Our Impressions of Australia

This is our summary of thoughts and impressions now that the Australian portion of our trip is complete.

Australians are friendly, proud of their country, and quite fond of the US.  One quote we heard was that Australia was the 51st state.  They dressed more similarly to the US than the UK, and had an obvious obsession with McDonalds.

Aussies love abbreviations, sometimes even abbreviating abbreviations.  Examples include:
- sunnies (sunglasses)
- Maccas (McDonalds)
- mossies (mosquitos)
- brekkie (breakfast)
- cossies (swim costumes)
- footy (football)
- salties (saltwater crocs)

Pretty much anything that sounds "right" ending in -sie will be converted/abbreviated.
In addition to abbreviations, they also use different terminology:
- electrical storm (lightning)
- stingers (jellyfish)
- car park (parking lot - Ashley loves saying this now)
- caravan (RV/camper)

Australia is extremely expensive.  Their dollar is slightly more than ours, but food and retail are all much costlier.  Our favorite food deal sign in Sydney was "Deal of the day - Hamburger and glass of wine for $29 (AUD)."  Fish and chips was frequently more than $20, and Maccers had a $2 menu rather than $1. 

If willing to leave the cities you can actually spot the stereotypical Aussie wildlife. As mentioned in prior posts, we managed to spot koalas, emus, echidnas, penguins, Nemo, and allegedly a kangaroo all outside the confines of a zoo. We recommend asking locals about where to find specific animals. For example, we didn't see any mention of the St. Kilda  penguins in our travel guide or in the blogs.
Overall, we had a great experience while in Australia.  We'd like to revisit the same areas again, as well as see some other areas that were recommended to us by other travellers such as Kangaroo Island and Tasmania.  Hopefully we'll be back.  Until then, we'll just enjoy Bloomin Onions at Outback Steakhouse.