Australian hospitality

The best and the most fun way to learn about a country, is to spend time with their people. And we were so fortunate to get that opportunity. In restaurant Longrain in Sydney, we met the Australian couple Brenda & Rebecca from Brisbane. At the end of the evening in Longrain, Rebecca kindly invited us to stay in their home when we were heading for Brisbane. What a wonderful thing to do! So a few weeks and some e-mails later we rung their doorbell, just after Rebecca came home from work. They had planned a lovely evening together, with a ferry ride over the river to the centre of Brisbane and dinner in the French restaurant Piaf. The spare room downstairs was made up for us, with our own entrance and own bathroom. What a luxury after staying in hostels and camping! We spend a few great days together, getting to know each other and discussing everything, from the difference in politics and society between Australia and Europe to food (Brendan especially has a preference for dishes that ‘hit you in the face’…).
After a few days, we took a taxi to the airport for our flight to Cairns (to go diving at the Great Barrier Reef) and when we flew back, Rebecca was there to pick us up from the airport. It was really nice to see a familiar face waiting for us. We spend the national holiday Australia Day together, which started with Rebecca making their favourite Sunday breakfast for us, English muffins with egg, bacon and tomato ketchup or bbq sauce. After that we went for a stroll along the sea, saw people playing cricket, had fish and chips and went to a pub for a drink. A real Australian Australia Day. The next morning we had to say goodbye to this most wonderful couple, with whom we shared a lot of laughs. Luckily, it was more a ‘see you later’ than a ‘farewell’, because we decide to meet each other again in Byron Bay, where we were going later.