Australia observations continued :)

Photos in order..

Delicious food!

Non refrigerated eggs

Expensive Coke!

My broken sunglasses!!

So speaking earlier of the word toilet, I was told earlier in Melbourne and now have had it confirmed a few times - Australians have no shame.  Perhaps because this country was essentially settled by convicts not even a few hundred years ago or perhaps because they're so isolated and haven't needed to mind their manners as much.  There's no such thing as a silly or stupid question here and it's apparently perfectly fine to interrupt people to do so.  When I have asked questions of friends here to "prove their point" or get confirmation from others they will ask strangers nearby for affirmation when I show surprise with their answer.  It only helps that Australians are so friendly I suppose!

I think I'm definitely getting used to driving on other side of the road.  I think I have started to confuse myself even whenever I try to remember how it's done in the US.  Turning left out of a parking lot or side street and not having to cross a lane of traffic now feels normal to me!  And in a roundabout (which are everywhere! And almost are a replacement for exits on the freeways)  it feels normal to go left instead of right!  But when I try to recall how we drive in the US I have to stop and wonder, Do we pass on the left or on the right? What lane do I need to be in to turn right?  The right lane or the left lane?!  Will I be able to drive when I get home?!

I've only driven cars here so far that have been automatic, but back in the US I made a couple reservations in New Zealand that are manual and I only  learned here in Australia that that means the stick shift  is on the left side...so you have to shift left handed!!  I am rather worried!!  I hope to be able to get a bit of practice here with some "supervision."

I learned finally in Brisbane when ordering a smoothie at a cafe on the campus of Queensland university of Technology that Australian smoothies are actually more like American milkshakes made with milk and ice cream and real fruit and that milk shakes in Australia are made with the fake syrup (i.e. American smoothies not made with fruit!). Perhaps this is why my milkshake sucked so much back in Melbourne!

But I am loving all the food here.  They offer so many dishes with pumpkin!!  Pumpkin as a pizza topping, pumpkin as a bagel sandwich filling, pumpkin in cold and warm salads, pumpkin in roast vegetable sandwiches and on and on and on.  It is soooo good.  I think I already wrote about my favorite veggie burger ever in Melbourne made of spicy beans and pumpkin?  I can't wait to find my own recipes when I get back to the US and learning how to cook with pumpkin!  And then there is also ricotta and avocado that also goes on everything!  As I write this in this cafe in the gardens in Brisbane I have just finished eating a cold vegetarian pasta salad with sundried tomatoes, pesto, ricotta, mmm mmmm mmmm!  Ordering at most places is very hard for me because I really want it all!  Of course most menus contain a bunch more fish (prawns too) and meat dishes, but being a Veg as they call it is very easy.  And there are almost always vegan dishes too.

Mispronouncing names has almost become a game.  I came up with a rule for myself back in Melbourne that before saying something aloud the way I think it would be pronounced, I should first wonder how I might MISpronounce it instead in order to end up saying it correctly!  Because Geelong is not jee-long.. It is juh-long and Cheltenham is chelt-num.  and of course there are funny names too.  Wagga wagga, Croajingolong, Goreegi, Bundabah, Kangy Angy... The list goes on and on and on!  Just open up a map and every other town is sooo foreign and goofy sounding!

Australians don't like driving at night for some reason.  Road trips seem to always end by 6pm because it gets dark (it's winter and they just had daylight savings end).  I think it's the  threat of kangaroos and also that roads outside of cities are almost never lit.  But it seems funny to me as an American.  We must love cars and driving too much.

I forgot to mention awhile ago that I passed my "initiation" to Australia.  I was reminded of it yesterday when it happened to another girl hiking with me.  Coming back from Philip Island on my first Sunday in Australia I was walking into a place we stopped for lunch and a giant bug flew into my mouth before I knew what had happened!  I immediately started spitting and I do think I spit it out, but apparently that is a big rite of passage :)  I also want to add that on my very first day in Melbourne that another young girl with an Australian  accent mistook me for a local in the CBD and came right up to me on the sidewalk and asked me if I knew where the Grand Cinema or something was.  I fit right in!

Eggs are not kept in the refrigerated section in grocery stores.  Just on shelves in a normal aisle beside things like cookies (or as they call them, biscuits).  Too weird.  But now I wonder, why do we refrigerate ours??

And I am not sure I have really explained how very expensive it is here.   Truly expensive.  Lunch for under $10 is a steal and dinner for under $15 is a rarity.  A handle of liquor is $50+, I saw a 30 pack of coca cola cans regularly priced for $30 (though I saw it on sale for $22!)  Dinner entrees are commonly between $17 and $29 (but they are called mains here... Entree is an appetizer here).  Single servings of reheated quiche or what they call pies are very common in cafes and they will commonly be $14 or so.  $14 for leftover looking rubbery egg!  However, the nice thing is that tax and tip are included so when your eggs and toast are $10 or your muesli and yogurt is $12 (expensive!) that's all you need to pay and throw in for the combined bill.  But the high prices extend past dining out and alcohol.  A shampoo that is $5 in the US is $10 here.  Cereal will be $8 a box.  Oh, and don't ask what toilet paper costs!  I don't know how people afford it!  So I am waiting until New Zealand to buy replenishments of sunblock, soap, shampoo, and toothpaste!  I was very happy though that I could find a halfway decent replacement pair of sunglasses for only $20 when I broke mine sitting on them in Sydney.