Why exactly Australia, but above all why Perth? Why not the beautiful Sidney or the Melbourne surfer? These are the questions that are asked most frequently by the people we have met up to now on our journey, but especially by those we have left at home.
The first question can be answered very simply by saying that Australia has been, is, and always will be a destination for the common, coveted, intriguing, mysterious imagination. A land far from everything that usually surrounds us. I remember the finger that as children we pointed to the geographical atlas, exactly on that continent whose name we remembered only for kangaroos and crystal clear waters. A place so far away even on paper that it made us scare and fantasize at the same time. In countering this answer, Australia is exactly how you imagine it. The reproduction of our mental postcards was perfectly represented at the exact moment when our European feet touched the ground of the new continent.
Before I answer why Clex and I chose Perth, I have to make a premise. Our intent has always been to undertake an experience; to fill our eyes with landscapes never seen, to give vent to our photographic lenses, but above all to change our life path, the same, monotonous and unsatisfactory.
Perth
Perth was designed as our first destination, the starting point of a much longer itinerary, different from most backpackers who undertake the Australian experience. A young city, thirsting for modernity and therefore in continuous and rapid growth. The capital of Western Australia is a handful of shiny gray, in the green of a plain bathed by the huge Swan River.
Not only a maritime city, but an intriguing combination of avant-garde and nature spread a step away from the Indian ocean. He fascinated us since the first searches on the web, and we were pushed almost involuntarily to immerse ourselves in his unbridled life. Not at all chaotic, full of perfectly functioning public services, perhaps given its very low population density (315 inhabitants \ km ^ 2).
All this has allowed two foreigners of the travel mood like us to settle in gently to life, not always too simple, beyond the contours of the boot.
To adapt…
Like everything new, before being understood, managed and metabolized it must be tested. The adaptation of every single person to a new place is a totally personal experience. I do not deny the constant presence of our difficulties in the first weeks of staying in a share house, or in a house shared with other people.
What has strained our patience and our spirit of adaptation since the beginning was certainly the lack of our own, personal spaces, limited only to the bedroom. Bathroom and kitchen have always been in common since then. The other decisive factor for our mental health was certainly the food; on the other hand, how it would be possible to blame us as young Italians who grew up in the best cuisine in the world.
Entering a supermarket and not being able to find those things that until then were necessary for your routine, which have pampered and reassured you. Leave the house and have no idea where to go and how long you will be able to do it. Ask for information in still too tarnished English. Have no reference points except your dear old friend Google. No, it wasn't easy, but it was necessary.
... and change
At a certain point, however, the primordial instinct for survival is triggered involuntarily, or perhaps much more simply, the wanderlust syndrome begins to take off; so you realize that traveling and finding yourself daily having to get by yourself in the best way, becomes for you the only purpose, and the greatest desire.
Traveling, discovering new places, living with strangers whose names you sometimes don't even know, being constantly in contact with mixed cultures, different from yours. Becoming part of different ways of thinking, being able to fully perceive that even the verbal expressions used in your language, have a different effect for the others, stimulates you to improve yourself, intrigues you and makes you grow in an incredible way.
Therefore, adapting becomes necessary, but after some time it becomes spontaneous. Rediscover yourself in a way you never imagined could be part of your DNA. You wake up in the morning and are proud of you, happy to have taken that one-way plane ticket, grateful for having the opportunity to find out what is beyond the small world that they have built around you.
