Wow, ok, writing about our impressions of Australia now. Long story short: It was pretty much what we expected. Huge and expensive with a culture basically non-existing, beautiful landscape and super cute animals.
But let's break it down:
Australia is really really big. We initially stayed in Melbourne and then went bit by bit by the coastline to Adelaide, which is 700 km to the west. We were lucky to have had time to stop at every town along the way. By comparison, to drive all the way around the whole coastline of Australia would mean a 15000 km trip. We only saw a small fraction of that, therefore our impressions are limited to those areas.
Australia is culturally diverse. There is no distinct culture, nor special culinary tradition. It was like a combination of the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, Greece and China. The common language of course is English, which, after months of using only Spanish, was a pleasant change.
Australian wages are great. Working at a bar pays 11 - 16 € per hour, at least. Everything is organised, clean and controlled. But there are a lot of strict regulations and warnings. Cameras in many places watching your every move and plenty of prohibiting signs. Don't enter, don't walk here, don't drink there, don't smoke in this area. And the ever present threat: "Penalties apply".
We spent a month in Melbourne, working and saving up for Asia. Most of that month we lived in St. Kilda. From what we saw there are many young people that came for a limited amount of time to either make some money working in one of the many bars and restaurants or be on holidays spending a lot of money on alcohol and food.
What did we like about Melbourne? It is a very well organised city. Trams in the city centre are free and there are people in red vests in some street corners providing information and free maps to tourists. Many young women choose not to wear a bra, which, unlike in most European places, isn't a big deal at all. There is a nice promenade, a beach and plenty of open spaces and even though we never got to go for a swim, we enjoyed hanging out there.
Adelaide was very different to Melbourne. Before arriving there we were told to expect a small and boring town. So we were expecting a small town by Greek standards of size. Arriving there we found a bustling metropolis. The city centre was easily walked on foot and surrounded by a river and many parks. We loved it. And there was a huge National Park close by. We definitely preferred Adelaide over Melbourne.
We had our first encounter with the indigenous Australians, who are living in the city but are sadly pushed to the fringes of society. When they approached us to buy some bracelets, they were perfectly nice. Being in Australia gave us a reason to learn more about its dark history. Indigenous Australians had lived there for over 60 000 years, when the white settlers came and destroyed everything. At least now the government is acknowledging the crimes committed in the past but we don't know how this is actually gonna help the indigenous population.
Due to its geographic isolation from the rest of the world Australia has developed a variety of animal species not found anywhere else on the planet. We were lucky to come close to koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and small penguins. The kangaroos are actually in such great numbers all over the country that many farmers are annoyed by them. As for the koalas you have to be very patient to spot one up in the eucalyptus trees where they spent most of their time.
Sadly now many of those animals are in great danger, since huge areas of the country are burning. We visited the country during its worst case of bush fires ever. The news were full of sad stories about many innocent animals perishing in the fires and livelihoods being burnt to the ground. Even close to Adelaide fires were raging and we met a family, who gave shelter to their neighbour, whose house was destroyed in the fires. Many people are helping each other and the animals. They are sad about the destruction, strong for each other and mad at their government.
Did we like Australia? Well, it was pretty similar to what we already knew from the United States or the richer European countries. We didn't see anything new. There was no new language we could learn, no new customs to adapt to or new dishes to get used to. So going again is probably not gonna happen soon. The people we met along the way made the big difference to us. They made our trip to Australia a great experience and we will always be grateful for that.
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