OK, yes, lots of people have figured it out, we’re home now. Have been for a few weeks. We’ve been mostly hanging out with our families since we arrived home, making them look at endless photos.
We’ve also been trying to decide whether to travel more now or stay home. Looks like we are staying – at least for now!
It’s time I got around to updating this site. I promise to do so soon, including putting up some more photos from Europe. We’d also like to put up some photos of Melbourne and the coast, for the benefit of those we’ve met overseas.
Before I do that though, tomorrow Aimee and I are heading up to Queensland for a couple of weeks to catch up with her sisters and niece, who are now living up there
I’ll say now, though, probably the most culture shock we’ve had was coming home. Right from the time we boarded our Qantas flight home (with nice personal TV screens with movies and games might I add) we felt like we were in some bad 70s Australian tele-movie. The crew sounded so ‘occa’. We’ve been stunned at how ‘Aussie’ Aussies sound. Although we had contact with other Australians when we were OS, evidently your accent becomes milder and neutralised after a while – probably from trying to make yourself understood all the time.
Melbourne has seemed like a sleepy country village to us during the few visits we’ve made. You could imagine how Geelong, Torquay and Portarlington feel!
That’s it for now. I’ll try and post answers to some of the FAQs we’ve been getting too. For example, “How was your trip?”, “What was your favorite country?”, “Was London good?”, “Who are you again?”.
We spent the last couple of nights of our trip in Los Angeles, staying at a hostel in Venice Beach. The Bay Watch style life guard boxes on the beach were cool, but the weather wasn’t warm, so we didn’t trouble the life guards them too much. We did get a first hand look at the muscle bound freaks, watched a bit of beach-side basket ball and hired some roller blades, as you do in Venice Beach.
We did some of the other touristy stuff. We walked down to Santa Monica to check out the pier and the shops. We went to Hollywood to see the stars and hand-prints in the pavement on Hollywood Boulevard and view the sign (it looks pretty small from Hollywood blvd!). We even did some window shopping on Rodeo Drive.
We boarded our flight home with a couple of hours to spare on the last day of our 12 month ticket.
U S of A. The land of oversized everything; oversized vehicles (everybody drives around in huge 4x4s and 'pick-up trucks' made by Jeep, Dodge, Chevrolet and Ford), oversized cities, and oversized meals (and hence a few oversized people). Not only are the meals huge (you're expected to take most of your restaurant meal home in a polystyrene 'doggy bag') but all of the food is either extra greasy or super sweet. A loaf of bread or a can of baked beans will give you a sugar rush. And we were just getting to be nice and skinny!
(this one has photos!)
We stayed with Bobbi, a work colleague of mine from MYOB USA. We were very happy to be met off of a plane for the first time in I don't know how long, and even happier to utilise Bobbi's spare room and some of her 400-ish cable TV channels. Thanks for running us around everywhere Bobbi.
We spent a couple of days in New York city, trying to see all the sites listed in the They Might Be Giants song about NY that we just couldn't get out of our heads. We got to a few; we climbed the Empire State Building for a look at the new downtown skyline, walked 5th avenue and did some window shopping (managed to drag Aimee away from the million dollar diamonds in Tiffany’s), played with the toys in ... and bought a hot dog ('dirty dog' to the locals) with the lot from a street vendor.
We kicked back on the grass in Central Park, enjoying the sun with the New Yorkers and giggling at the people doing their retro roller skate dancing. We stood dazed by the lights in Times Square and stocked up on chocy at the Hershey’s shop.
The Hoboken ferry took us to down-town Manhattan and to Ground Zero. There is still a big hole in more ways than one. Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge and the (free) Staten Island Ferry beckoned after that. New York really is a wonderful town. The streets are paved with diamonds, and there's just so much to see...
Otherwise we enjoyed sampling life in New Jersey; eating at a steak house, hanging out at the Rockaway Mall, relaxing at Bobbi's house in the sticks - sorry, I've been educated to call them 'the woods'.
Roller dancers in Central Park
Pigeon looking 'uptown' to Central Park from the Empire State Building.
Aimee in Times Square
