In the City - Perth

We have arrived!! Ahhhhh so so happy to be here, and to be exploring our first pinpoint on our exploration map. Perth City!

Our trip around the city was like a dot-to-dot between cafes, bars and resturants.I just can't help but plan a trip that revolves around trying local cuisine. So enjoy - this little insight into the dots on our puzzle and what I thought of them. Hopefully this will help you out if you ever decide to visit yourself!

Our official first stop was a random (very empty) bar, where we sat and planned the rest of our evening over half a pint of larger. So.. we will ignore this one and go straight to the juicy bits.

Our ACTUAL first stop was 'The Aivary'. A lovely, (very instagramable) roof top bar decorated like a 5* hotel sun deck, minus the sun loungers. Palm trees and umbrellas included creating the feel of a beach side resort, when infact it was more... curb side?

This is where the photo above was pictured. I had a blueberry cocktail as was excited that they were putting crushed blueberries around the rim of the glass, only later to find out it was SALT!! Spat the entire mouthful out on the floor and then continued to wash my mouth out while wiping the vile black salt off the glass with a napkin. However, if you are less of a tequila virgin than me, i'd reccomend! Lets not expect alcohol reccomendation from me aye? After my staple drink of barcardi and orange juice to wash the salt down, we headed to our next stop.

Dinner at 'The Globe'. The Globe was a quirky, modern resturant that served mainly burgers and fancy sandwhiches. I had my first vegan 'burger' of Australia - while the chips and bread were lovely, the burger itself tasted like greens paste - far far from the vegan burgers at home. Wow i'm really selling the food and drink here in Australia aren't I... Ah well, the weather and atmosphere defintely makes up for it.

After dinner we continued the bar crawl to a place called 'The shoe', which we only stopped in as it looked cool from the outside, as it wasn't part of our original plan. The place looked over a busy square, a fantastic people watching spot from the balcony. It reminded be of an American sports bar, like a posh version of where you'd meet after a soccar game. That's one thing I have already noticed about Perth, everywhere just feels more fancy. Maybe its the very modern twist on everything? But if these places existed in England, I certainly wouldn't be aloud in in my flip-flops. Here, we had the tastiest cocktails we have ever had. I had a salted caramel espresso martini, while Bobbie had a bubblegum flavoured cocktail. Neither tasted like alcohol and where super yummy. Success!

'The Mechnics' was our next stop. This was another trendy roof top bar (surprise, are you getting the vibe now), but with a more grundgy vibe. It was like the bar was squished inbetween two high vise buildings. A long and narrow space with metal pergoda's and hanging plants. The bar being the only inside point. The bar man was lovely and chatty (like most Aussies we have spoken to) and helped us choose our drinks. I had a can of cider with an oaky undertone, while Bobbie had a cocktail made to taste - a citrusy one with elderflower.

Once we finished our drinks our next stop was 'Joe's Juice Bar'. This bar was well hidden at the end of an alley and was situated in the basement. Definetely no hanging plants and pergodas this time. Think rock and roll vibes. We both had a joba juice while sat enjoying the rock and roll music and obsque decor (including bras hanging from the ceiling), before dark walls and basement clostrophobia got too much for me and we moved on.

Next stop was 'Henry Summers' - a tropical style bar (ah back to the hanging plants), with a mostly outside venue. Here I had a corona (larger not virus) as there was less of a selection of drinks. We were quickly joined by two locals who showed far too much of an interest for my liking (ops). So after a quick bathroom break we made a swift exit to avoid any more of their company.

The last stop of the night, and my favourite was 'The Palace Arcade' - while the name reminded me of the nightclub from home, this place couldn't have been more different. This bar was filled with retro arcade games including pacman and tonnes of pinball machines. We each got a drink (water and squash at this point) as well as a card with credit on ready for game play. We played a few games upstairs before we headed down into the basement to play pinball. One game in, and 3 Ausie guys came to join us, and we spend the rest of the night battling them to retro races.

Ok, so the actual last stop of the night was our trip to find fast food. Not many places were still open, or close by. So, we headed to 'Lord of the Fries' - a vegan fast food place that was previously reccomended. This is a MUST NOT MISS food joint, especially for my fellow vegans. You haven't had vegan junk food until you've had Lord of the Fries. I had a chick'n burger, while Bobbie had chick'n nuggets and chips! Honestly the best vegan burger i've ever had. Just what we needed.

After a rough night in the hostel with less than 3 hours sleep - thanks to our fellow residents - we headed in search of a brunch place. Flora and Fauna was reccomended to us as a good spot! This all vegan cafe lived up to all expertations, and served us the most 'instagramable' food i'd ever seen. I had salted caramel waffles with mango coulé and fruit (largest selection of fruit ever - including a very yummy poached pear), and Bobie had mushrooms, humus and aioli on a toasted bagel. Both were delicous.

After brunch we got the train slightly out of the city centre to Freemantle. This is the harbouside location of Perth filled with cute little shops and resturants everywhere. Here we visited Freemantle market where we had a fresh lemonade and sushi. We took our lunch to the park before having a look at Bathers beach. This beach was right next to the harbour and was filled with sculptures, many of which had a conservation focus behind them which was fantastic!

We then walked back to the train station and traveled back to Mandurah. And that was our whistlestop tour in Perth revolved around food and drink!