HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!
I have teamed up with Cheapflights this Australia day to share with you why I love Australia, and why you will too!
The 26th of January every year, is a day of celebration across the country, commemorating the arrival of the First Fleet on the 26th of January in 1788, in now what is known as the city of Sydney.
Australia is known for many things, from “Stubby” holders, the cooler you put your beer in to keep it cold, to the strange and deadly animals only footsteps away from our front doors. Red belly black snakes, Brown snakes, Redback spiders and the funnel web spider are a few of the animals you might find in your back garden. However apart from being known for some pretty interesting things, Australia is in fact a absolutely beautiful country, not only to live in and call home, but for travellers seeking some serious adventure, extreme landscape to discover and wonderful life changing activities.
I’m going to cover the basics in this blog post, about why I love Australia so much, and why you will too!
The Australian landscape:
Here in Australia, we have such a vast and changing landscape. From the “Big Red Centre” also known as the good old outback, to the stunning coastlines, including the Great Barrier Reef (Seen the movie “Finding Nemo?”) filled with crystal clear waters, tropical sea life and beautiful coral reefs. It really is crazy to think you can be in the bush one minute, surrounded by the sound of kookaburras and cicadas, Australian birds and little bugs-like critters, and then at the beach only a few kilometers away surrounded by the smell of sunscreen and sight of yellow and red flags, (The lifesaving flags you must swim between when you go into the water) the next.
The actual size of Australia itself is huge! In fact, we are the same size, if not bigger than the landmass of the United States. However Australia’s habitable land takes up only around a 10% of the actual landmass, with 90% being ‘termed’ uninhabitable, because of the desert sitting right in the heart of the country. We only have a small population compared to many other countries around the world, sitting at just a cool 24 million in 2016, compared to the 325+ million in the united states, and we nearly have the same land mass! It’s crazy to think, but when you’re here the cities, it does in fact feel just as busy as anywhere else in the world.
Our Australian Food:
We, Australians just love food! We love our international cuisines, and you will always find a local Japanese’s, Thai, and Indian take away shops in the local suburbs. We also have a huge amount of Italian, Greek, Turkish and Brazilian restaurants found throughout our cities.
Known for our multi cultural ways, we really don’t have any particular restaurants that are “Aussie” themed. Whoever came up with the “Outback Steakhouse” in America is a genius! But we really don’t have such a restaurant like that here in Australia, we more so have local corner shops selling things like meat pies and sausage rolls, for a light lunch, and then we head to the local RSL or Pub for dinner. Here they have a bistro style setup where you can get almost all types of home cooked meals such as roasts, schnitzels, steaks, pastas, stews, salads, fresh fish and seafood. We tend to head to our local cafés to grab cakes and sweets such as Pavlova, pineapple tarts, slices, crumbles, biscuits (cookies), and lamingtons. Even though most of these items are not typically from Australia, they have become accustom to our culture and we have simply just adopted them as our own.
We also have the famously known Vegemite! A wonderful spread you can eat on toast, with biscuits or as a sandwich. Similar to marmite, it’s far more salty, but even more delicious. And we cant forget about Tim Tams and wagon wheels, good old chocolates almost every Australian enjoys. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the types of coffees we have here, the list is endless!
Then we have the more typical Aussie delicacies, such as the Witchetty grubs, a worm-like grub that is found in the outback that we roast on the fire and eat! (Well tourists try it, we Australians don’t normally eat them…) to the kangaroo meat, which has become a worldwide “must try food” when visiting Australia. You see we Australians see kangaroos more of a pest, they jump out and cause massive damage to our cars, can cause horrific accidents, and eat our lawns (gardens) away. It has only been over the past 10 or so years, that we have started to typically eat kangaroo meat, of which is eaten at almost every BBQ, and it’s completely normal, In fact I am actually having it for dinner tonight! A massive bonus is that it is also some of the tender meat you can buy!
Australian Culture and Lifestyle:
After sitting down and starting to write this blog post, one thing that has been present in my mind is how easy it really is to live in Australia. As a proud Aussie born, and raised here my whole life, and after having travelled around the world, it is so much clearer to me now, at how truly amazing our culture and lifestyle really is compared to many different places around the world. It’s funny because almost every single person I have met along my travels has always mentioned how much they love Australia, and always express how much they would love to visit one day, or re-visit again soon.
To finish up with, here are a few more reasons why I love Australia:
- We can go barefoot almost anywhere! Petrol stations, movie theatres (I was 16 at the time… so maybe they didn’t say anything), shopping malls and grocery shops. Just walking around in general with no shoes on isn’t a problem!
- The beach is so laid back and easy. No fluffing around hiring beach chairs/umbrellas. The beach is just simple, everyone brings their own stuff and you can trust that nobody will take or steal anything.
- Sunday afternoon is BBQ and family time! Most Aussies will host a BBQ at some point during their week, whether it is just for their family, or with friends. Our night is Sunday night!
- Everyone is just really friendly and helpful. You can be anywhere and someone will always try to help you, even if you are lost or needing directions, people are just easy to approach and easy to talk too.
- Our food is so diverse! The extreme variety of food present, not only in grocery stores, but also found in restaurants is wonderful. It is so easy to find places to shop at and dine in at. Food is just so easily available! I found in other places around the world (mainly Europe) they didn’t have much variety in the supermarkets, compared to back home in Australia.
- The weather is crazy hot in summer and I LOVE it! We have a very dry heat here in Sydney, and it can bring in some great heat waves (perfect for a beach day!) but this then brings in some great tropical storms, which then cool everything down in the afternoons.
I have always loved Australia, and it is extremely present to me after travelling, that whenever I am returning from a trip overseas, I really learn to appreciate how beautiful and wonderful this country is.
You will see it yourself when flying in, I can assure you; your head will be glued to the window in complete awe. All the big cities, and wonderful little towns are so full of life, and unlike so many other places in the world. Australia is magnificent, and what not a better day to celebrate such a beautiful place in the world, than on Australia Day!
I have teamed up with Cheapflights this Australia day, and to celebrate they are giving you chance to win $1000 worth of FREE FLIGHTS around Australia!
All you have to do is fill in the quiz below and submit your application for your chance to win! Simply click “G’day Mate” to start the quiz today:
