One week in Australia and I feel like I’ve dipped my toes into the Aussie lifestyle quite a bit.
Australian Wildlife
Everyone knows that Australia has the most deadly wildlife on this planet. In the waters you have sharks, jellyfish and crocodiles while on land you have to be careful of snakes and spiders. The latter one welcomed me when I just arrived at my friend’s place two hours after my arrival in Australia. The redback spider, tiny but pretty poisonous, was sitting in the mailbox waiting for some good news. We took a look at her before losing her at our doorstep. One of these days she’ll be saying g’day again.
on Monday I saw a couple jellyfishes in Freo (Fremantle – South Perth) who seem to leave a nasty sting behind.
But don’t let these two small encounters withhold you from visiting Australia. There are no reported deaths from the redback spider since the creation of the anti venom somewhere in the 50’s.
To the Left
Getting in the car on the wrong side, looking in the wrong direction when crossing the street, passing people on the wrong side and quite often almost bumping into them. As I was not clumsy enough yet…
The Accent
Absolutely a fan of the accent. It’s so chill. The coolest couple of words I’ve encountered is that guys DO say ‘mate’ most of the time and Mc Donald’s is called ‘Macca’s’ over here, even in the commercials.
The Barbie
Another great word is the ‘Barbie’ (without the shrimp though since they are called prawns here anyway). Barbie on the beach? No problem. Over here they have barbecues installed at the beach ready to use. Don’t worry about carrying the whole BBQ set to the beach, the Aussies have it all figured out how to have a perfect Sunday lunch at the beach. Last Sunday my roommate and a couple of his friends invited me for a barbie at Scarborough Beach.
Wear Sunscreen
Yesterday I went downtown Perth to look for a job. I find it always a good idea to create a visual map of the area before you start applying for jobs. This way you know where everything is located. The neighbourhoods, the bus station, what is around.
What was supposed to be a short walk through the main streets of Downtown Perth ended up in crossing the entire city…twice. It was a beautiful sunny day with a perfect temperature of 24°C. Perth does have the winning numbers when it comes to the place with the most hours of sunshine in the entire country.
I definitely didn’t hold a lottery ticket for that since I got quite sunburned yesterday.
So always wear a good amount of sunscreen.
Let if fly
The most unexpected part of this is the amount of flies that stick around and the incredible weird and loud sound the crows make. The sound of the crows woke me up on my first morning here and I had no idea what animal it could be. Now I know better. They also seem to attack you and steal your food from time to time.
The World on a Wim 