9/20: Reflections on Australia

(Just checked the preview of this post and I notice that again the preview mode looks very different from what I have typed in terms of font size, etc. Don't know what the issue is or how to correct it but I apologize in advance if it makes it tough reading for you. AEB)

 So hard to try and reflect on our almost three week trip to amazing
Australia as we traveled a fair piece and saw so many spectacular things throughout. But, here goes...

Favorite walks/bushwalks (in no particular order): Coogee to Bondi in Sydney; Gordon Falls to Leura Cascades as well as Katoomba Falls down to Jamison Valley in the Blue Mountains; the hikes at Kata Tjuta National Park; hiking/bushwalking at Kuranda & at Litchfield especially from Tolmer Falls.

Favorite places (again in no particular order):  Ferry rides & the Botanic Gardens in Sydney; Parliament House & Australian War Memorial in Canberra; Kata Tjuta at Uluru; the plunge pools particularly at Florence Falls in Litchfield National Park near Darwin; snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef

Aussie Speak:

Good day on ya, i.e. congrats

Bottle shop i.e. liquor store

Caravan i.e. trailer

No worries, i.e. you’re welcome

Chalkie, i.e. a teacher

Poo – just add a ‘p’

Rubbish, i.e. trash

Power point, i.e. an electrical outlet

Tucker, i.e. food, as in a meal

Car Park, i.e. a parking lot

Bench, i.e. a countertop. But, if a bench is a countertop, what is a bench called?

There were SO many other words or phrases I meant to write down and include on this list too – drat!

Random Thoughts:

Aussies like to abbreviate words as much as possible – I guess I must be an honorary Aussie then!

So many people have emigrated from such a huge number of nations that it’s very hard knowing in the big cities who are the tourists and who are Australians.

Heard SO many tourists speaking French initially in Sydney and then, we discovered, throughout all the areas of Australia we visited; far more so than any country we’ve visited yet.

Fantastic number of hostels in Sydney, again more than in any city we’ve visited; wonder how people can possibly choose from the sheer number available, often 2 or so to a block. Likewise a correspondingly high number of travel centers there targeting young people wanting to travel abroad.

The locals are extremely friendly, often going out of their way to stop and ask if we needed assistance with directions if we looked particularly befuddled. Noticed since leaving Sydney too how often they would initiate a conversation with us, asking us where we’re from, what we’d seen since coming to Australia, what we liked most, etc. No sense of reserve, it felt like.

Australians love walking about shoeless whenever they can; certainly no issue here about having to wear foot attire in stores or restaurants once away from Sydney, it appeared.

Aussies certainly by and large have a wonderful sense of humor, way, way more than either Americans or Canadians certainly. Some humor, we felt, was very biting. For instance, Kayla, the wonderful safety instructor on the GBR cruise, asked if there were any Kiwis (i.e. New Zealanders) in attendance. She was ‘upset’ that there weren’t because she said the life jacket was made in Australia specifically for Kiwis, pointing out with a huge guffaw the huge markings on it that said, ‘This is the Front’ then turning it around and pointing to the label that said ‘This is the Back.’

That was not a good example but it was not uncommon for us to wonder at times whether an Aussie was joking, for instance, or making a statement.

The rules and regulations in Darwin, the last city we visited in Australia, were far laxer there and throughout the Northern Territory, we were told; no boat registration, boat or fishing license are required.

Going through security at Aussie airports involves security personnel wielding wands checking departing passengers for random bomb detection. It got to be quite amusing as at EACH of the three airports we traveled through, I was singled out for the wand. Steven just laughed at me as, of course, he never was!

We loved our almost three weeks in Oz as I hope you can tell from the posts. The Australian continent is so mammoth that we were only able to scratch the surface of it but we felt we had chosen well when deciding which areas to visit. If we were ever to return, I would like to spend some time in Melbourne on the south coast as I’ve heard from many other tourists that it is a stunning city. Our traveling philosophy though has always been we need to leave something in every city or country to come back to.

Posted again on 9/28 from Ubud, Bali, Indonesia - I must be on a roll now! Please be patient with me if you don't see any more posts for a bit as we're leaving Ubud at 4:45 am tomorrow to fly to Labuan Bajo where I hope we'll have better wifi than we've had here.