We made it and actually built a "new" life here in Perth, the capital of the state of Western Australia. We both work and live in a small rented apartment in Subiaco, a district of Perth.
Airbnb in Canning Vale
How it all started: On 6. April, exactly one year after we started our world trip, we arrived in Perth, one of the most isolated cities in the world. For the first three weeks we wanted to stay in an Airbnb apartment in the suburb of Canning Vale. We paid 36 euros per day for this little dream apartment – which is much cheaper than any hotel or hostel in the city. Instead we had our own fully equipped and completely renovated apartment, which we can highly recommend.
The only disadvantage: the apartment is far away from the city center. To get to town, we had to ride a total of approx. 40 minutes by bus and a train. Not only does it cost money in the long run, but it costs a lot of time as well. Time you don't have in the morning when you want to work at a breakfast cafe in Subiaco. Also, bus connections are pretty bad – many buses don't run at all on weekends, or run infrequently.
Rental apartment in Subiaco
So what did we do: We were very lucky to meet Jeannie and Rob. They own a small apartment in beautiful Subiaco. This is only a 2 minute walk from the train station and about 10 minutes from the free CAT buses.
They wanted to rent this apartment to a young couple – preferably for at least 12 months. I immediately fell in love with the apartment, but since we only plan to stay here in Perth for 6 months, we didn't think we had much of a chance. Jeannie and Rob, however, fell in love with us immediately (we know because they keep telling us🙂 ) and wanted to settle for 6 months.
However, since we didn't have any jobs at the time and didn't know if we would get any (you can learn more about job hunting in this Work& Travel contribution), we wanted to commit ourselves finally only to 4 weeks – with the option of extension. The apartment was dead for us – we thought.
But there we had not counted on Jeannie and Rob, who wanted to think about it at first, but 10 minutes later agreed to us!! And that, although many nice young couples had looked at the apartment and the two could have certainly immediately someone for 12 months to move in. But Jeannie and Rob wanted us.
Only one day after the acceptance we already moved – although we had paid the Airbnb apartment still for one week. We could only afford that because Jeannie and Rob didn't charge us rent for the first week (everything is paid weekly here and you get paid weekly). Can you believe it?.
Our jobs in Perth
Only one day after our move Basti got a call and his first job interview. 2 days later we had jobs – both not far from our new apartment. If that times was not fate🙂 . Our jobs are physically demanding (we were both office bunnies in Germany), but we enjoy them and we earn good money together – since 2 weeks now already.
Tomorrow we want to finally go out for a nice meal and buy some wine from our earned money – we have been holding off on that until now. The last rent (we pay 350 Australian dollars per week) we have also already paid from our wages🙂 . This feels very good.