrow morning and look for better accomodation (perhaps in Fremantle, which is a suburb) and evaluate what to do next. Right now it seems likely that we fly out of here within the next couple days and go try our luck in Sydney, but it could be that I'm just over-tired and irritable and have had a wicked long day. We'll see how things look tomorrow. But this city needs to pull off a miracle at this point for us to stay 4 months here...