02 MAY 2018: No, you won’t find kangaroos in the streets of Sydney, but you will find them in the Taronga zoo, just take the very pleasant ferry from Circular Quay. No other city in the world boasts a harbor quite like Sydney’s. It is, if that is possible, more beautiful than it seems in pictures. With a shoreline of 240 kilometers, there’s no better place to start to discover this city.

But the neighbourhoods, what they call “inner suburbs” are where you’ll meet Sydneysiders and discover where and how they live.

What you will find in these streets are interesting walks. Our daughter Jayne thinks we do more travelling for less money than anyone she’s ever met.

One of the ways I do save money is to check for free walking tours, and Sydney tourism puts out some interesting self guided historical walks of neighbourhoods. Find the brochures at the tourism kiosks around the city. I really enjoyed the Historical Walking Tour of the Glebe, and lingered too long to do another one when I stopped for coffee in one of the many little bistros on Glebe Point Road. Glebe became one of the first neighbourhoods in Sydney to experience Gentrification, as its architectural heritage combined with proximity to the city and Sydney University, made it fashionable again.

Your clients couldn’t see all of Australia if they stayed months, and many travellers come back having tried, and tell me they’ve really seen everything and nothing, simply because they tried to cram too much into their trip.

A great deal of Australia’s charm is the great people you meet … there is an energy and enthusiasm I’ve seldom seen anywhere else. You’ll find yourself astonished by the friendly people, not to mention their sense of humour.

What’s different here in Oz, you wonder? Well the language is the same, sorta. Ozzies shorten the names of everything. “Woolies” is one of their large grocery stores, short for Woolworths, which is what the sign says. If you ask someone for directions they’ll say “Woolies, is down there two blocks then turn left, you can’t miss it.” Well you can if you’re looking for “Woolies” just ask me.

If you need a repair person, you need to call a “tradie.” Sparky is an electrician, brickie is a bricklayer, chippy a carpenter.

Garbo is the garbage collector, and you drive into a Servo for gas. It can make for some confusing moments. Once we headed off to the grocery store, with our daughter’s list. We managed everything except for one item. I finally went to the store manager.

“I need Sambo cheese.” He scratched his head and said “I’m sorry we don’t carry that item.

What it was, was cheese for a sandwich! Sambo is short for sandwich.

I also didn’t know what a “dead horse” was. Who knew it was ketchup?

So yes, it is English, but often a very different version, in an accent that sometimes you have to listen closely to. I did notice that sometimes they seemed to be puzzled listening to me too.

We spent six weeks on the South coast, and there was plenty of time to get to know the locals.

Politics is a big topic of conversation. They love our prime minister, are appalled by the American President, and quite prepared to discuss it at length. They talk more about Trump, than we heard all the time we were in the US last year. They also discuss their own political situation at length.

One afternoon, some of the visitors talked about snakes and snake bites. Then they assured me that this was in the outback, while saying, “Well we do have them here, but not many.”

Spiders are a large topic. There are some that will kill you quickly, others that are huge, and harmless. Debates can take several glasses of wine.

Another day I asked about the helicopter that seems to go over every afternoon at the same time. “Oh, they’re on shark patrol “Has anyone ever been bitten?” Long discussion about that, but no, no-one has.

I don’t go out too far when I’m swimming. However, if I’m really nervous, I can swim in the creek at high tide (I get corrected when I call it a river, but it is as big as) or the great natural tidal pool a five minute walk away at high tide.

I’ve had lots of instructions about the Kangaroos … the Aussies don’t love them as much as we do. They’re a pain. Think of the way we feel about raccoons. They will attack if cornered, and they don’t like dogs. When Missy (the resident dog) barks in the night, it means they are on the front lawn of our Airbnb beach house.

We were sad to fly off home to Canada.