1) Too hard! I'm sure you can get 6 month leases.. probably. Or at least serviced apartments, furnished apartments (apartments here will generally not come with things like fridges, for example) that cter to professionals. Cheap... well that's another matter. The rental market in Melbourne (where I lived before the US) has changed hugely since I was here, so I can only really speak for Canberra.. where rents are insane. I pay more than in NYC, but my place is nicer..
2) Depends. Trains aren't great for inter-city travel. Planes are pretty good, and you probably don't want to face buses if it can be avoided. Melbourne - Sydney is about 10 hours drive, for example. I'm doing it Canberra - Sydney on the weekend, but that's only 3 - 4 hours. Planes between Syd/Melbs can be as cheap as $35 thanks to a new asian airline that's entered the market. Depends on when you fly, where you fly, etc.
3) Yes, but you can fairly easily survive without a car in most major cities as long as you stay inner-city. There's a big backpacker scene here, you could pick up a bomb (old crappy car) and sell it on your departure if you really wanted to.
4) Melbourne and Sydney both have these sorts of neighbourhoods. In Melbourne, you want Richmond, Carlton, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Northcote. Sydney I know less well but I would guess Newtown, and a few others.. lemme check on a few. The thing about Australian cities is they might be suburban sprawl, but its remarkable how little you have to drive to have civilization drop away alarmingly. A couple hours out of Melbourne will get you to the little penguin parade, beautiful beaches and plenty of stars. Sydney's a bit more sprawling, but a quick escape to the 'mountains' (try not to laugh at our little hills) is pretty easy too. Oh and when I say 'suburban', the cities don't stop - they aren't interrupted like they are in, say, Westchester - if that was an Oz city, it would be continuous sprawl from Manhattan on and all called NYC..
5) I'd be very surprised. Remember we're your 'closest allies'. Australia has a very odd relationship with the US, there's been more disaffection from my generation over the Bush years, but prior to that it was pretty much idolatry and an attempt to be the next state (Puerto Rico you say? who are they?). In a way, we were in the process of replacing the UK with the US. Now, maybe a bit more distance. I guarantee you'll be asked 20 billion times if you're Canadian, but that's just because we generally can't tell the accents apart and have learnt that Canadians get offended when you mistake them for Americans (all of whom are affectionately 'yanks', no matter what part of the country you're from), but Americans don't seem to mind being asked if they're Canadian one bit. There's a bit of 'only in America' eye rolling about the Maury, and Jerry Springers, and obesity stories and all that insanity that gets through. There's a bit of (usually) good-natured ribbing about stupid/gulliable Americans and so on. You might be told a drop bear story or two, and people will assume you won't get 'our' humor (but I've found most New Yorkers generally do) but mostly, its a friendly country.
Having said that, our prime minister just got burnt in effigy in India. We're a bit proud of that, someone noticed us! Sadly, for a series of violent, racist attacks against Indian students studying in Australia. There's other racist undertones and rumblings that are disturbing. Riots in Sydney aimed at the Lebanese population, for example (a couple of years ago, and just horrifying - right wing shock jocks whipped it up over some gang rapes perpetrated by lebanese youth on 'australian' women). You'll get our 'redneck' equivalent out of the cities too, and there's ongoing race relation issues with the indigenous people that you might run into in the Territory, for example. For the most part though, this is a pretty happy corner of the world. Sure we have our problems and it isn't paradise, but its a usually friendly, welcoming sort of place to visit.
Oh - go get Bill Bryson's Sunburnt Country. Its a pretty perfect picture, and hilarious too.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Sure thing.. (part 2)
Date: 2009-06-02 02:51 pm (UTC)2) Depends. Trains aren't great for inter-city travel. Planes are pretty good, and you probably don't want to face buses if it can be avoided. Melbourne - Sydney is about 10 hours drive, for example. I'm doing it Canberra - Sydney on the weekend, but that's only 3 - 4 hours. Planes between Syd/Melbs can be as cheap as $35 thanks to a new asian airline that's entered the market. Depends on when you fly, where you fly, etc.
3) Yes, but you can fairly easily survive without a car in most major cities as long as you stay inner-city. There's a big backpacker scene here, you could pick up a bomb (old crappy car) and sell it on your departure if you really wanted to.
4) Melbourne and Sydney both have these sorts of neighbourhoods. In Melbourne, you want Richmond, Carlton, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Northcote. Sydney I know less well but I would guess Newtown, and a few others.. lemme check on a few. The thing about Australian cities is they might be suburban sprawl, but its remarkable how little you have to drive to have civilization drop away alarmingly. A couple hours out of Melbourne will get you to the little penguin parade, beautiful beaches and plenty of stars. Sydney's a bit more sprawling, but a quick escape to the 'mountains' (try not to laugh at our little hills) is pretty easy too. Oh and when I say 'suburban', the cities don't stop - they aren't interrupted like they are in, say, Westchester - if that was an Oz city, it would be continuous sprawl from Manhattan on and all called NYC..
5) I'd be very surprised. Remember we're your 'closest allies'. Australia has a very odd relationship with the US, there's been more disaffection from my generation over the Bush years, but prior to that it was pretty much idolatry and an attempt to be the next state (Puerto Rico you say? who are they?). In a way, we were in the process of replacing the UK with the US. Now, maybe a bit more distance. I guarantee you'll be asked 20 billion times if you're Canadian, but that's just because we generally can't tell the accents apart and have learnt that Canadians get offended when you mistake them for Americans (all of whom are affectionately 'yanks', no matter what part of the country you're from), but Americans don't seem to mind being asked if they're Canadian one bit. There's a bit of 'only in America' eye rolling about the Maury, and Jerry Springers, and obesity stories and all that insanity that gets through. There's a bit of (usually) good-natured ribbing about stupid/gulliable Americans and so on. You might be told a drop bear story or two, and people will assume you won't get 'our' humor (but I've found most New Yorkers generally do) but mostly, its a friendly country.
Having said that, our prime minister just got burnt in effigy in India. We're a bit proud of that, someone noticed us! Sadly, for a series of violent, racist attacks against Indian students studying in Australia. There's other racist undertones and rumblings that are disturbing. Riots in Sydney aimed at the Lebanese population, for example (a couple of years ago, and just horrifying - right wing shock jocks whipped it up over some gang rapes perpetrated by lebanese youth on 'australian' women). You'll get our 'redneck' equivalent out of the cities too, and there's ongoing race relation issues with the indigenous people that you might run into in the Territory, for example. For the most part though, this is a pretty happy corner of the world. Sure we have our problems and it isn't paradise, but its a usually friendly, welcoming sort of place to visit.
Oh - go get Bill Bryson's Sunburnt Country. Its a pretty perfect picture, and hilarious too.