Freo

Fremantle or Freo as the locals call it did not start off well. we had booked into a hostel for 2 nights that the lonely planet guide said was great...but no. Whilst the staff were friendly, the kitchen had nothing washed and everything left in the sink,our room had some long-termers in it and they had left all there stuff everywhere and it was a pit, there was a lot of renovation work going on which had not been mentioned when we booked - the showers near our dorm were being repaired, so the toilets there were a mess and the showers were at the other end of the building and were often cold then we found out one of the guys snored! Foolishly we'd booked 2 nights, but soon changed to the much mre pleasant YHA in town which was clean and had working bathrooms.
Freo is known for being a bit arty and laid back and there are a lot of coffee houses which are the cool place to hang out, but not much use if like me you don't drink coffee. Anyway we found a nice pizza place then a place called the Old Shanghai Markets which will sell you good cheap food and give you another place to people watch. There's an okay Maritime Museaum with a shipwreck bit down the road and rather cooly a submarine which you can go aboard. I think it got decommisioned in 1990ish and on my tour there were only 2 of us so we got a good look around. It is really cramped and I don't think I could live on it for a day let alone months at a time. There is also a Prison which closed in 1991 which you can go round which is also pretty cool. They let you into the gallows area though which was a bit creepy as 44 people had been killed there.
I also did a couple of days windsurfing in a place called Safety Bay in Rockingham which is a bit south of Freo. It was great to get a bit better but I still ache as I did 2 hours on Saturday and 3 1/2 hours on Sunday. Also went cycling on a place called Rottnest Island which was a bit more hilly and windy than I had imagined so I could barely move at the end of the 19km.