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> Australians insist it's the best country in the world to live in, when most have barely traveled anywhere. Australian here. A couple of international trips

> Australians insist it's the best country in the world to live in, when most have barely traveled anywhere. Australian here. A couple of international trips ago I visited Berlin and went on one of those free walking tours. I was the only Australian in the tour from what I could tell. The tour took in the Bundestag (German Federal Parliament). The guide proudly pointed out its glass roof as to demonstration the Germany's post Nazi commitment to a transparent democracy. He said that a staircase spirals up the roof. He then joked that in practice, this means when the federal parliamentarians look up, what they see is a bunch of Australian's gazing down on them. I thought it was funny. It had a eery ring of truth to it as no matter where you go, you meet fellow Australians. To put this in perspective, Australia has 0.3% of the worlds population and most of us, as you say, are home. So it's downright weird to keep hearing Australian accents no matter where you go. BTW, have you travelled anywhere, or is this "most have never travelled anywhere" just something you've heard?

PrimeMcFly 3y ago
> So it's downright weird to keep hearing Australian accents no matter where you go. No stranger than hearing English or French accents IMO. Or Canadian. etc. > BTW, have you travelled anywhere, or is this "most have never travelled anywhere" just something you've heard? I've been to just over 60 countries so far, and spent about 7 years basically backpacking straight, and plenty at hostels. That's what colored my cynicism of "Australians travel so prolifically" - most of the time they just had short stops in a city and were there to get drunk. Maybe doing some guided tours as you point out, but rarely going off-road or actually traveling, meeting locals, learning about the culture, etc. You could say many Australians are tourists few are actually 'travelers', if that makes sense.

PrimeMcFly 3y ago

> So it's downright weird to keep hearing Australian accents no matter where you go. No stranger than hearing English or French accents IMO. Or Canadian. etc. > BTW, have you travelled anywhere, or is this "most have never travelled anywhere" just something you've heard? I've been to just over 60 countries so far, and spent about 7 years basically backpacking straight, and plenty at hostels. That's what colored my cynicism of "Australians travel so prolifically" - most of the time they just had short stops in a city and were there to get drunk. Maybe doing some guided tours as you point out, but rarely going off-road or actually traveling, meeting locals, learning about the culture, etc. You could say many Australians are tourists few are actually 'travelers', if that makes sense.