{"id":3495,"date":"2015-03-08T21:23:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T21:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/word.christopherwagner.org\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2015-03-08T21:23:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T21:23:37","slug":"australia-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/word.christopherwagner.org\/?p=3495","title":{"rendered":"Australia 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our expectations of Australia were blown out of the water, it was awesome. We didn’t see much, just visited between Brisbane and Sydney which is a similar distance as Boston and Washington DC. Australia is the first developed country we have visited in about three months and, unlike last time, it wasn’t quite as large of a shock for us visiting a developed nation. We had some amazing hosts, met some incredible people, did\/ate\/drank quintessential Australian things, and had some great walks in rainforests. There were only two downsides: all the poisonous \/ venomous plants and animals, and the absolutely craptacular internet and cell reception throughout the small part of\u00a0country we visited.<\/p>\n

We didn’t do a great deal of research on Australia before we showed up. Since the place was settled by convicts we thought, naturally, that it wouldn’t be that great. We thought it was filled with poisonous and deadly animals \/ plants, lots of dirt, dry, with tumbleweeds rolling around and an opera house near some water somewhere. Except for the deadly plants and animals, we were wrong. It was wonderful to get out into the country and have some peace and quiet far from other people after being in Asia \/ Indian subcontient for so long. We had forgotten what clean forests, clean air and quiet were. The national parks provided great walks and stunning views.<\/p>\n

We were introduced to the amazing hospitality and generosity of Australians, it was next-level hospitality that I didn’t realize could exist. It’s like “Minnesota nice” except\u00a0Australians are actually nice, mean what they say, and happily invited Jacquelyn and I into their lives! We were able to catch up with two families we met while traveling in Turkey and Vietnam and even stayed three days with one family; none of them batted an eye at meeting or hosting us. It was a deeply enriching experience for us because we were able to learn a lot about Australia and Australian culture. We learned a lot of “Australian”, definitely not English, but “Australian”, from the families. We were able to eat and do all sorts of Australian\u00a0things: eat kangaroo, do the Tim Tam Slam, ate pavlova, learned how to play cricket from a very good teacher, watched a ruby game and learned how it was played, hiked in\u00a0at least two different types of rainforest, drank all sorts of Australian beers and wines, called someone “mate” and learn some derogatory Australian phrases. It was great!<\/p>\n

We had a few\u00a0comical things happen to us pretty quickly in Australia: 1) We came across a venomous snake 15minutes into\u00a0our very first hike. Jacquelyn hates snakes. That was the first of about eight\u00a0hikes we had planned. We were off to a bad start. 2) the first meal we ordered were french fries and an apple crumble – so healthy! It’s easy to get fries and pastries in lesser developed countries but they are generally crap. It was nice to have good junk food! 3) We were missing Vietnamese food and found a Vietnamese restaurant that was recommended to us by some locals. Soon after we ate we both came down with the runs!<\/p>\n

We had a rental car and it was the first time I drove in the last five months. I’m getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road since every vehicle\u00a0I’ve driven, outside our first week of travel, has been on the wrong side of the road. Kangaroos ended up being quite the road hazard out in the bush so we took it slow. Thankfully, the Australians were some of the most polite drivers we’ve been around.<\/p>\n

There is a lot to like about Australia but mostly we were shocked by how awesome the people where. It was no big deal for Australians to take a significant amount of time and money to teach us about their country and shows us the things they love. Truly a remarkable thing. With the awesome people and great scenery, I can understand why so many people want to move to Australia!<\/p>\n

Enjoy the photos!<\/p>\n

Chris W.<\/p>\n

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