22 Things I Learned About Australia
Over the New Year, I had the most amazing opportunity to travel to Australia to not knock off not One but TWO BucketList Items!
I celebrated bringing in the New Year by Darling Harbor, which had the most fantastic fireworks show AND I was able to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef! Talk about a way to start 2016, huh?
22 Things I Have Learned About Australia
During my week and a half stay in Aussie, here are some of the things I learned and observed in Australia:
While I have heard that Sydney can be racist, I personally never experienced it during my time in Australia. Obviously, it exists, as in Sydney I barely saw any indigenous people in the large city!
I was told the reason why this is, is because a majority of the indigenous people have been pushed into the Outback, where they have casinos and majority of the men are “alcoholics and lazy”. Sound familiar?
The native aborigine people did not really acknowledge me – at all. Even when I tried to say hello or hold a brief conversation.
From my observation, the majority of the population is Asian! Makes sense considering Australia is so close to Asia. I was also told some Asian countries and Australia have a commerce treaty of some sort.
Therefore, most of the food is Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, etc. All of some of my favorites so I loved it.
There is no real “native food”.
Expensive. Everything is expensive! Down to the bottled water!
Sunscreen! Lots and lots of sunscreen!
There is a small but close Black expat community in Sydney! Ended up connecting with one guy and was invited to a BBQ on the beach for New Year’s day!
Sydney reminds me of New York City or LA. Very much a melting pot and the weather was beautiful!
Cairns, the town where the Great Barrier Reef is located, reminded me of a small, red-peckish, beach town.
Cairns is pronounced “Cans”. Be very sure you pronounce this correctly!
Brisbane, the third largest city in Australia is absolutely gorgeous and boring as hell
Want to reduce costs? Make sure to take public transportation! It’s super easy to navigate and the only inexpensive thing going in this country.
Bronte Beach was a gorgeous beach I have seen in my entire life! And trust me, as a certified “beach bum” and Floridian, I have seen plenty of beaches in my life! The colors, the natural pools, the landscape surrounding it – stunning!
Outside of the “touristy” things, there is not much to do or see in Australia.
There is a China town everywhere in the world! Sheesh!
I did not observe a lot of homeless people.
The minimum wage in Australia is $17.29/hr!
Kangaroo meat can be purchased in the supermarket or offered on menus in a lot of restaurants.
Scuba diving The Great Barrier Reef is an amazing experience. It is off my Bucketlist, but I would not do it again. There are more beautiful (and more inexpensive) places to dive in the world.
Burger King is called “Hungry Jack’s”.
Come to Western Australia 🙂
Okay! I’m on the way… after all the craziness is over!
[…] to take me soaring over the Great Pyramids of Egypt, allowed me to swim with mermaids in the Great Barrier Reef, or even participate in a traditional dance in a small Kenyan village. With that, I had always […]
Interesting read. I was planning to do a trip similar to yours this year once the COVID 19 hysteria dies down. Was it easy to get from Sydney to Cairn and arrange your dive excursion at the Great Barrier Reef? Just how expensive was the dive? How was it different from other dive spots you might have been to?
Hi Val!
It was very easy!
I took a domestic flight to Cairns and the place I stayed had plenty of tours to choose from!
The dives are EXPENSIVE. Especially if you do the dive that goes further out!
As for how the dive was… I was quite disappointed compared to other places I’ve dived in the world.