A thank you letter to Australia

In an effort to keep my travel memories alive while adjusting to life at home again, and to describe to you all the wonderful things that await you Down Under, I've crafted a thank you letter to my favourite little red island.

Dear Australia,

Thank you for being surrounded by the beautiful, sometimes sapphire, sometimes emerald green, occasionally frothy grey ocean. And for convincing me that I must have been born close to the sea, it was just never documented that way.

Thank you for the ones you can enjoy to yourself to the ones where you don't get more than half a metre of room on hot, summer days. You really can't beat your beaches, Australia.

Thank you for that wonderfully warming, glowing ball of light that brightens up the day figuratively even more than it does literally. And for the bluest blue backdrop of a sky.

And although a sunny day beats any other day, thank you for those rainy, stormy, or otherwise unpleasant weather days. You have no idea how much pressure they take off of always succumbing to the need to be outdoors, instead offering an excuse to cozy up on the couch and dream of the next adventure.

Thank you for the array of choice in fresh, locally-grown fruits and veggies. Now it's back to giving cut-eye to the berries or bananas that travelled all the way from Mexico or Ecuador.

Thank you for the never-hard-to-find fish and chips shops dotted around the coast. There's something special about eating this meal post salty immersion.

Thank you for TimTams. Need I say more?

Oh wait, and snake lollies!

Thank you for your high cafe standards and the coffee snob-ism that goes hand in hand. We're trying over here in North America but we've got a long way to go before trendy cafes and barista-made coffees become the norm.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for easy bank transfers. You mean I can immediately repay a friend for a booking she made without having to send an email transfer? Outrageous!

I may have slightly complained about this one before (you can confirm here), but I now value (most of the time) shops closing early most days of the week. Thank you, Australia, for putting a damper, however slight, on consumerism.

Thank you for saying hello on the street, thank you when getting off the bus, for not taking yourselves too seriously, and for upholding the 'working to live' instead of 'living to work' mentality.

How ya goin', mate? Far out! Cozzie. Taking the piss. Thank you for the "Australian" language.

Thank you, Australia, for being so Aussie.

'Til we meet again. See ya later, mate.

~S~