Albany Adventures

Me, Nathan, Jenn, Jamie at Whale World

Overlooking a beach in Albany

Whale world!

Jenn, Rhys, Nathan, and I at the gap and bridge rock formations

Jenn, Jamie and I all geared up for Paintball (aside from our helmets of course)

I can’t believe my two week break is practically over already! I just returned to Perth yesterday afternoon after spending 5 nights in Albany. Our week was full of adventures.
Saturday morning Jenn and I woke up early so we could catch a bus and a train to get to the Station where our bus would leave for Albany. We bought our tickets as soon as we got to the station but all the tickets were sold out for the bus route that takes six hours, so we were stuck with the one that takes a different and longer route (about 7 hours). It was a coach bus and quite comfortable so we were able to catch up on much needed sleep from the previous week. Of course, somehow, even though the bus wasn’t very crowded, we ended up with three loud little kids near us. When we arrived in Albany, Rhys and Nathan were waiting for us at the bus station. We headed back to Rhys’s house to meet his family. Rhys is originally from England but his family moved to Albany four years ago. Nathan is one of Rhys’s roommates from Curtin, and he didn’t go home to Canberra (the capital of Australia) because it is so far away and quite expensive to travel. Rhys’s mom and dad were so wonderful to us all week. His mom was an amazing cook. I haven’t eaten so well in a long time! After dinner, the four of us headed over to hang out with a few of Rhys’s friends from Albany. Later we walked to the “downtown” area to go to the Albany night club. However, we decided to head home because it was so crowded the line was so long.

The next morning we slept in…finally. Rhys took us to some of the tourist places around Albany. We went to see really cool rock formations known as the Gap and the Bridge. Then, we went to Hungry Jacks for lunch (which is just like Burger King), mostly because I really wanted French fries because I gave them up for Lent. We thought it would be fun to take our food and eat down at the beach; however, after two minutes we were surrounded by seagulls. That night, some of Rhys’s and Nathans friends from Curtin were stopping by Albany for the night, and they were planning to camp out in the backyard. However, they arrived around 8:30 expecting dinner and without camping gear. Things got a little out of hand because the Tilbury’s weren’t exactly prepared for four others to spend the night in their house. And some of them weren’t very willing to sleep on the floor, so they ended up leaving around midnight to find other accommodation. To make a long story short, they probably won’t ever be invited back to the Tilbury’s house.

On Monday, we woke up and we went to the set of the Australian T.V. show called Lockie Leonard. It was really neat, but it would have been even cooler if I had actually seen the show before. Afterwards we headed to the beach because it was such a nice day. We drove about 45 minutes to a really secluded beach. Along the way, Rhys asked who wanted to learn how to drive his manual truck. Jenn volunteered first. Aside from stalling about 5 times, she did well considering she had never driven a manual and it was her first time driving on the opposite side of the road. Once we arrived at the beach, we still walked another 15 minutes before we arrived at the perfect beach location. This walk involved climbing up and down slippery rocks. It was hard to keep up with the five guys but we managed. On the way home, Nathan tried driving a manual car for the second time, and he did pretty well. Later that night we hung out and watched a movie together.

Tuesday we hung out at Rhys’s house in the morning, and Jamie (one of our friends from Curtin University) was on her way back up to Perth, so she stopped by for a little while. The five of us went to Whale World in the afternoon. There we got to learn all about whaling, as it was a previous whaling station/port. Jamie and Nathan headed back up to Perth later that afternoon. I tried driving Manual that night, but only drove on the road near Rhys’s house. My Dad taught me how to drive manual a little a few years ago but I was really uncomfortable driving manual. This time, however, I didn’t even stall! It was really weird driving on the left side of the road though.

On our last full day in Albany, we went to a historic Fort in Albany. The lady let me in free because we think she thought I was a little kid in the backseat. We got a good laugh out of that. We were running a few errands and Jenn and I realized neither of us had appropriate clothing for paintball (we had a reservation to play on Friday morning back in Perth). So we went to Salvation Army (the Australians call it Salvos) to pick up some old t-shirts. Then, also went to well known squid shack restaurant for a snack. There, Jenn and I tried fried squid. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t my favorite. Our last dinner was wonderful, as usual. I tried coronation chicken, which I had never tried before. We relaxed and watched a movie later that night. We went to bed at a decent hour because we were leaving the next morning at 7 am. The Tilbury’s drove back to Perth the next morning, and it only took about 4.5 hours, instead of the 7 hours it took on the bus.

We arrived back at Curtin around noon. It was Komal’s birthday, so we took her out for dinner later that night and a few of us hung out afterward. Today went to play paintball at a place that was about an hour away. I must admit I was quite nervous. I was with a lot of others who had also never been before so that made it a little less scary. The first game I got shot pretty bad because after I got hit I surrendered and someone still kept shooting me! It really stung the first time, but it wasn’t too bad. And then I got hit on the top of my head a little later and that hurt even more. I ended up having a lot of fun, but I definitely have proof that I played. .. I have about 6 bruises/welts on my body. We were so dirty after playing because we had all been crawling around in the dirt. We went home to take showers and then we planned to go see the new Fast and Furious Movie in the theatre. Once we arrived at the theatre, we found out that all of the tickets were sold out for each showing. So went to Blockbuster and rented a few movies. I have really been enjoying the break, but tomorrow I really need to focus on the one major assignment that I haven’t even looked at since the break started!