And These Are A Few Of My Favourite Oz Things:
And These Are A Few Of My Favourite Oz Things:
In no particular order….
1. Burger King in all of Australia is called “Hungry Jack’s”. It’s exactly the same as Burger King, they both server the Whopper. I didn’t eat at one, mostly because I don’t like fast food hamburgers, actually I don’t really like hamburgers in general.
I didn’t really think twice about why such a famous fast food chain would have a different name in Australia, until I got to Melbourne and had a conversation about it with a girl named Sung. She was one of 5 other girls I shared the hostel room with. Sung is from New Zealand and even there they call it Burger King. I though for sure that she’d know the story behind the name change, but she was just as curious as I was.
The mystery behind Hungry Jacks was revealed to me when I visited my friend Reid in Brisbane. He said that when the Burger King chain first came to Australia it was available for purchase as a franchise. The guy that owns Hungry Jacks purchased it and bought the rights to the Whopper and everything Burger King had to offer but under the name of Hungry Jacks. At some point Burger King decided to stop selling as a franchise and severed ties with the owner of Hungry Jacks. Burger King left and Hungry Jacks gained in popularity. Burger King eventually came back and tried to setup shop as competition to Hungry Jacks. So Hungry jacks took Burger King to court. Since the guy that owned Hungry Jacks had the rights to all of the icons, food and such and was there first and he was Australian, he won the case and Burger King isn’t allowed to setup shop in Australia. So if you like fast food and if you are ever in Australia, then you should stop to eat at a Hungry Jacks and enjoy a little piece of Australian and Fast Food nation history.
2. McDonald’s and Subway are the only north American fast food chains that I ate at in Australia. Each of which I only visited once. The interesting thing to note is that McDonald’s prides itself on using 100% Australian Beef. They have it advertised all over their food containers. Even the ones that don’t contain beef, like the Egg McMuffin are advertised on. It was pretty interesting.
3. Instead of saying “show up” as in “She’ll show up when she’s ready”. Australians say “turn up”.
4. In Sydney all of the city streets tell you which direction to look for oncoming traffic before you cross the street. It’s printed on the road directly in front of the curb. It was really helpful since everything is on the opposite side to what I was used to.
5. All of the stairs in the subway systems had grips on the floor at the bottom of every stair. Not that it was ever slippery but if it was to rain it would definitely help prevent people from sliding down the stairs. I wish Toronto would do that.
6. My favourite moment of the entire trip was hand feeing a Wallaby (a small Kangaroo). They are so cute and friendly. They sit upright and fold onto your fingers with their cute but sharp little claws while they lick the food off your hand. Their tongues are rough like a cats. It was so much fun!
– Bonnie
