It's no secret that things are done a little differently Down Under — and often times the things that seem completely regular for us, shock our international friends.
This was evident in a thread posted by Reddit user u/likes_limp_penis, who asked non-Australians to share the most unexpected thing they saw when visiting.
1. The price of alcohol (or vodka).
"'Yay I'm in Australia. Let's get drunk!'.
'Time to get a bottle of vodka....'
*checks price*
'Oh...Never mind'
...and that's when I began my relationship with goon"
—u/HottIcedTea
2. "A sign on the beach saying 'beware of snakes'."
—u/milkflakes
3. "The colourful flocks of birds. I fell off my bike the first time a flock of rosellas flew past me."
—u/tubbytucker
4. “Frogs in the toilet was a surprise. Then the fact that they increased after the flush was an even bigger surprise. You couldn’t see the water because of how many frogs there were.”
—u/Welshite
5. "Everybody I met was happy. Coming from Glasgow, Scotland, this was a massive culture shock."
6. "Went in to buy more appropriate footwear in my first few days and I was convinced the shopgirl was flirting with me. Bought something else in another shop and more flirting. Another shop and the same thing. Turns out they weren't flirting. They were just naturally really friendly."
—u/peon47
7. "I remember getting off the plane and just noticing that the colours were all different. Felt like the sun was brighter and the sky bluer. But also, the silvery green of the eucalyptus trees is a colour we don't get here [in Germany]."
—u/ntrontty
8. "Getting massively sunburned in winter."
—u/Astrosimian
10. "Drive-thru alcohol shops."
—u/nothefuzz
11. "The biggest shock to me was seeing roadkill that I’m pretty sure was a dead kangaroo. Now it makes perfect sense when I think about it, but prior to visiting Australia, the only time I saw a kangaroo was in a zoo, all safe and in an enclosure, so you kind of figure it's like that all over the place."
12. "The noise that the pedestrian crossings make. I think it's really funny."
13. "I'm going to have to go with most unexpected thing I didn't see. I'm arachnophobic, I visited Australia for two weeks and didn't see a single spider."
—u/faatiydut
14. "I'm a big city California girl currently visiting a small country town in rural Queensland. I haven't ventured much outside of airports and the town, but the biggest shock to me so far is the camel I saw on a farm. CAMELS. Only time I saw a camel was at a carnival when I was a kid."
15. "Ice cream called Golden Gaytime. Being 13, I had to send pictures of them to all my friends."
—u/llennacs
16. "How ridiculously loud the birdsong is in the morning."
—u/lifsglod
17. "THE COFFEE SHOPS. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. Lived in Sydney for a semester and wow do your coffee shops kick ass. Every single one had great drinks and amazing food. What ya'll had on every block, I'm lucky to find in a small city."
18. "Pies. Everywhere. This isn't a complaint."
19. "I'm an Aussie now, but when I first moved here from Hong Kong, I had never seen a sky so vast, so blue and no clouds. I took a breath and said 'What's that smell?' My brother replied, 'It's fresh air.'"
—u/coldv
20. "Penguins. Who knew there were little Aussie penguins running around? I was stunned."
—u/devland
21. And finally, "Flying. Cockroaches. That is all. Fuck that."
—u/Shane4894
Non-Aussies, what's the most unexpected thing you've seen while in Australia? Drop them in the comments below!
Note: Responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
