So, apparently, when Australians had to choose which city was to become the capital of their unified territory, they couldn't decide between Sydney and Melbourne, and thus, as a compromise they built a new city, Canberra, right in the middle between the two combatants. How curious, isn't it? I think that tells us already a lot about the mentality here. But maybe I give a few more anecdotes from my first week here.

Before entering the country, I had to declare all kinds of products at customs, mostly food-products, but also if I carried potentially contaminated soil particles with me, say on my hiking shoes. Well, I didn't plan on alienating the government on my first day here, so I declared basically everything and immediately got really worried that they might put me in some sort of quarantine. But luckily for nothing. The overly friendly lady custom control officer, with her brown cargo shorts and red polo shirt looking like the cliche of a park ranger, just informed me that if I got sick I should be consulting a doctor, duh, and then sent all my stuff through another x-ray before waving me through. And that was that.

Like when I went to the beach for the first time, having heard all the horror stories about sharks attacking swimmers, deadly jellyfish and rip currents that drag you out into the ocean, my fears only got intensified by all the warning signs close to the water and the hoards of lifeguards reminding you that you are swimming in a dangerous area. All that made me extremely anxious and actually had the opposite effect: I didn't feel safe at all. Very confusing. But then I listened to a talk where they explained how to deal with all these dangers and I realized that probably each Australian grows up with this knowledge, balancing out the government crying 'danger' at every corner. And still, I couldn't get over the feeling that citizens here are a little treated as naive children, maybe justly so, but it is a little demeaning not to be trusted with anything, no drinking alcohol in public places, only swimming in marked-off areas, needing three different documents to identify yourself, and I bet the list goes on.

Apart from that I really enjoy it here; Sydney has a very European flair with its British architecture and very multicultural population. I felt right at home stepping out of the central train station until I saw a flock of Ibises (large white birds with black heads and beaks) and noticed a larger than the usual non-existent amount of people walking barefoot, as if someone had taken a standard European city and just changed very little but significant details in it. And I'm really looking forward to finding many more of them.