Australia - and its quirks

I've been off blogging for a while as we took a trip back to Australia for the month of January to introduce my german to the aussie way of life and get a little bit of much needed sunshine. Sadly… the sunshine part wasn't as much as predicted. We were based in Sydney for our trip with a few trips out to the hunter valley & central coast. We also had a week long visit up to Brisbane… just when the 100 year floods were on - so with endless rain (though still hot warm temperatures so you weren't to fussed about getting wet), we didn't have the best experience Queensland could offer up normally.

Usually I comment on the strange things I find whilst overseas and quirks I can't get my head around. But this time its my boyfriends turn… Here are a few things he has observed whilst "down under".

- Its' such a big country but you never get a parking spot (we have LOTS of space, but it seems we spend forever driving around in shopping malls to find a car spot - I concur). Every time we went to the shops, he would groan and moan. Thankfully, it distracted him from my awful parking skills.

- Washing your hands in public toilets is often annoying. The taps that you use you have to hold a button down to get water out at the same time as washing your hands (quite awkward and you can only wash one hand at a time). These are for water preservation - but now we don't have a drought, think its just to piss off the tourists.

- Aussie skin is lovely! Due to all the moisture in the air, our skin went from hard cold leather to soft baby skin within a few weeks (now sadly it's quickly reverting back).

- People are much more friendly than expected. This is something I've also encountered as a surprise - forgetting what its like. One example is at the beach our sunglasses got washed away when a massive wave up the shore and someone picked them up and came looking for the people who lost them (rather than ignoring it, or stealing them). In queues a the bar, if people saw you were there first, they actually gesture for you to move forward rather than rushing into the spot to get served first (both a survival tactic the germans and canadians use to get booze).

- The surf is a little harder than expected (the waves are more powerful than tourists believe.. and after being 'dumped' by waves a few times the realisation kicks in that you really need to know what your doing)

- In brisbane the air-conditioning is out of control cold - especially when you dress for 30 degree weather outside, but walking inside a shop its about 18 degrees.

- Australian dialect is easier to understand than he thought (times excluded when there is background music pumping out speakers at bars)

- They weren't joking when they say everything will kill you or hurt you. In the time we were there, we encountered the biggest spider I've ever seen, a death adder (snake), bluebottles (nasty nasty jellyfish) and what I thought was a funnel web spider (I killed it before we had a chance to find out the hard way).

It was a good learning experience for the both of us - and spending 24/7 together for 4 straight weeks without killing each other, was also a great bonding experience.

And yes, in coming back to the cold and not my own language, I am home sick / sun sick.

Below are some of our shots. The video is from up the top of one of the pylons on the bridge.

At the opera house looking back at the bridge

At the giant pineapple

Eating kangaroo pizza

Holding a Koala

What happens when you hold a koala

Wine tasting

Beer, giant beef steaks, wife beater (singlet top) and bbq (converting the german)

New years day on the beach - out of control busy!