Nightlife and Vegemite (Slightly NSFW)

My best friend in elementary school lunched on Vegemite sandwiches daily. He used, as I recall, some sort of oval-shaped bread — French, perhaps, or sourdough. Two thick slices of bread concealed a veneer of brown, sticky substance between them. He never tired of Vegemite. His mother hailed from Australia, and his father once beat Bobby Fischer in chess. The chess part probably had no influence on the contents of Andrew’s brown bags, but the Australian part certainly did.

A Roo Awakening

No country owns an animal like Australia owns the kangaroo. OK, China and the panda play in the same league. But China and its one-trick panda can’t match Australia’s array of exclusives: koalas, platypuses, echidnas, wallabies, wombats, emus, Tasmanian devils, and more. Australia’s geographic isolation has created a mix of species that techies would call “proprietary” and scientists call a high level of endemic fauna. You and I just say, “OMG that’s a lot of cool animals!” You can’t call a trip to Australia complete until you put eyes on kangaroos, koalas, and other animals you won’t see anywhere else. We spent portions of three different days in zoos, and got an eyeful of everything but echidnas. The lone, bashful echidna we had the chance to see, a resident of the Melbourne Zoo, stayed hidden. Something else we didn’t see at the zoo: Jhett. By the time we went to the zoo in our second week in Australia, he’d left for a week-long work placement assignment for school. We missed having him with us!

Getting Around Australia

Imagine a world where Isuzus still zoom down the highways, passed by the occasional Peugeot. Congratulations — you’re picturing Australia. Isuzu and Peugeot may have pulled out of The United States, but they stuck around The Land Down Under. They face stiff competition, though, from some States stalwarts, like Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Nissan. They say NIH-sun, though, not NEE-sahn. And their Nissan Rogues go by the name X-Trail.

For a lot of cars, you know the make but not the model. Kia Picanto? Toyota HiAce? Jhett’s Suzuki Jimny? I find it strange that different models sell in different markets.

Testing Australia's Medicare

One of the many issues fracturing the people of The United States is how to administer healthcare. Is healthcare a right? A privilege? Should we keep healthcare private, or should the government provide healthcare to all? The Australian government provides healthcare to its citizens. Time for an experiment! I decided that, on this trip, I would purposely test their healthcare system. Just kidding. None of this was on purpose. It all just happened. But I did get to experience Australia’s healthcare system firsthand.

Finding Pen City

Unlike Italy, Australia isn’t known for its pens. Two well-known ink manufacturers, though, call Australia home: Robert Oster and Van Dieman’s. I’ve visited pen stores on even smaller pretenses, so I didn’t worry about convincing Sherry that Pen City was a must-see. Plus, Russ and I sneaked to the pen store while Sherry was taking a nap. She had no chance to stop us.

Located in Ravenhall, a suburb of Melbourne, Pen City is a bit tricky to find. Apparently, Google Maps drops you just around the corner with no view of the storefront. At least, that’s what our Uber did. We wandered the wrong way around the block, chasing the misplaced dot on our maps, and wondered if Pen City had closed. Russ called the store and got someone on the phone who complained about Google’s misplacement and walked out the the store to find us, just as we found the store. After a good laugh, we walked in about 3:15PM. The store closed at 4:00PM, so I knew we had to hurry. The guy at the counter — the same guy who answered the phone and the only one in the store — said as long as he closed up by 4:20PM, he’d still make his train. That was awfully nice of him to stay open a little longer, because we needed that extra time! I should have taken a picture with him. I didn’t catch his name, but he and I had a great time nerding out over pens while Russ poked around the store and listened in.