After thoughts from our visit to Brisbane and Sydney……

This is one ugly Ibis. I asked about why they are all over Brisbane’s downtown. “It’s just a type of Ibis which we call a ‘Bin Chicken’ because they eat all the garbage laying around and in the trash containers.”

Street signs with multiple Asian translations, more than there are English words. And we complain about English and Spanish…..of course, this is indicative of what is happening in the Australian cities – very diverse. Our waiter at the restaurant asked us if we were USA and he had a US accent so we asked him if he was. He said, “No, I’m from Mongolia and learned English watching U.S. Television shows.”

Also, the sign below is in the women’s bathroom because of all of the non-western persons who didn’t grow up with toilets like ours.

We found one Starbucks in Brisbane and not a one in the main downtown of Sydney.

The affiliation with the British Empire is still noted in many places.

No, we did not see any Kangaroos or Koala Bears this visit. We didn’t go to a zoo or into the outback where they live and also Kangaroos are raised for meat! Steve thought about getting a ‘roo skin belt since they are “light and strong,” but decided it matched nothing in his extensive wardrobe.

The strangest thing, we felt we needed a beer. And by the way, the Aussie’s our proud of their convict heritage noted on their beer and on various buildings around the city. The