Today, Saturday, we are taking it super easy, lol. Matthew is back in bed, having succumbed to a nasty cold yesterday, Mark is out running (egads!), John is glued to his D/S and I am here, on the computer, as usual!
I have been sitting here running through the past few weeks in Australia, thinking about all that we have seen, the differences, the similarities....and it got me thinking. I need to share it all with you, lol.
One of the things I love the most about going to different countries, not that I have been to a great many, but still, one of the things I love is seeing the small changes to something familiar. For instance, when I was in Ireland I bought a back of Starburst....they had all the same flavors except one, it was purple and, I do believe, was a huckleberry flavor. Or something like that. The same is true here, not regarding Starburst, I haven't actually seen any, but you know what I mean.
We bought a bag of nacho cheese Doritos and the bag they come in here is yellow. Yea, yellow...and the chip is totally different. Thicker, more, not stale, but it has a very different taste than in the states.
French fries are chips and chips are crisps....lol, telling John the difference between what they are to Americans Vs. Aussies was too funny ~~
"Brekkie" is breakfast, and, from what I can ascertain, is served all day long at any and all food establishments. They have this sausage roll ~~ okay, seriously, it tastes like Thanksgiving stuffing and is wrapped in puff pastry. Delish! Matt has been going gaga over the meat pies...these tiny little pies filled with different kinds of meat; lamb, beef, chicken -- whichever you desire, and a gravy.
They have a fast food joint called Hungry Jack's, which I swear is Burger King. Mark got their Aussie Brekkie sandwich while we waited for our plane to Alice Springs and it was LOADED. It had a patty, sausage, egg, carrots, beets . . . you name it, it was on it. Lol - very interesting.
The Aussie paper money is almost to pretty to spend. The texture of it is so different from ours, with ours you can really feel the paper and its thickness. The Aussie money is almost, silky, I guess would be the word. And very thin. And VERY colorful! The paper money begins at $5.00, anything less is in coin. And it is funny, their dollar coins, which are gold, have the $2.00 coin being much smaller than the $1.00 coin. But the cent coins (they are silver) are reversed, with the .50 cent being the largest. I don't know why we thought that was interesting, but we all have commented on it. I also over-heard an American woman talking about yesterday as she was checking out of the gift shop at the zoo...hahaha, so I guess we're not the only ones!
The toilets have two different flushing buttons. I think it might be due to their water crisis, but I am not sure. Anyway, so yea, two different buttons. One is a small flush and the other is a great gush of water, very powerful. Mark instructed the boys that the light flush was for "light jobs" and the heavy flush was for the "BIG jobs" only --- dear dog!
So far we haven't found a coffee shop yet that makes drip coffee. It's all press. They have terms for coffee that we had never heard of; long black, short black, flat white, etc....Mark actually googled it two nights ago after I ordered a short black thinking it would be just a regular cup of black coffee. Nope. It wasn't. It was basically a double shot of espresso! But now we know, lol.
Things are very expensive here. I think I have mentioned that before. But it really is staggering. Gas is charged by the liter here. We spent $100.00 to fill up the Ford Falcon....I never paid that much to fill up my old Expedition ~~ it pierces the heart, it surely does ;-) We haven't had a single beer out at dinner that was less than $6.00 a bottle. Which is why we limit ourselves to one drink each, lol, dear dog the bill racks up quick when you add a beverage! And the meals are EXPENSIVE. No dish, not even the nachos John got last night, has been less than $25.00. Crazy expensive, at least, to me.
While we were in Alice Springs we saw many of the Aboriginal people of the area. While it might not be fair to say, and I admit I am not knowledgable in the slightest about the plight of the Aboriginies, or if there even is one, but I was reminded of the Native Americans in our country. There seemed to be many that were down on their luck -- I don't know if they have been pushed off their land or what, but from what I could see, it didn't seem like they were thriving. Mark heard on a public radio segment that there is quite a bit of mental health issues within the Aboriginal people, but there is not enough money in the healthcare budget so they are left untreated. Australia has public healthcare/government run --- it struck me when we were talking about the plight of the Aboriginies with the mental health problems and the lack of funding for proper treatment, that, yes, with public/government run health care everyone is allowed care, but if there isn't enough money in the budget to cover the needs of all of those people or even just a particular group of people with needs that are expensive to treat, the care isn't there. I don't know, maybe that wasn't worded right -- and I didn't come on here to get on any kind of soap box. It was just an observation.
I noticed this in Ireland, and Australia is not different in the slightest....ice is apparently not needed in drinks, lol. The boys have gotten many a soda that had 3 lonely ice chips floating in it, or none at all, ha! The soda is cold, which is great, but it's just funny, especially coming from the states where we usually get a glass half filled with ice. Also, unlike in the states where the waiter/waitress will put the bill on your table, or come 'round and see if you want refills or anything else, here we have noticed that pretty much as soon as your main entree is delivered, you are left alone. They don't hover AT ALL. We've had to track down our server a handful of times to ask for our check, dessert, or another drink. It's nice, though, to not have someone hovering around your table.
I know there is more.....but I'll leave it for another time, lol! I'm going to go check on Matt (who is still sleeping) and try to convince John that he wants to watch a movie with his Mom :-)
Until later, then . . .
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