Aussie! Samantha! Oi!

As Samantha is about to explain to you, we switched places living in each other's countries.  Naturally, I had to ask her to tell you a little bit more about Australia.  Yes, I made up that ridiculously silly title.

Hi Everyone! My name is Samantha and I blog over at my site "Fabulous Fabris" where I talk about anything and everything (there's a lot of cats, books, photography & DIY). Erin and I are very similar, but reversed; while she grew up in the US and is lucky enough to now live in Australia, I was born and raised in Australia, and now I live in the US. I typically get asked "which do you like more?" which is an insanely hard question to answer as I have a kids view of Australia, and an adult view of America, but there are several things that I love and miss about Australia.

The Beach

I know America has beaches, but of the few I've seen, they just pale in comparison to what I grew up with. Some crazy number like 95% of Australians live along the coasts. I happened to grow up a 5 minute drive from the beach on a place called the Sunshine Coast which is aptly named. I spent my summer weekends at the beach, riding the waves on my boogie board. My School also happened to be about a 10 minute walk to the beach (no swim beach, but we still go to go play in the sand) and we got to do weekly trips to the beach to swim at the end of the school year. The Sunshine Coast was like the Florida of Australia, all the Victorians would come up in the winter and go swimming. Too cold for my tastes, but that gives you an idea of how cold the winters were, which leads to...  

Winter... or lack thereof

You could get away with wearing short sleeves some winter days, especially if you've experience a snowy winter. When spring rolls around here in Michigan and someone comments about how it's such a nice day I just laugh because it's equivalent to a cold winter day in Australia.

Food

I think meat pies alone are enough of a reason to move back to Australia. Meat pies are everywhere and it's just the best thing ever. But they're not the only delicious treats in Australia, there are lamingtons, sausage rolls, twisties, the best fish and chips.... I could go on. I don't know how America is more fat than Australia (Ok, just kidding, but still).  

Everything

Ok, I exaggerate, but there's so much to love about Australia: the people, the atmosphere, the landscape, the unique wildlife. Everything is just so much more laid back. Whenever somebody hears that I'm from Australia, the first thing they say is "I've always wanted to go there!" but most people never end up going. Probably because it's so freakin' expensive. Don't give me the "oh, there are so many deadly creatures". If you look up your facts, basically nobody actually dies from them. Here's a fact I learned at a museum in Sydney: Don't throw at me that you're scared of sharks or drowning. Did you know that nobody has ever drowned on a patrolled beach?? Yep, it's those foolish tourists who swim where they're not supposed. Swim between the flags!

So if you ever have a chance to go to Australia, DO IT! Everyone says they love it for a reason. 

Now I'm going to leave you with some Aussie facts you may not have known (I didn't even know some of these until I found them): 

• The biggest property in Australia is bigger than Belgium. 
• Australia was the second country in the world to allow women to vote (New Zealand was first) 
• Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke set a world record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds 
• Per capita, Australians spend more money on gambling than any other nation. 
• If you visited one new beach in Australia every day, it would take over 27 years to see them all. 
• Within days of The First Fleet’s arrival and the raising of the British flag, two French ships arrived, just too late to claim Australia for France. 
  

Thanks so much to Erin for letting me guest on her blog! I hope she's having a wonderful time visiting her family in America!! 

Thank YOU, Samantha!  Now, if she hasn't convinced you to visit Australia, what about visiting me?  Isn't that reason enough??