well i’m on my way…

Although I’m writing mostly about yesterday, today is Day 38 

I just realized I can post replies to replies!  Who hoo!

 I went to the Fremantle markets today to see what there was to see.  There were a bunch of stalls selling the same things found at every other market-clothes, homewares, magic pens, baby clothes, random things made out of hemp, jewellry, fruit, cakes, pies, indian food, fish…For being so advertized and talked about, I thought it would be bigger.  It was still very cool though.  I was able to sample the fruit before I bought it-and found the juiciest plums I have ever tasted in my life!  I bought 3 plums and 3 bananas for $2-which is around an American buck-fifty.  I also purchased a pair of “fisherman’s pants”-very popular pants in Australia that are so huge you have to fold one of the pant legs into itself to tie it around your waist.  They’re made of…cotton?  Linen?  They’re green with a multicolored striped print that folds down over the tie at my waist.  (Meghan, I can see your disgusted look now) 

When I started getting hungry, I went back to the hostel (gotta save money!) for lunch.  On my walk, I heard the so familiar guitar strumming of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”.  There was a man sitting leaning up on the side of a building (wearing fisherman’s pants) singing the song.  I came up on him as he was singing “when you got nothing you got nothing to lose”.  I got goosebumps.  I slowed down to savour the moment and listened with all my attention as I walked away.  Thanks, guy. 

After lunch of EasyMac and two plums, I headed back out to the Fremantle Arts Centre where the History Museum is housed.  The museum was so good.  The entry fee was a recommended donation of $2, which I happily paid.  There was a good exhibit on the founding of the settlement of Fremantle, with a lot of artifacts from those early days in the late 1800s, a great exhibit on what the building was used as over the years (prison, insane asylum, women’s home, and housing for American WWII soldiers), and an excellent exhibit on migration to Western Australia.  It was so moving and really informative.  It made me wonder about the immigration and migration of the US.  I’m finding that the more I learn, the more I don’t know, and that realization strengthens my desire to learn more.  It’s a rewarding cycle. 

Now I know I haven’t told you about many of the people I’ve met in my journey, but one guy I met last night will stand out, if only for his barefoot philosophy that I want to share with you.  I noticed that he didn’t wear shoes (I met him in the hostel-no big deal being barefoot there, but when we went for a walk, he didn’t flinch as we walked over all types of rough concrete) and asked him about it.  He told me that people miss out on so much of where they are and where they are going by wearing shoes.  “How can you really know a place without feeling it though your feet?”  I thought it was a good question, and took off my shoes until the ground got too rough, which was very quickly.

When it got cold, we went back to the hostel and played table tennis until the people watching real tennis on TV were giving us dirty looks-I guess our terrible game was distracting them from watching the pros.     

Today I will go back to the markets to see if there is anything new to look at, find an old bookshop so I can smell the beautiful smell of old books, check out the free part of the Fremantle Prison, and pack.  I’m heading on a 5 day tour tomorrow to see the southwest region on WA.  So, I might not be able to get on the internet for a few days, as a warning to those of you who might worry (Mom!) 

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.