My husband Pete and I escorted a group of 18 to Australia and New Zealand for three weeks last month.

Australia is the only country that is also a continent. It is about the same size as the continental United States, however, the population of Australia is similar to the state of Texas. Only 10% of Australia’s land mass is inhabited.

I thought I’d give you a few differences I noticed on our visit to Australia. Since we speak the same language the differences are what was so fun to experience.

The first and most obvious difference is the summer there is our winter. The school year is different and spring and fall are completely opposite from the US. The hardest thing to get used to was not the time but what day it was. They are a day ahead (19 hours ahead of us in Portland). We kept asking each other, “What day is it here today?”

Sydney was beautiful. The harbor views were beautiful from our Hyatt Regency hotel located in Darling Harbor. We could easily walk along the harbor front or cross a pedestrian bridge to to the other side of the harbor. The Sydney Opera house was as beautiful as it looks in photos. Our group decided to splurge and have dinner at the Bennelong, the only restaurant inside the Opera house and then went to the Opera, La Bohème.