The colorful changing huts on Brighton Beach in Melbourne.

It’s snowing here in Stockholm, so I am distracting myself with thinking about our upcoming trip down under. And as today is Australia Day – Australia’s national day –  I pulled out some photos from the archives. I chose the one above because what could be more Australian than going to the beach and enjoying the sunshine and surf? And then I couldn’t resist adding the one below because if you are going to spend the day at the beach, than you want the famous lifeguards there to save you, of course, than that led me to thinking of the budgie smugglers. The budgie smuggler is a Speedo type swimsuit that was given this illustrious name as the “bump” in the front is said to resemble a budgie or budgerigar, better known to most of us as a parakeet.

The Australian Budgie smuggler.

Finally, I had to add in the photo of the meat pie and beer, a classic meal combination in the land down under. Now I have to thank my Australian husband Robert for leading me down this road of Australiana. He will try to deny this, but he did play me a number of classic Australian songs from the 70s and 80s last night, including Eagle Rock by Daddy Cool. Oh my.

A meat pie and Tasmanian beer. Yum.

The wide open space of the backroads Northern Ohio.

It’s that time once again when everyone feels compelled to look back on the year that is about to end. Far be it for me to be left out of a trend, so here’s a brief look back at my travels and other adventures. To not give you too much of an overload, I’ll cover January to June here and do a separate post on the rest of the year.

January: Back in Ohio.There’s something reassuring about going back to your roots, seeing family and friends, a  familiar landscape and shopping, happy in the knowledge that prices are so much lower than in Stockholm. Plus, the longer I am away, the more easily I can appreciate where I’m from. Robert and I spent Christmas in Cincinnati and new year’s in Port Clinton for the great walleye drop where yes, a giant fish is dropped at midnight to celebrate.

The view from our hotel room in Hobart, Tasmania.

February: Tasmania, Sydney, Canberra, Darwin and the Outback. What’s not to love about 1) Being in Australia in summer and 2) Leaving winter in Stockholm behind? After traveling for 37 hours, more than 10,000 miles through 9 time zones (I think) and five airports – including Stockholm, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hobart – we finally arrived in Tasmania. I loved seeing the brand-new MONA art museum there and this post continues to be one of my most read of the year. Sydney is always tops in my estimations, but in the Northern Territory, we encountered crocodiles, kangaroos, floods and cyclones, making this one of my most memorable trips of the year.

This is the first day of spring in Stockholm. The Baltic Sea is still frozen as you can see here and the snow keeps coming.

March: Living in the Arctic.  After already having had four solid months of continual snow, we got even more of the white stuff. After falling when I attempted to switch to regular boots outside, I wore snow boots every day. It seemed that I spent most of the month checking out new restaurants and bars and exploring the Soho-like neighborhood around me. Eating and drinking is really all you can do to cope with this relentless winter stuff. It’s a good thing I like snow.

Playing chess under the cherry blossoms at Kungsträgården in the center of Stockholm.

April: Transitions. At the beginning of the month, there was still snow and ice. Everywhere. By the end, the snow was finally gone and Stockholm was starting to bloom. I could be outside again without freezing or wearing snow boots. At last. I felt alive again, especially when the cherry blossoms came out at Kungsträdgården. And there were a lot of parties too, including one for Prince William’s royal wedding. I got a teenage thrill seeing Swedish band Peter, Bjorn and John in concert and getting to dance with lead singer Peter.

An escape to the middle of Sweden.

May: The Swedish countryside. Unbelievably, we got more snow at the beginning of the month. But it melted quickly and we moved on with spring. On a press trip into the middle of the country, I got back in touch with my Swedish side by staying in a manor house that was built in 1775, eating some fabulous husmanskost or home cooking – including reindeer, meatballs, salmon and cloudberries – sweating in the sauna and hiking in the forest with deer.

One of the many Amsterdam canals.

June: Amsterdam. I love this city more every time I visit it. Sure it’s got that rap for being seedy, what with its infamous red light district and coffee houses, but this place is so much more than that. Pretty canals, fantastic art museums, international cuisine, great live music, flower markets, tasty cheese and beer, charming architecture and alleyways – all of which can be easily explored by bike. It’s my kind of town. Back in Stockholm, we celebrated my favorite swedish holiday – midsommar – with snaps, herring, good friends and yes, we did do something called the frog dance.

Coming up in the next half of the year, the archipelago, Austria, Croatia and more.

The Sydney skyline in February.

It’s been years since I had a roll of film developed. One of the best – if not the only – aspects of returning home after a holiday was getting my photos developed. Typically, I was so excited to see the photos that I  would drop my rolls off the same day I got home. And of course I would pay for the 24-hour processing so I could get them quicker. Then when I got the envelope of prints, I would flip through them quickly at first to see what was there, then more slowly, reliving the vacation, commenting to Robert about what a good trip it had been. And just as often saying, “wow, this was incredible. We have to go again.”

Part and parcel with that was also a bit of melancholy that I was not still on the vacation. But I would get over that a bit by sharing the photos with friends. These days, it’s not so often that I share my vacation photos with friends. Somehow, it’s not quite the same to show the digital images on the computer. Although I guess you could say that I do that via this blog. I think I kinda miss waiting to get the envelope.

It's a bargain!

Last night at book group, everyone was asking about my trip. Somehow, the conversation evolved into language differences or more specifically, what we determined were quaint Australian uses of the language. Everyone loved the term budgie smugglers (read about them here).And fair dinkum – which translates as true, real or genuine – was also popular. In usage, I might say I caught a fish that was 12 inches long. And your reply would then be: fair dinkum, mate?

I have to say that I have mostly heard the phrase used in the country and the outback, although Robert’s Uncle Brian does live in Sydney and indeed says fair dinkum quite a bit.

I ate my steak and mushroom pie with tomato sauce (ketchup) and a nice cold Tasmanian beer.

Thongs are what we call flip flops in the US and men and women, young and old wear them everywhere. By the way, you certainly don’t want to say that you “root” for a sports team while in Oz or you might be considered promiscuous as “root” is slang for sex.

Moving on from Strine (Australian slang) to uses of the language, if you see a pie shop it’s probably going to be serving meat pies, not dessert pies. We Yanks, of course, would more typically talk of a dessert pie although we do have pot pies which are basically the same thing as a meat pie in Oz.

Outback transportation.

While we were in the Northern Territory, we encountered a lot of road trains or big trucks with many trailers. In the remote parts of Oz, road trains are one of the best ways for getting goods around.

Last, I could not resist sharing this front page headline from the NT News while we were there: “Best man left bleeding after being hit in the head with a flying dildo. And wait till you hear where it came from. Inside full story.” I just don’t see any non-tabloid newspaper in the US running with that headline.

After that opening, the paper ran more typical news. But this ad caught my eye: “Be crocwise” which was for a crocodile capture company. Now that is just something you don’t see advertised in my part of the world.

Charlie the buffalo lives at the 303 Bar in the Northern Territory.

Ordering beers at the 303 Bar at the Adelaide River Inn, I felt like someone was staring at me. Turning around, I discovered a buffalo. It was my first beer of the night or I might have thought that I had had a few too many. But there was indeed a buffalo and luckily, he was stuffed and hence no longer alive. It turned out he was even a famous buffalo – his name was Charlie and he co-starred in Crocodile Dundee. (Remember Dundee taming the beast? It took me a minute…) Buffalo notwithstanding, the bartender served up icey cold beers and an Irish accent while the rain came down in torrents outside.

Outside the Adelaide River Inn.

Behind the bar at 303.

Robert trying to capture the essence of the funny dunny.

On our last night in Darwin, we ate at Buzz Cafe. We picked the place as it was located on the harbor in Cullen Bay and it had a great looking menu featuring modern Australian cuisine. And the meal was indeed fabulous. We split two mains – the house specialty fish grilled barramundi over mashed potatoes. (Barra is a very tasty Australian fish, considered by many to be one of the country’s best.)

While the barra was indeed good, the Thai fish cakes were even better. Served with coriander, thin slices of red and green pepper, ruccola, sprouts, sweet chili sauce, cucumber, carrot and a touch of mayo, my mouth is watering just thinking about them now. Oh my they were good.

In spite of the amazing meals, what we will probably remember most about the Buzz Cafe is what they called “the funny dunny.” A dunny is Australian slang for toilet and the men’s room at the restaurant was indeed funny: it features a one-way glass urinal overlooking fellow diners. We weren’t aware of this feature until Robert came out of said funny dunny with a funny look on his face. Being Robert, he had to check the view out and make sure that he was not actually on view at the dunny. (He wasn’t.) And being me, I had to see if the ladies room had any fun for the ladies. As fas as I could tell, other than the sea shells on the toilet seats, all was well there. I was kind of disappointed.

The view from Darling Harbour in Sydney the night before we left sunny and warm weather behind.

When we got home to Stockholm yesterday afternoon, it was snowing and -7 c. It could have been worse. When we landed in Helsinki, it was -29. (Our route home was Sydney to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Helsinki and then home.) But of course, it could have been better. It was 31 and sunny when we left Sydney. What a difference 35 hours can make!

One good thing that we did with our layover in Hong Kong was to stop at the Traveler’s Lounge  there. On our way to Australia, we were given a complimentary pass to the lounge as we had a six-hour layover. This time, it was only three hours and we did not get the freebie. But we decided it was worth it to pay on our own. For about $50 US per person, we had hot showers, a 15-minute massage, a cocktail, an Asian buffet and all sorts of other drink options, free internet access, international magazines and newspapers, and comfortable chairs to relax in. Stopping there actually makes you feel human on a long-haul flight. By the way, the lounge is open to all travelers on all airlines.

Sydney's Harbor Bridge at night.

It seems fitting that on our last morning in Australia, Robert and I walked across the Harbour Bridge. It was a perfect goodbye to this city that I love and hate to leave. Plus, the views of the city and the Opera House from the bridge are outstanding. But more than that, the bridge has big sentimental value for me. On my first visit to the city in 2000, Robert drove into town in such a way that my first view of the bridge was from Circuluar Quay and was thus magnificent.

On my second trip to Australia nine years ago, we walked across the bridge early in the morning just days before we got married. By the way, our ninth wedding anniversary is Wednesday.

Another night view.

Much like the Golden Gate and the Brooklyn Bridge, the Harbour Bridge is a beautiful piece of art and engineering. I never get tired of admiring it.

The view driving across the bridge.

Walkers on a bridge tour.

The aftermath of Carlos. All photos by Robert Corkery.

Cyclone Carlos has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is now known as x tropical cyclone Carlos. We spent the night safely holed up in our hotel room while the wind howled and bent  the palm trees outside our window. It was strange to know that devastation was going on – trees were being knocked down, homes damaged, power was out and streets were flooded, but that inside our hotel we were fine.

Even a raincoat and umbrella were no help against getting wet from Carlos.

This morning,  it’s windy, but nothing like yesterday and we were even able to eat breakfast outside. Trees and debris are already being cleaned up, with trucks full of branches and trees going by us regularly.

Nonetheless, the airport is just opening back up and our flight today was cancelled. Right now, we can’t get back to Sydney until Saturday evening, just in time to make our flight back to Stockholm on Sunday. Strange days indeed.

The view from the hotel bar.

It was blowing like crazy last night.

OK, just when we thought things could not get more strange weather-wise, we are now in Darwin with the tropical cyclone Carlos. We are fine. It’s a category 1 cyclone, meaning it’s at the very lowest end of the wind speed scale from 1-5. (By the way, a cyclone occurs in the tropics while a hurricane is what we call it in the US.) Winds are gusting up to 50-60 kilometers per hour (30-35 miles per hour per hour) just now and are expected to reach 130 kilometers.

We are in a hotel that actually serves as a cyclone shelter and are quite comfortable and safe with our emergency bag packed if need be. At the moment, it’s like we are in a thunderstorm in the Midwest without the thunder, just lots of wind and rain. Our fellow hotel guests include some famous Aussies  – the North Queensland Cowboys rugby team. As for us, we just walked to the hotel next door for a bite to eat. It was blustery and we got wet. But otherwise, all is well.