Well, Does It?

"[Australia] has more things that can kill you than anywhere else. -Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country".

Things I love about Australia:

* the people. Really, the friendliest, most helpful, best-humored people on earth.

* the language. It's English, but not really. I ate yabbies for dinner last night, am now in the Big Smoke, dodged the bities in the rainforest, and had some dead horse with my chips.

* the coffee. A cup of coffee here is more like a triple espresso. Mmmmmmmm!

* the food. Anything that once swam is fair game for dinner, and is delicious.

* The pace. Nothing is worth worrying about. The phrase I've heard most is "no worry". And that's about right.

* the beauty. The terrain, the sea, the underwater, and the overland are breathtaking.

* the infrastructure. This country has the greatest bus system, even in the smaller towns, and has built a tourism infrastructure that makes one feel like a guest and not a cash cow.

things I don't love so much:

* the cost of things. Between runaway inflation and a bad exchange rate, it's an expensive place to be. When we first planned this trip the exchange rate was 78 cents US to the Australian dollar. The rate is now one dollar to one dollar.

* the many things that can kill you.

Obviously, the good outweighs the bad. And nothing has killed me yet.

And, for the big question: does the water really drain clockwise (as opposed to the U.S., where it drains counterclockwise)? Danged if I can tell. It just goes down.