Friday, March 12, 2010

Australia is big

My Grandmother is off to a writers' retreat in Crete later this year. On the way she thought she'd drop into a Literary Festival in Darwin (as you do) and, while she was "coming through", visit me in Canberra.

At first she thought she might take the train from Canberra to Darwin. I pointed out that it would take at least 6 days (and rather a lot of cash). So she settled on flying.

Then I made the mistake of mentioning the $15 Murrays bus from Sydney to Canberra, which got her thinking about taking a bus from Canberra to Darwin.

Dear Grandparental Unit (and anyone else thinking of travelling around Australia),

Australia is big.Very big.
(Images shamelessly stolen from here)

6 comments :

Olivia said...

Cool! I just love those postcards with comparison maps and I have a small collection.

Cherry ・ チェリー ・ 체리  said...

Lol!! Aussie is big. I remember when I was 8, mum wanted to drive to Sydney from somewhere far away and my dad was really pissed off. He did it anyway for her (she didn't believe him) and it took a good 24hours.

Ampersand Duck said...

I believe you... but I'm LOLLING at the size shift of the UK when you put it into Australia and when you put Australia on it... which do you reckon is more accurate?

We had a map very much like the second one on our toilet wall when we lived in the UK, and people thought we were being silly and nationalistic. Scoff away, tiny peoples...

My Realitty said...

Goodness... I knew you were big but this really hammers the point home. I'm now going to have to google what the population is, and the comparison to Britian's. I guess I thought it was in some ways a structural illusion phenomenon like Greenland...:) CM

Sally said...

He he he he... I met a German backpacker at Darwin airport who flew in from Bali to Australia for the weekend and thought he'd pop over to Byron Bay!!! I tried to explain to him that there just wasn't time but he just didn't seem to GET IT!

The Old Flame said...

This all reminds me of the two pacific islanders who wanted to take a Taxi from Sydney to Perth, as "it was just the other side of the island"