Kalgoorlie

On Saturday I made plans to "knock off" early from work and catch the train to Kalgoorlie. It is a two hour train ride there so I arrived around 2 in the afternoon. Once I got off the train I walked to my hostel which was only a view blocks from the train station. Kalgoorlie has a population of approximately 35,000. I spent the afternoon wondering around. I wasn't thinking and didn't go to the supermarket until after 6pm and it was already closed. Since I didn't get there I didn't have any breakfast for the next day or any super for that night. I ended up with some fish and chips and spent the evening back at the hostel reading and chatting with others. I went to bed around 11:30 but was awaken around 2 am by the other girls staying in my room. Apparently people don't have respect for others staying in the room since they decided to turn the light on and stay up reading and eating chips for over an hour. Needless to say I didn't get a very good sleep that night. I was totally planning on being loud and turning on the light when I got up, but they just happened to be up and around by the time I got back from my shower. I had a tour booked that started at 9:30am. They picked me up at the hostel and took us for a tour of Kalgoorlie. We then went to the super pit lookout. We also went to the Kalgoorlie 2up. I don't know much about the game except that it sounds like heads or tails and you place bets on it. It is illegal to play on everyday except ANZAC day. The place they play is actually in the middle of no where with a big circle that has benches all around it. There is sort of a patched up tin shelter around it, definitely nothing special. After that we went to Boulder for a wonder around and had lunch. We also stopped in a pub to check out the old mine shaft that was in the floor. After lunch we went to the Mining Hall of Fame. We also took a tour of an old mine. We went underground about 30 feet. It was a working mine until the 1950's. We spent about 45 minutes under ground. It was very interesting. We spent the whole afternoon wondering around the hall of fame. Since I didn't sleep very well I ended up with a terrible headache. I got back to the hostel around 5pm. I spent the evening trying to get rid of the headache so I didn't even leave my room. When I woke up this morning I was feeling much better. I went for a big breakfast since I didn't have supper the night before. I then went back to the hostel and checked out. I left my backpack there and then went to the Museum of Western Australia. I spent about an hour and half checking out the place. After that I went over to one of the brothels on the famous Hay Street. My hostel was actually not to far down the street. There are three working brothels in Kalgoorlie. I wanted to take a tour but only one offered a tour in time for me to catch my train back to Southern Cross. It was actually very interesting. I would have liked to tour the other brothels to compare. This one had been rebuild not too long ago so it was fairly nice. It is amazing to think a city of that size can support three brothels. The other brothels both claimed to be the oldest in town. I'm sure if the walls could talk, they would have some interesting stories. After the tour I went back to the hostel to grab my bags and then walked over to the train station. The ride home wasn't so great since I had to sit beside a stinky old man. I was happy to get back to Southern Cross to my own bed.
Until next time,
Cindy