Staying in a hotel with a rented car is a touristy experience. But after a couple of days we wished this will end as quickly as possible. Thanks to Gumtree we managed to buy a good car in just a few hours, and on the way, we found our first friends in Perth.
Quickly after we arrived in Perth we realised we are no tourists. This is going to be our lives from now until who knows, so we might as well start with buying our own car. We asked in an Israeli Facebook group (that was the only reliable spot we had in AU) where we can find a used car and people recommended we search on Gumtree, which is the second hand online platform here.
A day has passed without results. As for two people with no knowledge in cars, this was the first ever car we were going to buy without help from a family member. It was scary and we needed to collaborate. One evening I opened the Gumtree app and searched for a low-milage car above 2011, this Hyundai Elantra jumped at me, and it was only advertised 20 minutes ago.
Tom called the guy on the phone, apparently he lived on the same street of our hotel and the car was sitting in the parking space most of the week since all public transport inside the CBD are free. He went straight away to meet the guy, and came back with a smile on his face "I think we can buy it" he said.
Just like that? Buying a car? how do we do it? what's the process? how can we be sure we are making the right choice? Well, we just went with the facts this time - good condition, low milage, from a small Argentinian family in the city (who doesn't like Argentinians?), and we can do everything online. After a couple of quick checks we had no doubt that we'll buy it. The owner of the car who became a close contact of Tom in the next few days even took it for a service just before we made the transfer.
The next day we went to buy a baby seat for Ofir, returned the rented car just outside our hotel, and went over to their building. I finally met Gabe, and we went upstairs to meet Valeria and Emilia who was a year older than Ofir. As the boys were making the car transfer on the computer, us girls were talking and playing and not long after we came, some other friends joined us, a couple from Uruguay and their two sweet young kids. I was thinking to myself: Is everything this easy here?
About a month later, Gabe and Vale invited us to BBQ with their friends that we have already met. They introduced us to the Australian BBQ facilities just in the middle of a nice playground. We were in cultural shock again but it started to feel like we are finally living here.
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