Last night, I went to Freo for the Fremantle Prison torchlight tour. Definitely not for the faint hearted! I learned something that night: I'm sensitive, emotional, and courage deficient.
The entrance to the prison.
The tour started at 9:30pm, and our group had around 30 people.
It started off with us all being crammed onto this bench. This is the first room where the convicts were brought to and made to sit stark naked on that bench. One by one, the prisoners would be inspected before they were allowed into the next room for a shower.
One of the prison cell blocks.
I think it has a really spooky look to it. That building in the middle with long windows is the chapel. It's still currently being used, for weddings! Oh gosh, imagine being wed in a prison chapel!
We were then brought into the cell block. It's multi-levelled, exactly like what you see in the movies. The net was installed after one of the inmates commited suicide. After she told us this, there was a loud scream from the upper floor. Naturally, I was frightened and noticed that people started to move away from me. I looked up and to my horror, directly above me was a human figure caught in the net! Immediately, I screamed and ran! Luckily I had my friends to hug and comfort me. :(
Next was the kitchen, where I didn't listen to what the tour guide said nor did I take any pictures as I was recovering from the trauma. But while she showed us pictures of when the inmates were working in the kitchen, she said that she liked a particular picture of the inmates baking bread. She liked it because there was fresh bread in it, but unfortunately, because the doctors believed that fresh bread was an aphrodisiac, the bread was left for 3-4 days to go stale before they were given to the prisoners. How sad. :(
We visited the area where the prisoners were whipped with a ninetails whip with hooks at the ends. I don't think I need to elaborate on what the hooks were for. And as if that wasn't enough, salt was rubbed into the wounds after the prisoners were flogged. Ouch! :(
Solitary confinement was our next stop. Double doors, sound proof rooms. Prisoners spent 23 hours a day and up to 28 days at a stretch in here. Then all of a sudden, a door opened and an "inmate" ran out shouting, talking to himself, crazed. Again, I freaked out a little. :(
Then we progressed on to the gallows. Kim and I sat this one out. We waited outside while the rest of the group toured the room where prisoners were hung. After 2 minutes, Krystal came out to join us. I don't blame her, I would think that it's a very depressing and traumatizing room to be in. People died in there! Some may say that it's such a waste that I didn't go in to at least see how the room looked like, but I'm thankful that I didn't. Just looking at the other sections of the prison was so distressing that I'll be happy if I don't get nightmares about it. :(
After we gathered again, we were brought into the other cell blocks. There was a loud banging noise of steel gates and a scream from the upper level again. And again, I lost it. I ducked, put my arms over my head, and ran while yelling in fear. After collecting myself, I held onto Krystal's hand while the "inmate" from the upper level told us a story, of which I didn't listen to cuz it was a horror story of what happened to one of the inmates. Then Krystal moved to my right (she was previously on my left) and started swearing and cried. That scared me even more. I hugged her and kept my eyes closed.
Our final stop was the chapel. Though we were in a sacred place, I still didn't feel very comfortable until we finally left the prison. In my opinion, having to spend time in prison is far worse than death. Death is an immediate end to one's life, probably just a very sharp pain before one dies, but imprisonment is a lengthy torture. It destroys the mind, soul, and blows out the light of hope in our hearts. Overall, the visit to the prison was a truly memorable experience, though not a very enjoyable one.
This was the last picture I took - the stairwell in the cell block. It's also the last picture that I'll ever take with my beloved Sony Cybershot. Why? ...
After the prison tour, we were walking on the street towards the stretch of cafes and nightclubs in Freo, and we crossed paths with a group of aboriginals. For no apparent reason, one of the bastards pushed me so hard that I fell to the ground. I dropped and broke my camera. And while trying to get up, another asshole kicked me. Like seriously, WTF?!! Immediately, Vanessa started hurling very strong adjectives at them. This scared Krystal, cuz she was brought up from a rural part of Australia and said that these fucktards would actually even take a swing at girls. Thank goodness there were a couple sane ones in their dipshit group who apologised and walked away.
So if you think that you've had a worse day, please step right up!
I'm all ears...
