I WOKE UP IN DOWN UNDER
After sixteen hours of travelling on the plane and light sleeping, I woke up. I didn’t feel like sleeping, watching movies or listening to music anymore. I just wanted to stretch my legs or lay on the bed (oh, I wish I was travelling in business class). I looked out the window and saw the desert. Ok, that means we’re finally in Australia, I thought. But then I checked the plane’s location on the map, and I realised we had at least three more hours to fly to Sydney…Ok, I’m going back to sleep…
When the plane finally landed and I felt warm summer air in February, I realised Australia was different from everything I had imagined.
ROWS OF HOUSES
Australian cities are much more spread out and less densely populated than European cities. Australia is huge and has no problems with a shortage of space, so most Australians live in houses. What surprised me was the size of their homes – Australians have the biggest houses in the world! The average size of the house in 2020 was 235 m2! Sometimes their streets remind me of the American suburbs you see in movies. The first thing I noticed from the plane before landing at Sydney airport were rows of houses. Since I spent a few months in England before moving to Australia, I imagined Sydney to be somewhat similar to London but I was very wrong, haha!
SYDNEY OR HONG KONG?
Walking through Sydney’s city centre, I noticed a big Asian influence. I knew Australia is a multicultural country, but I was quite surprised by the number of Asian restaurants and stores! Besides China Town, which is located in the city centre, there are suburbs with large Asian populations such as Chinese, Koreans and Vietnamese. If you go there, you’ll feel like you travelled outside Australia! Mandarin language is important and can be very useful, as there are some jobs that require knowledge of Mandarin.
AUSTRALIAN COCKROACHES
Imagine this situation – you’re enjoying your walk on a warm summer night, but then you look down and see insects crawling on the floor everywhere around you! Those insects are Australian cockroaches, which can grow to the size of a finger and jump (yes, I had that traumatic experience!). You can often find them around houses, especially in the bathrooms, where they probably get through the siphons and water pipes. I once found a cockroach in the shower…Thankfully, you won’t see them in winter because they are only out during the warmer months…You just need to put up with them in summer!
SPIDERS
We all heard stories about Australian spiders. As much as I would love to say it’s just a myth, unfortunately, it’s not. Spiders are everywhere. Even though they look big, most are harmless, but there are also poisonous species. As someone who is terrified of spiders, you can imagine how I cope with them!…If nothing, living in Australia has helped me overcome my fear of small spiders, but I’m not sure I’ll ever overcome my fear of the big ones!
BIG SANDY BEACHES
Australian beaches look as beautiful in person as in photos, if not even more beautiful! You don’t have to worry about stepping on a pebble or wearing water shoes. But these beautiful beaches can also be very dangerous! Sea currents are strong, so it’s advised against going into deep water where you can’t touch the bottom.
The waves are strong, so even if you’re a good swimmer, you can end up far away from the coast. There are lifeguards on main city beaches and if weather conditions are not suitable for swimming, if it’s dangerous to swim because of the jellyfish or if you’re far away from the coast, they’ll warn you about it. So imagine my surprise when I went to the beach and wanted to cool off in the ocean, and the lifeguard on the loudspeaker warned parents to remove their children from the ocean and that if someone wanted to swim, it was at their own risk because of the many jellyfish in the ocean that day. Do I even need to say I didn’t swim?
Apart from jellyfish and sharks, the sun is another dangerous thing on Australian beaches (and generally in Australia). There is no shade on the beaches, while summer temperatures are very high and the sun very dangerous (definitely apply sunscreen SPF 50+ even in winter if you’ll spend a lot of time outdoors). It’s often very hot outside, while the ocean temperature is cool, but as you go up north and closer to the Equator, sea (and air) temperature gets warmer.
Australian beaches are beautiful, but you need to exercise caution, so I prefer smaller bays where sea currents are not that strong and waves are not as big. But for surf lovers and those who love waves, Australian beaches are paradise on Earth!
