australian = aussie

when i went to australia i didn't have many expectations. i think this is a side effect of living in turkey. you learn to lower your expectations... take things as they come. that's not to say i needed to lower mine for australia, on the contrary i was blown away by the beautiful continent that it is. but building up to the trip i didn't really think much about what a country, stuck down in the corner of the southern hemisphere, would be like.

aussies are really, really friendly. that was awesome. but they have their quirks, too! take for instance, they walk around in public places barefoot. some people there just prefer to be barefoot all the time- and they can, because there's no 'no shoes, no shirt, no service' rule. so, when we were running errands one day and noyan's feet began to hurt from his shoes, he simply took them off. huh.

aussies have a sense of humor, too, as evidenced by the packaging of many a popular aussie product. take nobby's nuts, for instance:
and an australian ice cream favorite:
plus they like to shorten everything and add 'y' to the end. here are some bread 'krummies.'
plus all of the shops were wishing us a happy 'chrissy.' the fast food restaurants advertise for 'brekky.' the bottle shops (liquor stores) are 'bottle o's.' football is 'footy.' a coffee is a 'cuppa.' sometimes they don't make sense, like afternoon becoming 'arvo.' it's quite fun actually, and after a while you find yourself coming up with your own... or at least, i did.

plus, they are just really down to earth, fun folks, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.