10 (More!) Fun Facts About Australia

G'day mate! 

So a couple weeks ago, I did a post titled "10 Fun Facts about Australia"...and y'all ate it up! I received so much positive feedback about that post, so I decided to do it again! 

....plus I learned more facts :)

So - without further ado, here are....

1 - There's no tipping here. At all. Not for food service, not for spa services, not for anything. It's not that they're "jipping" their people - it's just that the hourly wages are high enough to where it's not needed. Oh, and there's no sales tax either. So when the menu says your sandwich is $12 (because yes, sandwiches are $12 here), your bill will be an even $12. Not a penny more. It's amazing. 

So if you visit Australia, don't give away money for free!

2 - Speaking of money, Australia has the prettiest money ever. Each bill is a different color. Like hello who doesn't love a rainbow in their wallet?! Oh, and the $1 and $2 "bills" are in coin form. So basically that means you can pay for an ice cream cone with all coins and feel like you're not even really spending cash. #winning

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3 - So french fries are called chips, and they're dipped in tomato sauce. But (potato) chips are also called chips, and they're dipped in other dipping sauces such as guacamole. So fries are chips and chips are chips, so if you need to clarify what's for lunch - inquire of the dipping sauce. 

4 - Okay this one really gets me. Stores (like shops/clothing stores) close at 6p. SIX. Even on the weekends! The "late" shopping night is Thursdays where the stores stay open until a whopping 8p. Can you imagine trying to do Christmas shopping and have a day job? I can't even. 

BUT - similar to the Europeans, dinner is really late here. A normal dinner time is 8:30 - 9p, and by that time this Texan is extremely "hangry" and has already eaten 2 fingers and a toe. Over three weeks in and I'm still not adjusting well to this one...

5 - So the Australian bird is part pterodactyl. It has this long curved black beak and makes this awful screeching noise and and and flies right above your head and and holds it's neck in this contorted way and I'm 400% sure it's part dinosaur. And when they fly near me I run screaming like a 5-year old who just got her pigtails pulled on the playground. 

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6 - In Australia they do Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, milliliters instead of ounces, and kilometers instead of miles. So basically, without the help of google, I rarely know how much water I'm drinking, how far away I am from something, or what the temp is outside. It's a rough life. 

7 - It's been really fun learning the Aussie "synonym" to our American items. For example:
twisties = cheetos
snakes alive = gummy worms
hundreds and thousands = sprinkles
flip flops = thongs or pluggers

Let your mind have a field day with that last one. 

8 - The Tim Tam is the poster child for the Australian cookie. They're any and everywhere you turn, come in a plethora of flavors, and are pretty dang fantastic. The "original" consists of two chocolate biscuits (cookies) with chocolate mousse-like icing in the middle and then the whole thing is dipped in chocolate. 

There's also this thing called the "tim tam slam" where you bite off the bottom part of the cookie, and use it as a straw in your glass of milk, coffee, etc. Apparently it makes the inside all melty and delicious. I have yet to try it but fully intend to. 

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9 - Sydney is a walking city - and I don't just mean walking from point A to point B. Due to it's beautiful surrounding coasts, the city has a ton of predetermined trails for you to follow around the various parts of New South Wales. They're various skill levels and lengths, and are free for anyone to just wake up and walk. Camera in hand, of course. You can see a full listing here.

Okay, we pause our regularly scheduled programming to share the fact that I just did a Tim Tam Slam with a glass of milk and it may have been one of the better decisions of my life. That is all.

10 - Rugby is not really like football. Two teams, two goals, and a ball are involved, but that's about it. What pains me is that these men tackle each other with no preventative padding. Nor helmets. Bless them. Bless their bruised bones and concussed craniums.

The best part? The games are quick and easy. It's two 40-minute halves and you don't really stop between plays. So you know how 10 minutes left of American football can take the better part of an hour? Yeah, not the case in rugby. Katy likes Rugby. 

OH - and instead of eating hot dogs, you eat meat pies. They sound disgusting but they're dang delicious.

BONUS FACT: ...because I actually came up with eleven.

A lot of the trains/train stations, parking garages, and event stadiums are quite nice looking because they're only 16 years old. Thanks to Australia hosting the Olympics back in 2000, they had to increase their train routes and build various new stadiums for the events. So everything is still pretty clean! And you can definitely tell a pre-Olympic train from a post-Olympic train. Some of those pre-Olympic trains sound like they have a serious case of arthritis.

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And there are your ten eleven {additional} fun facts about Australia! If you missed the first batch, or would just like a review, you can catch them here :)

Until next time,
Katy