Australia, a country far away with cool people who likes to surf, listening to good music, and write them…. kangaroos jumping through the road, and some animal called wombat is living there too. Opera house and some other interesting buildings in the city called Sydney, which is not the capital. Yes, so, that’s how I’ve seen Australia from Hungary.
It’s always different when you see something in real life. After Japan, it felt like some kind of cultural shock, especially Cairns, where our flight landed from Tokyo. They were questioning us, and examined our luggages, as they were suspicious about that the time we applied for the visa was just days before our flight, plus this extensive traveling didn’t seem right for them. So it does for us. By the way, on 13th April, we going to celebrate a 1 year travel anniversary, more or less with constant traveling together. Everything started at the San Francisco airport where we were waiting for our flight to Bangkok, first trip abroad together.
But, now about Australia. After one week spent in Cairns, we flew to Sydney, because we couldn’t wait to see finally this city we always dreamed of to walk in. (Also, we didn’t have too many possibilities, as a driving license left in Tokyo).
I can not say too much about Cairns, though. We were staying at a place right next to the city, and at the beach there was a sign of alert for crocodiles and jellyfishes, that was the first and last time they saw me at the beach. I couldn’t do too much, I was too scared to be eaten by a big crocodile. The city is simple but nice, with a lot of Asian restaurants, plus you can book tons of adventurous tour around.
Let’s see the 8 things I didn’t know about this country:
1. Coffe admirers
Every second place is a coffee place, because Australians just love coffee, and let’s say their latte and flat white is just perfect. Lucky me, I can enjoy most of the time some dairy free milk, light almond, as you can see on my picture below.
2. Australia is big
I don’t know what did you think, but for me on the map, the country always kinda looked small. But let’s see the facts, its territory is 2 times bigger than Europe, and it’s the 6th biggest country in the world! So, wow! It might be not a surprise that a flight took almost 3 hours from Cairns to Sydney. Keep in mind when you prepare a trip to Australia!
3. Sun
I already heard about the strong sun here, but as always, until you don’t feel on your own skin, you’re more likely ignore these common facts. Please don’t be me! Sun lotion, UV-protection, use it! Not kidding! You can easily get burned in minutes!
Picture credit by Wingit ventures
4. Multi-culturalism
There are some nations building up Australia, but as the numbers show, 25% of the population was born abroad. Nice!
5. Asian restaurants
There are more Thai restaurants here than in Thailand, I’m not joking, the best part that you can find anything here, if you’re craving for asian food, and make us happier, they are actually pretty authentic. Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Singaporean, Indonesian, etc.
6. Internet
Sadly most of the places limit the data you can use, we stayed at a place where we had daily 200 MB to use, instead of the usual unlimited one. It’s hard to accept when you do all your work online, plus the speed is so poor, a snail would win a race against it.
We got some local sim cards with data. Vodafone just had a cool deal, for 25 AUD, we got 8 GB internet an unlimited talk and text nationwide. Other trusted companies: Optus and Telstra.
7. Mind your generosity!
In Australia, they don’t expect you to tip in restaurants. The minimum they earn in an hour is better than usual, 16.87 AUD. Of course in case you’re dining in a high-end place, plus you are super satisfied with the service, it’s not bad to leave some extra money on the table.
8. Discover Australia with a campervan
There is an awesome opportunity when you’re quiet flexible and want to save on transport. There are a lot of companies who are looking for people to relocate their cars from a place to another. They pay for a limited gas amount, all you need to do to pay 1 AUD/per day and take the car to B until the time they need it. As I sad, flexibility is needed here, but you can save a lot and enjoy the camper life for some time. Other cheaper options: domestic low-fare flights.
Now we are on a road trip on the way to Brisbane. Follow our trip on Facebook, with pictures!
