Back where it all began, and goodbye to Australia...

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Has it really been 6 months we've been here? Yeah, well almost, we landed here on March 8th and leave on August 30th for Japan, and although I don't think the time has flown in still find it hard to believe we've been here nearly half a year, we've done so much, seen so much and made many friends and it's hard to believe that we're leaving on Tuesday.

Now I personally can't wait to get to Japan, and it's nothing to do with Australia in a negative way, I've loved it here but after 9 months on Easy Street with the language, culture, food and general way of life it will be a great shock to the system to get to Japan, and Asia in general, where out whole worlds will get turned upside down.

We finally got our flights sorted today, I don't know if I mentioned it on here but we had flights booked to Korea with Asiana but their pilots have been on strike for weeks, and although there now getting back to work they still aren't flying 4 routes, and you guessed it, one is Sydney to Seoul, anyway it was a bit of a panic as we had to change all our accomodation plans but we managed to persude Asiana to pay to put us on to a Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo and then we'll fly to Korea from there, it makes much more sense this way, we're now flying Sydney - Japan - Korea - China, which makes sense geographically but was impossible with our ticket, because we can only fly with certain airlines (Japan Airlines not one of them) we couldn't fly direct to Japan, we had to go via Korea so were booked on Sydney - Korea - Japan - China, a bit of a back track but the only way we though we could do it.

Anyway I'm going over old ground now, we've got a seat on a flight out of Sydney on Tuesday morning and will be in Japan Tuesday night, we've got 3 nights in Tokyo then we're off for a 15 day tour of the main Japanese island then back to Tokyo for another 3 nights before heading to Korea. Japan is proving to be "velly plicey" but I'm sure it will be worth it.

This post was meant to be about Sydney, and Australia in general so I will defo add to it before we leave, I'm sure Fiona will have her tuppence to add about Oz too. We love Sydney and it's great to be back here for another week, the weather's good, the atmosphere is great and we're off to meet Fiona's aunty tomorrow to stay with her in country New South Wales for the weekend. We also took a trip to Manly and had a great day there.

Konichiwa, greetings from Tokyo, now excuse any typo's as this is a dodgy keyboard with loads of funny looking keys like 案 and 鵜 so I'm doing this from memory. It also may not be as interesting as it might have been as I have already attempted to write this blog this morning and after 30 mins of typing it all crashed, I was less than impressed but the keyboard seems to have dried out after it's wee swim in the river so it's all systems go, an overview of Australia - take II......

We started, and finished, our Australia trip in Sydney and in my opinion there wasn't a better place to do it, Sydney is an amazing city and is up there with San Francisco when it comes to our favourite cities on this wee tour. It was great to just holiday there though, I think it would be a bit of a 'mare to live and work there as the city is mental busy and the traffic is murder, it's like London but not as big. Our 2 weeks allowed us to enjoy the best of Sydney without dealing with any of the hassle that goes with it.

Then we were off to Perth, Perth is a beautiful city in an amazing location on the Swan River, it is so laid back, too slow at times and it did have an awful lot of British (about 25%) that grated the nerves at times.

We really enjoyed Perth, it was an easy place to live and work (after I finally stuck at a job) and although we did get anoyed at being there for so long, 4 months, it was something that had to be done, we paid 80 poonds for a Working Holiday Visa and we were going to get our moneys worth, add this to the fact that the budget was blown right our of the water in America and NZ it was really a must.

We didn't want to stay that long as it ended up just like home but without our family, friends and the Bowlers Rest, but as we has to work somewhere it was nice to do it in place like Perth. It was also great to meet up with my family in Perth, Frank and Lara did so much for us from puting us up for the first month to lending us their car when the went on holiday, without which the daily commute increased from 25 mins to 90 mins, not teckle.

We then moved on to our Western Australia road trip, a highlight of the 6 months in Oz for us, from the Shark Bay area up to Broome and right down to (my favourite) the Great Southwest it gave us a chance to see the real Australia, and we loved it.

From Western Australia to Adelaide and another amazing city, it's the sort of place I would love to study in, a great atmosphere with beautiful bright young things going about their business with a swagger, my kind of town. It was great to catch up with relatives that I didn't know existed until we got out there and the family Ireland made us feel so welcome in their homes it was gut wrenching to leave.

From Adelaide we drove along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne and another highlight shared with Bertha the campervan, yeah it was cold (below freezing), yeah it was wet (it even snowed) but we had a ball and enjoyed the best coastal drive Australia has to offer.

Melbourne was a place that I liked but Fi wasn't that keen on it, it was real cold there and full of fashonistas trying to look original while all wearing the same clothes but I loved the sports influence on the city and the old architecture, we'll have to go back in the summer to see it I can change Fiona's perspective on it. There is a school of though in Oz that you either like Melbourne or Sydney, I sensed a Glasgow / Edinburgh thing there but, like at home, I loved them both, their different and if I had to choose it would be Sydney and Edinburgh every time but I'd always choose and orange over an apple if I had to, but sometimes I want an apple, ken what I mean?

From Melbourne we headed up to Sydney again then up further North to New South Wales Central Coast up beside Newcastle to meet Fiona's great Aunt Nancy. It was fantastic to meet her and she treated us like a real part of the family there, we had a ball and shed spoiled us rotten, we miss you and your hospitallity Nancy and if you're reading this, I'm sorry for getting you hooked on the cricket and I apologise for supporting England over the Aussies but I swear that story about Ricky Ponting being a cross-dresser from Tasmania is true.

Then it was back to Sydney for one last night then off to Tokyo...........

So all in all we covered about 60% of the Australian coast which in itself is about 10% of the total land mass, so in 6 months we seen about 6% of Australia, it really is that big. It was a great place to visit and we're sure to visit again, but those worried that we wouldn't come back from there, nae chance, it's just not home, it'a great place for a holiday and an exciting place to visit but it doesn't have a hold on us that Scotland does.

Australia is an amazing place, it's full of contradictions and never dissapoints, it's weird, wonderful unusual and obvious. It has everything you'd expect and far more, it's isolated rough and untouched and in the cities, big brash and busy.

I think you could spend years travelling Australia and still only scratch the surface, the way of life is easy, the old cliche of everyone throwing shrimps on barbies and lying flat out like a lizard drinking is as true as it is ridiculous, Australia is so diverse that it is hard to put a stereotype on it.

It's people are a real outdoors sort and are sports mad, more so than anywhere I've ever experience and sports bridge the sex gap too, 53% of attendees at footy games are female, compare that to about 5% at home. After all I've said about diversity I am generalising here but it's people don't really care for politics, religion and although the country is a melting point of creeds and colour there is an unspoken and uneasy racial tension, everyone will tell you there isn't, they all talk about how you're accepted for who you are in Australia but I sensed differently, the Serbs and the Croats, the Greeks and the Turks and don't get me started on the treatment of the Aborigonal population, one of the poorest races in the world living in a country that runs at about $60Bn budget surplus a year and commits $m's to overseas aid every year, but that's politics and Aussies don't care for politics alledgedley.

We'd love to go back and experience Queensland and get right up North East to the Cape York Peninsula and I especially would love to do an real outback tour, 4 weeks in the wilderness exporing the red centre but I don't think Fiona's that keen on the idea, too many beasties I think. Speaking of which we managed to last 6 months without getting killed by sharks, crocs, spiders or snakes, a bonus I guess. We never encountered a snake, well that we noticed, the crocs were all behind cages, the shark was harmless and the spiders never bothered us. We never seen a Funnel Web (New South Wales' deadly spider) We never encountered a Huntsman (harmless spider but the size of your hand) but I did come accross a few Redbacks (the most deadly of spiders but relatively small) in Western Australia and they never bit me, they lived in our mail box and I put my hand in every morning for the post and still lived to tell the tale.

PS - Has Michael Owen really signed for Newcastle? Really Really? He'd been as well coming to the Fortress for a couple of years, would have the same chance of Champions League football.

PPS - If anyone is interested (doubtfull) my Aussie Footy team got beat on the last game of the season and lost the top spot that it had held from week 1, in fact they lost 4 out of their last 6 and totally bottled it, they were 4 games clear before that. They lost at home (for the first time in 2 years) on the last game if the season to the second placed team (Adelaide) and ended up losing the league on goal difference. Nae luck. They go on to a knock-out post season comp to see who is champions now but that doesnae work for me, your champions if you win your league in my book, it's no the Superbowl after all.

Peace.

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Photos

Sydney Opera House
and the city from the ferry.

Look at the size of those bats!!
nae wonder Batman was 'faird of them.

Fiona the litter collector
in the botanic gardens

The Old Coathanger
Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Opera House
side on from the ferry.

Australia or Edinburgh?
a kilted pipe band in Manly.

Volleyball is the way forward
on Manly Beach

Me and my Great Aunty Nancy
Catching up after many years.

Mandrew, Nancy and Foo Foo
in New South Wales

Comments

[SA hiker]

Spiders and snakes and crocs
I have enjoyed following your travels in Australia. I often wondered if the stories of spiders/snakes/crocs/sharks/sporpions etc in Australia are perpetuated as a ploy to make sure only tourists with an adventurous streak come our way? Happy travels :)