Things you won’t find in Australia (Part One)

Last year, I had the fun of travelling to the USA for the first time (not including stopovers on the way to other places when I didn’t even leave the airport).

My sister and I flew into LAX, spent a day at Universal Studios, and then flew to Colorado to spend a week there before heading home to Australia. It was a whirlwind trip, to say the least, but I had the most amazing time. (See my (Attempted) Reflections post for more on that)

Obviously, being on opposite sides of the world, Australia and the USA are very different places despite (somewhat?? :p) speaking the same language, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the differences that I found intriguing.

1. Right hand drive.

We drive on the left hand side of the road in Australia. And the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. The sticks for the indicators (turn signal?) and windscreen wipers are switched too. Fortunately, for everyone else on the road with us, my sister, Cherith, did all the driving while we were in America. We wouldn’t have even found our way out of the carpark if I’d been behind the wheel.

The difference isn’t so noticeable on straight roads but turning corners and navigating roundabouts gets pretty confusing!

2. Ketchup.

We have tomato sauce. It’s pretty similar, although ketchup is both sweeter and thicker than tomato sauce. Works great on chips (fries), meat pies and hot dogs. Among other things.

3. Deer, and distance measured in miles.

We don’t have too many deer bounding around our roads. At least not in the cities or suburbs. You’ll find some in the more rural areas of Australia but I don’t think they’re quite as big as the ones in the US. They’re certainly not something I come across on a daily basis where I live. Or, you know, at all.

Nor do we measure distance in miles.

Kangaroos and kilometres, on the other hand? Many, many, many of those!

4. Liquid cheese.

I’m not sure whether I’m sad about this one or not but we don’t have liquid cheese and definitely don’t smother everything in it. I liked it in small amounts and can definitely see the appeal of it, but also don’t feel like I’ve been missing it all my life.

Giant pretzels are pretty rare too. Although, surprisingly, they were a lot more rare where we were in Colorado than I expected too. For some reason (maybe because a lot of movies/shows are set in New York?) I thought big pretzels were everywhere in the US but it took us until our last day to find one.

5. Cute little shock-expressioned sockets

We call them power points in Australia. And ours don’t look quite as cute. Or as terrified.

Any of these surprise you? What side of the road do you drive on where you live? Let me know in the comments!

Also, Aussies, feel free to let me know if you have any of these where you live. Maybe I’m just a bit slow on the uptake 🙂

Check out Things you Won’t Find in Australia – Part Two for even more differences I found intriguing between the two countries.