I spent the month of May in '98 running around Australia. We were in
Hobart/Launceston, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Newcastle,
Brisbane/Surfer's Paradise, Adelaide and Perth. Years of watching
American TV, Mad Max and Crocodile Dundee movies had me ready for some
kind of third world adventure, but now I kind of wonder how many
Australians have even seen the interior. We saw some colorful stuff on
our way to Perth, but the east coast of Australia is a lot like the
west coast of America, IMO. I can't count how many times I felt like I
was looking at Sausalito or San Diego. Even Tasmania could have been a
bunch of little towns in the Sierra Nevadas. I can't say that I ever
saw anyone drinking a Foster's, though I did pick up an affinity for
Crown Lager and learned to at least not refuse a VB when someone's
buying a round (though VB wasn't nearly as tasty as Crown Lager to my
palette). The bottom line for me was that there's probably as much
diversity in Australia as there is in the United States. Crossing
either nation from coast to coast can be an eye-opening experience and
our large urban centers pretty much offer the same kinds of comforts
and recreation both there and here. Now New Zealand...there's a
peculiar place. ;-)
-Rob
On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 03:24 PM, Marc Lawrence wrote:
No, I'll acknowledge that that is probably only representative
of *my* family (that and "Dimboola", and, as Jez ducked under,
"Sylvania Waters"). ;-)
Cheers and beers, cobbers,
Marc
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