Sunday, September 24, 2006
Freo, at Last!
We're enjoying a cloudy day in Freemantle, or as the locals affectionately call it, 'Freo'. The Aussie rules football team here just lost to Sydney last night, so the town is in a general state of despair. Freemantle is on the Indian Ocean, at the mouth of the Swan river. Perth is place on the same river about 20 kilometers upstream. Freo is a shipping town (much like Oakland) and has embraced their heritage of whaling, shipwrecks and general surlyness. We've been to two aquatic-themed museums, the shipwreck museum and the maritime museum. I wonder if there was a falling out at some point between the two.Freo has preserved all of its old architecture and buildings, a contrast from Perth which has adopted a more modern urban mantra. There are sections of the city that feel like a hodgepodge of different condo developments. Perth has an isolated, mid-western feel, like a Billups, Wyoming or a Sioux Falls, South Dakota . Today marks the 150th anniversary of the City of Perth and there couldn't be less made of it. A drawback of being a sleepy little town, I guess.
posted by ncawthon at 11:15 AM
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