Australia Wrap-up

Australia has certainly been the least exotic place that I've visited on my trip thus far, but has also been one of the most pleasant. As I have a tendancy to compare things and places, its hard for me not to think of Austalia as being a mix of what I consider the better elements of California and New England rolled into one. Even the cities I visited seemed similar with Sydney being like San Francisco and Melbourne being like LA, both with a bit of Boston mixed in. The biggest difference between those parts of the US and Australia are that the wildlife is different, the scenery is different (although it is a lot like California scenery,) and people have a funny accent. People are also more friendly in Australia than either of those parts of the US: culturally, its almost like what I would have imagined the US would have been like 50 years ago (or at least as it comes across on old TV shows,) where everyone supposedly had friendly neighbors, left their doors unlocked, kids didn't argue with parents, and no one worried about much of anything. Its distance from the rest of the world probably has a lot to do with why people can afford to have such an outlook. Its the type of place that would be nice to live (although I'm not sure that I would move there) as the lifestyle is very appealing: 1) sports that I like (Rowing, Triathlon, and Surfing) are all taken very seriously in Australia and its a great place to do them; 2) food in Australia is also taken very seriously as most restaurant have a much higher quality standard than in the US; 3) businesses in Australia have a more natural Asia orientation (or are at least developing one as ties to Europe fade) and it realizes that Asia is the only thing geographically closeby.