True, visiting Australia requires a trip halfway round the world (we traveled nearly 24,000 miles round trip), but emerging from a plane to find English, or a form of it, spoken, is a great relief.
In many respects, it's easier than British English, or perhaps, I'm just thinking more before I'm asking what someone meant by what they just said. Context can be everything. Besides, LOST is being televised only a week later, so there is definitely some common ground.
Australian money is the dollar, and unfortunately for us, about parity with ours, meaning that the exchange wasn't good, many things seemed quite expensive, but there wasn't any math to do to figure out what you were "really" spending either.
On the other hand, in a land without pennies, one finds the concept of rounding. Spend $5.97 and the bill is rounded down on a separate line by two pennies and you owe $5.95. Spend $5.98 and it's $6.
One of the first things for us to adjust to was coffee. Here's a typical sign (this one is from the cafe at the Royal Flying Doctors Service in Alice Springs) with your choices. Prices are typical also.
So... where's the cup of coffee? It makes ordering at Starbucks look
easy, doesn't it? We settled on flat white for the duration, only
venturing to short black once when someone mis-ordered at breakfast. (No comment. Short black is a tiny cup of espresso.)
I became fascinated with two things: road signs and the concept of half.
I wish I had a photo of all the signs, but by the time we'd see one,
we'd be past it, and turning around to capture it was out of the
question. (driving on the "wrong" side, etc., remember?)
Melbourne CBD. When I took this I had no idea how helpful its
concepts would prove to be.
Typical sign along the Great Ocean Road.
Along the Great Ocean Road. That's about 20 mph.
Now they tell us.
By any other name means Yield.
Two way sign, Darwin Botanical Gardens. Think about it.
Julie Cater and the author--pen pals since we were 11.
Interpretation: Yes to grills, playing, picnics and toilets. No to
dogs, alcohol, bottles, golf (!), and cars.
Wombat crossing in the Hunter Valley
Others of note, but un-photographed: undulating surface, "Drowsy
Drivers Die", overtaking lane, belt up, and advice to take power
naps--and places to pull off and do so!
We also saw signs for echidna, koala, kangaroo, and livestock (sheep and cow).
As to the half, there's:
The half-flush. In a country deeply concerned with rain and the lack
thereof, water usage is at a premium. The half-flush is just that:
when a little is sufficient, that's all you should use.
The half-truck: We'd heard about the road train, those three-trailer
vehicles used in the Outback to haul goods over long straight
distances. So I was surprised to see what I call the half-truck, an
18-wheeler rig with half a trailer between the long one and the cab
for a total of 36 wheels. Come to find out, it's called a bDouble.
Sources are listed at the end of this piece.
The half-hour: Australia may be the size of the US, but its
population is disproportionally situated on the coasts, most notably
the southern and eastern. Though three time zones divide the country
by three hours, the middle zone is an hour and a half off from the
others. Then there's the question of whether or not daylight savings
time is in effect. So after we set our watches in Melbourne, we:
changed to one-half hour earlier crossing into South Australia; went
back another hour going into the Northern Territory because they
weren't keeping DST; moved ahead 1/2 hour going to Cairns, then
another hour ahead upon arrival in Sydney which put us back at the
time we started with. Since we were 17 hours and a skipped day from home anyway, none of this made any difference whatsoever. It merely affected the dinner bell on the Ghan.
The half-park: Instead of 30 minute parking, the times were given in fractions. Just interesting.
I never had trouble finding an internet connection, whether it be $8/15 minutes in the Melbourne hotel, free in the Sydney airport, a kiosk where a $2 coin bought 20 minutes, or $3/one hour in Cairns in the heart of back-packing country. I doubt I could say the same about traveling here.
To end on a more serious note (because I want to), every town had war memorials. We noticed this on our earlier visit and this time I made certain to get photos. "Lest we forget" they all say. Amen.
Ballarat, Victoria
Darwin, Northern Territory
What fun it is to travel, to take the time to share with others
pieces of our lives. But how wonderful it is to come home and share
our experiences with friends.
Additional sources: Road trains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train and http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/james_oconnor.htm
Please visit Kay's website, http://www.kaysisk.com and her blog,
http://kaysisk.blogspot.com