Barangaroo, wollongong, katoomba..

No those aren't made-up Australian sounding names, those are actual places. Kind of like the Tatamagouche's, Moose Jaw's, and and Mactaquac's of Canada which are also indigenous in origin.

​Australia has a lot in common with Canada, the U.S., and the other Commonwealth countries, which makes contrasting all that much easier.

Oz; it's the  land of..

 ..heat, culture, abbreviations, gambling, beauty, and beaches (I mean look at that coastline! ↑↑↑)

We’re not really traveling at the moment, so Eudamonia will take of a different spin for a bit. Of course we’re still experiencing new scenery on a regular basis, just not at the pace that has fueled the previous blogs.

So instead of writing lengthier reflections on condensed travels, I’ll be switching gears to shorter entries on the interesting aspects of acclimatizing to Sydney, and to Australia.

​This will include everything from classic Aussie stereotypes like beaches, surfing, the terrifying/beautiful wildlife, to what it means to play rugby league vs. rugby union, and what it’s like living in the largest English speaking city in the southern hemisphere.

So here's a little intro.

The bustling Darling Harbour, right after the weekly fireworks.

One of the things we we’re told ahead of time was that Aussie’s like to swear. Well when we arrived in the Cairns (pronounced "Cans") airport for a layover before Sydney, a few blokes sat within earshot of Lindy and I and proceeded to have a most profane and friendly discussion with each other. We heard more casual F-bombs and C-bombs dropped than I thought was possible with only one set of lungs.
​They weren't talking about ducks and runts...

More than a month later, I can confidently say we got lucky with this encounter. We haven't had the pleasure of being around such friendly profanity since.

Sydney Harbour, as seen from the b-e-a-yootiful Botanical Gardens.

While we’re here, these are some of the things I might get around to commenting on in some manner or another.

• A higher echelon of beaches, and surf (so, so nice)
• Gambling everywhere (dogs, horses, raffles, keno, take yer pick)
• Great, diverse people (Sydney, a very cosmopolitan city)
• Pyramid schemes (oh man, what a fun day THAT was)
• The very different nature and wildlife (sharks, spiders, snakes, magpies..)
• Daytime television, and the joys of the job hunt (both of these get old quick)
• Traveling with people almost 10 years younger than you (Did I change..? Nah, it must have been everyone else who changed)

These may or may not be in any particular order, but they will all hold some type of relevance to our experiences here down under. We are entering the grab bag of blogs stage, I'm hoping it’s heaps good!

Seriously, so many perfect beaches. This one is about 2 hours north of Sydney.