It’s not until you travel overseas and realise that foreigners don’t know what chicken salt is that you realise how good we really have it.
And it isn’t just the wonderful invention that is chicken salt. Here are 13 things that we have in Australia that people from other countries can’t believe.
You can walk around in bare feet and nobody judges
Sure, your run the risk of stepping on a bindi or a shard of glass from a smashed Melbourne Bitter longneck, but that feeling of freedom which comes from walking into a corner store in summer barefoot, and selecting a Golden Gaytime from the ice cream freezer? Iconic.
Good coffee is everywhere
So serious is our commitment to quality coffee in Australia that we are sometimes on the verge of becoming a bit w*nky about it. But all of that derision flies out the window when you are in New York and every coffee you have tastes like warm bin juice. Take me home, country road.
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For those who require a dose of caffeine to start the day, good coffee isn’t something to take lightly. Picture: iStockSource:istock
Free public toilets
When you’re about to wet your pants in an Italian piazza after drinking five litres of prosecco and you can’t find two euros to pay the old Tuscan attendant who is giving you a withering look? That’s when you really appreciate our country’s commitment to free public toilets.
Electric kettles
Any Aussie who has moved to the USA will tell you they had a helluva time buying an electric kettle. They just do not seem to have them or use them in the States. They have stovetop ones. The ones that instead of turning themselves off, hiss wildly at you so you have to drop what you’re doing and appease it immediately. Want to really make America great? Import some electric kettles.
Chicken salt
Spare a moment to think of the poor people overseas who live a life in which chicken salt doesn’t exist. This dust of the gods was actually invented in South Australia by a charcoal chicken shop owner who created it to season his birds. The recipe has since been patented and is a staple in many an Aussie’s diet. Honestly, iron and coal and wool are all well and good … but this has the potential to be our greatest export.
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Those chips need some chicken salt … it’s a culinary gift. Picture: iStockSource:istock
The price tag on an item is what you actually pay
It may seem kind of obvious, but it’s not until you go to a foreign country where taxes aren’t included in an item and you have to do actual maths that involves adding percentages that you really start to appreciate Australia’s very transparent pricing system. Prices inclusive of GST are where it’s at. Adding up percentages? Best left in Year 10.
Free access to the beach
It’s not until you go to the beach in Europe and some moustached dingbat tries to charge you 30 euros to sit on the sand that you realise we’re very spoiled when it comes to beaches Down Under. Wander onto any beach in Australia and you can simply flop on your towel and lie there for five minutes until you start burning and have to flee. But the point is, nobody tries to charge you for the experience. (Side note: This might be about to change with the proposed beach club on Bondi.)
All that marvellous, fabulous annual leave we get
Tell an American that in Australia most of us get four weeks annual leave a year, and watch them keel over. Our friends in the USA tend to get a maximum of two weeks a year, and often that is used up visiting family for Thanksgiving etc. They just don’t know that delicious joy you get when you’re sneakily researching your next holiday during work hours. It’s a foreign concept to them.
We have free public barbecues
Sure, you may have to spend 10 minutes cleaning it with a slosh of beer and a scrunched up page of the Herald Sun, but it’s free, baby.
The rest of the world thinks we’re hard as nails, thanks to our wildlife
Thanks to Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin, most foreigners think we are a fearless bunch who have nerves of steel when it comes to snakes, crocs, spiders, etc. Those characters did some incredible PR for us as a people. And Mick Fanning punching a shark square in the mouth really helped solidify that perception. Truth is, if most of us came across a croc in the wild we’d shriek and die of fright.
While most Aussies have never come into contact with a real-life crocodile, we’ll take the tough reputation it gives us.Source:News Regional Media
Our diverse climate
Live in Senegal? You better like it bloody hot. Live in Russia? You better like it bloody cold. The beauty of being in a country that is so enormous is that you can jump on a domestic flight and be in a completely new climate in a few hours. If the tropical heat of Cairns isn’t suiting you, hop down to Cradle Mountain in Tassie and breath in that snowy mountain air.
We don’t have to deal with cheques and bank tellers any more
Unless your grandma is giving you $40 for your birthday, there’s every chance you haven’t seen a cheque for a very, very long time. Which means you also haven’t had to step foot in a bank. It turns out Australia is actually super advanced when it comes to banking technology. We are early adopters of pay wave, BPAY was actually an Australian invention, and electronic transfers are de rigueur Down Under. Not so in other parts of the world. They’re still d*cking around with cheques.
We’re allowed on the grass
Hoo boy some countries get very uptight about the state of their lawn. Head to the botanic gardens or public parks in any Australian city and you’ll most likely be allowed to collapse on the grass and pull your shoes off. It’s one of life’s great joys. Try to do it in some parks in London and they’ll have you deported.
This post originally appeared on Escape and has been republished with permission
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