The language barrier isn’t as hard in Australia as it is in Italy or some of the other places, but having a drink or two on board certainly helps you think like an Aussie. I got a kick out of the sign on a big truck for “Piano Removalists”. Other favorites were “Casual Parking” – as opposed to “Formal Parking”, maybe? They also tend to shorten words and make them into the diminutive. Thus “Breakfast” becomes “Brekky”, etc. Lots of bars are also called “hotels”. We noticed in the older neighborhoods some of them maybe used to be hotels, but some obviously never had been. They retain the name “hotel” though.
Another thing we’ve noticed throughout the country are the significant numbers of smokers. It seems to be higher than the US, which is a bit surprising. Their cigarette boxes have photographs of things like rotted out teeth, diseased lungs, etc., with warnings that are similar to those on cigarettes in the US.
