Things I Miss Most About Australia

I’ve been back from Australia for four months now and I’ve had time to really start to miss things about it. But they aren’t necessarily what you think they would be. I started writing this post over a month ago, but after reading Cailin’s post on the things she hates about Australia, where she is currently visiting for the seventh or so time, I knew it was time to finish it. When I was in Australia, I had a lot of time to think about missing Charleston and now I miss my third home of Sydney.

Public Transportation

While I admit that there are many flaws in Sydney in particular’s public transportation system (I found Brisbane’s to be great and Melbourne’s trams easy to use!), including pre-pay stops and how early they stop running, it’s leaps and bounds above MARTA here in Atlanta.

I live 30 minutes outside of the city if there’s no traffic, but it would take me over an hour and a half to get into town using public transportation, which includes the drive to the bus or train stop. In Sydney, you could get as far as the Blue Mountains and Newcastle just on trains!

Diversity

You can hear half a dozen languages just standing on George Street in Sydney on any given night. I loved working with girls from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Turkey and Sweden, learning about their cultures. You don’t exactly get that in the suburbs of Atlanta.

Cafe Culture

One of my favorite activities was finding new cafes in surrounding neighborhoods. It’s no secret that my favorites were Post Cafe in Marrickville and 2204 in Petersham. I would always order a cup of T2 tea and people watch. We have more coffee shops here than cafes.

International Food

I never really got into Asian food before moving to Australia, probably because it’s not terribly good here as we’re closer to Mexico. But I often ate Portuguese, Thai, Indian and Turkish foods, which I hardly could have identified beforehand.

Beaches

After living in Charleston, I thought I knew beaches, but Atlantic Ocean beaches are not comparable to Pacific Ocean beaches. The Bondi to Coogee walk was one of my favorite things I did there and once my friend Flo moved to Coogee, I spent as much time there as I could. The beaches up the coast, including Newcastle, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise and those in northern Queensland, are just as beautiful.

Benefits and Pay

When I started working in Sydney, my job came with so many benefits I didn’t expect to get. I was set up with superannuation, which is like a 401K that the company has to put money into every pay period. Since Australia has more social programs, I only paid $50 for a doctor’s visit and medication that time I had dysentery.

I also often walked into the pharmacy to tell them my symptoms and they gave me medication I would need a prescription for back home. And the pay is outrageously good, but comparable to the prices. At my cafe job before I left, I was paid $2.50 plus tips, while at my bartending gig I got $17 plus tips.

Neighborhoods

There are so many cute neighborhoods, especially outside of Sydney. I spent a lot of time in Marrickville, where I lived, Newtown, Erskineville and Balmain. Each neighborhood has its own personality. The homey area I stayed in in Brisbane was totally different than downtown and Fortitude Valley.

Friends

I never expected to make such good friends there. I guess I thought I would be a transient being, traveling from one place to another and picking up and losing people along the way. Instead, I stayed in Sydney for over six months, met friendly travel bloggers at Sydney Travel Massive (like Hannah and Lauren above!), lovely foreigners at work and sweet Aussie ladies who became my roommates. And of course, I had support from Tommy and his family.

So now for those things I don’t miss about Australia. There had to be a few!

Expensive

This is the top thing people comment about when visiting Australia. Since the dollar is about even, everything seems outrageously expensive, like $7 for a beer and $750 for a tiny apartment 30 minutes outside Sydney. It wasn’t so bad once I started working, as there are ways to keep things thrifty, but starting out it was very stressful.

Distance

Being so far away from my family was hard since we’re so close and it’s not like hopping on a place to Europe. Australia is about as remote as it gets. And even within Australia, the distances are vast. The trip from Sydney to Cairns, even though I took my sweet time, took over a month by bus. Flights to Perth cost about the same as flights from New York to Los Angeles. Even though Sydney and Melbourne look close together on the map, it’s a grueling 8 hour drive.

Unreliable Public Transportation

Although I said that I liked the public transportation, it was almost always late (Or was that just my line? Bankstown? Bueller?). The trains stopped running at midnight, when I got off work, and after that buses run only every hour and don’t stop as close to my house, meaning I had to walk the rest of the way, alone, in the dark, late at night. Most of the time if I wanted to go out for a drink after work, I would have to fork out the $40 for a cab home.

No Late Night Options

There are a few things that stay open past 2 am, namely night clubs, casinos and bars with pokies, but there aren’t many places you can go eat after a night out. You’ve got kebab stands, but no diners to speak of. And as I said before, public transportation is almost non-existent past midnight.

Crappy Internet

I was warned about Australia’s WiFi problems before arriving, but I thought, “How bad can it be?” But really. Free WiFi can be found in a few places (Starbucks, McDonalds, Pie Face), but is super slow. Even the internet at my house took over a month to get installed and was still patchy. I’ve never had problems finding decent internet in any other place I’ve traveled!

Feeling like I was always underdressed

This could easily be in my head or just a Sydney thing, but after work when I wanted to go for a drink, I felt like a homeless person in my jeans and tank top. I felt out of place without short skirts, pounds of makeup, stilletos and straightened hair. Even when I walked to the store to pick up milk I felt like a slob, whereas I never would have worried about it back home.

With that said, I really loved my year in Australia and wouldn’t change a thing about it. I will definitely be back some day. Do you agree or disagree with any of these?