It goes without saying that we missed a lot since we visited about 5 cities/towns. It’s a huge country.

People have different concepts of culture. To me culture is more than having some ethnic restaurants and people of different colors around you. When you put Australia up against say SE Asia, it’s quite vanilla in the culture department. That doesn’t mean Oz is a bad place. We really liked it there. But it was too vanilla for me (although NZ was worse) and what I enjoy.

Having recently moved back to Sydney after living abroad for 22 years, I’m chuckling at your comments. The city I’ve returned to is sooooo very different than the one I left. While the multicultural experiences aren’t as prolific as they used to be, (although Melbourne still does), the lifestyle and attitudes are a lot more diverse. Less 1950s mindset, even though the lifestyle can sometimes be that way. But I find my days surrounded by ‘non-white’ people, as you put it, and love it.

For Brenda, I have a blog that answers a lot of her questions, having made the decision to move back to Sydney. While Australia is expensive, there are a lot of ways to save. Being a family of 3, we are living on less money, with less “Stuff’, and our expenses are less living here versus what they were in Texas. So, it can be done.

I’m disappointed for you that you found Australian ‘vanilla’. Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, and yes, the Outback, have a lot more to offer, if you can get past the tourism, which it seems you experienced mostly in the larger cities. A shame really. Even though you loved it, I think there is a lot you missed.

That was my feeling, too. People are lovely, the scenery (esp on the SI) is fantastic, lots of great outdoor activities, but the lack of culture and diversity was too much for me.

Sometimes you definitely have to be intentional about it. Denver was like that for me as well. Had to seek out diversity because it wasn’t really present in our yuppie suburb.

A good donut shop never hurts. This is very true!

I believe in being honest. Both with myself and my readers. 🙂 And I respect and love how we’re all different. For some people both of these countries would be Shangri-la. For me they’re wonderful to visit but wouldn’t want to call them home. I love that there’s somewhere wonderful and different for everyone.

But I do appreciate that you’re not just saying something is “awesome” and “amazing” because that seems to be the prevailing viewpoint.

One of the things I love about travel is it teaches us more about ourselves. You’ve learned you need diversity, I’ve learned I’m happiest in cities, and my husband likes to be around anything historic (and a good donut shop doesn’t hurt 🙂 )

Really can’t blame you. There isn’t much. . . life here. Aussies seem to have more energy and joie de vivre.