"I used to think the best days of my life might involve marriage, children, maybe career success.
 
Then visiting my brother in Perth I saw a pelican do a massive fly-by s**t on a toddler's head. Game over."

"As an Australian, I am really surprised no one has mentioned THE STARS in the night sky.
 
You can't see the stars like in Australia, like anywhere else in the world. The stars in the night sky in Australia are like BOOM BI**H!! YOU ARE TINY, LOOK AT HOW TINY AND INSIGNIFICANT YOU ARE, AND LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFUL WE ALL ARE UP HERE. Twinkle, f'in Twinkle."

"That the Australians went to war with emus in the 30s and they lost."

HoundOfTheBasketball said:
"Everybody I met was happy. Coming from Glasgow, Scotland, this was a massive culture shock."

gtatlien replied:
"American here. I met a Scottish guy at a bar in Melbourne and asked what he was doing so far from home. In a very thick accent, he says "You ever been to Scotland? It fu**ing sucks"."

"How ridiculously loud the birdsong is in the morning. (Cockatoos and magpies, your angry squawking eventually grew on me.) Also, the fearlessness of all the parrots. The vivid colors and apparent lack of a fight-or-flight instinct made me think: these parrots must have no predators. Rosellas (in Canberra) and rainbow lorikeets (in Sydney) just plopping down beside me and eating out of my hand. It was magical."

MorbidlyMacabre said:
"I'm a big-city California girl currently visiting a small country town in rural Queensland. The biggest shock to me so far (haven't ventured much outside of airports and the town) is the camel I saw on a farm. CAMELS. The only time I saw a camel was at a carnival when I was a kid."

Apellosine replied:
"Would you be surprised to learn that Australia has the largest population of wild camels and that we export camels to Saudi Arabia?"

"I'm gonna have to check in with the most unexpected thing I didn't see. I'm arachnophobic, I visited Australia for 2 weeks and didn't see a single spider. The coolest thing I think though was how well British and Australian attitudes mesh. It's like we were designed to make fun of each other."

"The colorful flocks of birds. I fell off my bike the first time a flock of Rosellas flew past me."

amireallyreal said: "Beetroot on burgers. Why?"
 
User No 2 said: "I'm pretty sure it's actually in our Constitution. Besides, it's the only way any of us would ever eat the stuff."

Jpnoth4 said:
"As an exchange student from Hong Kong, the first cultural shock I experienced was how y’all don’t really wear shoes, I never expect to see so many toes on the streets lmao."

shadow125 replied:
"Give us a break - it is still only 10 toes per person…"

Reddit user said:
"THE COFFEE SHOPS. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. Lived in Sydney for a semester and wow do your coffee shops kick a**. Everyone had great drinks and amazing food. What yall had on every block, Im lucky to find in a small city."
 
Aardvark_Man replied:
"Our coffee game is top shelf, and it feeds back into itself. The better the majority is, the better the rest needs to be to compete."

devland said:
"Penguins. Who knew there were little Aussie penguins running around? I was stunned."

Siberian_Poland replied:
"Yep, on some islands we have penguins for some reason."

timm1blr replied:
"Also in Melbourne on some of the beaches. Winter here is fantastic if you know where to look."

ALazy_Cat said:
"How there's actually snow there."

figglegorn replied:
"This fact blew my mind but The Australian Alps get more snow than the entirety of Switzerland."

JimmySilverman replied:
"We’re actually called New Zealand not just ‘the Australian alps’ - thanks."

i__love__myself said:
"Not anymore but when I found out that the Tasmanian devil is a real thing and Tasmania is a real place."

Stardust-Fury replied:
"As a Tasmanian, I would like to say you are welcome to come and have a look at our small, usually forgotten, slice of paradise."

"I remember getting off the plane and just noticing that the colors were all different. Felt like the sun was brighter and the sky bluer. (might have been because we left Germany in winter and arrived in summer) but also, the silvery green of the Eucalyptus trees is a color we don't get here.

Also: Free BBQ stations everywhere. That was cool!"

llennacs said:
"Ice Cream called Golden Gay Time.
Me being 13, had to send pictures of them to all my friends."

howmanychickens replied:
"Silly name. Best icecream. It comes in a tub now!"

Spectronautic1 said:
"The fact that almost the entire population lives near the coast. The center is enormous and deadly. Idk why but it blows my mind seeing those pics of signs saying stuff along the lines of next gas station is far af if you’re not prepared you’re gonna die."

elegant_pun replied:
"Gotta live near the edge, there's no water anywhere else. No rain, no nothing."

"Pies. Everywhere. This isn't a complaint."

emunny_99 said:
"Something is wrong with the way you market Tim Tams. Arnotts should be bigger than Amazon."

Ari2079 said:
"It got bought out by Americans."

Depression_God said:
"The banter. Aussies are surprisingly quick and have a great sense of humor. Also, they tend to have a darker, irreverent taste in jokes. Makes for good entertainment."

TheEarlySeller replied:
"A lot of the best British comics (Gervais, Carr) just use the same humor as Australians but make it more polite and accessible somehow.

Ironically Australian comedians are substantially less funny than people you’d meet on the street."

Taedalus said: "How casual Australians act around local wildlife was the most surprising thing for me (German) when I went there. Lots of little Jellyfish in the water close to Sydney harbor? A guy walks into the water, picks one up with both hands, and walks up to us "Guys I haven't seen those before, Does anyone know what kind that is?""
 
User No 2 replied: "Fun fact: There have been no spider-related deaths in Australia since 1979."

"Moved to country Australia from NZ at age 14, and of all things I remember being astonished at how huge the sky seemed because the land was so flat and vast compared to where I'd come from. The horizon just stretched on forever!"

Andromeda321 said:
"Astronomer here- the moon is backward!

To explain, in the northern hemisphere when the moon is waxing, it fills up from the right side to the left, then when it wanes it goes from the same direction. In Australia, on the other hand, the waxing crescent starts on the left.

It took me a moment to realize what exactly I was seeing, and I was absolutely tickled pink once I figured out why it was the way it was."

foul_ol_ron replied:
"I remember reading Terry Pratchett's comments on when he was camping near Uluru. He saw Orion, and it was upside down. I hadn't realized, as I've never visited the northern hemisphere."

rrfe said:
"Tall poppy syndrome: you’ve got to watch yourself… it’s an egalitarian society so if you come from a society that celebrates and flaunts success, you’ll tend to be disliked."

elegant_pun replied:
"Yup.

You can be proud of yourself and your mates will congratulate you. But leave it at that."

PlutoGB08 said:
"My brother is living in Queensland and finds it impossible to leave. He keeps getting odd jobs, even though he finished his master's in marine biology at James Cook University and he finds the marine wildlife just absolutely wonderful. He was told he can apply for Australian citizenship, but it might take time. He just doesn't want to come home to the USA and I don't blame him seeing how bad things are here."

Potential_Anxiety_76 replied:
"Being girt by the sea really helps with the marine biology job opps."

Astrosimian said:
"Getting massively sunburned in winter.

Canadian living in Aus."

dirtdoctor90 replied:
"Getting sunburnt in the rain Ranga living in Aus."

BigDaddyRed said:
"I did a study-abroad in Sydney and found it really odd that they have bouncers that will refuse entry if you are drunk.

Made pregaming really hard and you didn't want to cross the line."

Kidror replied:
"They refuse entry to try and stop the violence or health issues caused by people having drunk waaayyyy too much."

Ilovestraightpepper said:
"How AMAZING your wine is."

ID_LOVE_TOO replied:
"Yeahhh man, you can pick a Barossa shiraz anywhere. We are also doing a lot of really cool Mediterranean grapes as well.

Fun fact, Australia has older German resiling vines than Germany."

trexrocks said: "No kangaroos. I was led to believe that kangaroos were roaming the streets. Also, no Foster's beer. Apparently, Fosters is not Australian for beer."
 
not_just_amwac replied: "You obviously didn't come to Canberra..."

Nomsfud said:
"All the sober people!"

BigfootTouchedMe replied:
"Highly functioning alcoholics most likely. You only notice the drunks."

George_E_Hale said:
"At restaurants, or what I thought seemed like restaurants, I had to go up to the counter or wherever to place my order. I didn't always feel like I knew the proper system for getting served."

UnknownCode94 replied:
"Yeah, you were in more of a pub-like establishment. In more proper (fancy?) restaurants its waiters and all."

"I went to Aus for the first time last year (I'm from NZ) for Soundwave (a music festival for those of you who don't know.

And when it started to get dark there were bats just casually flying around. It just seemed so strange to me cause all you really see in NZ are seagulls and pigeons.

Bats are for zoos/caves/jungles/forests but not cities.

Damn Aus, you scary."

"Went in to buy more appropriate footwear in my first few days, and I was convinced the shopgirl was flirting with me. Bought something else in another shop, and more flirting. Another shop and the same thing. Turns out they weren't flirting. They were just naturally being really friendly. Smiling and being interested in me for no other reason than because that's just how you do things. I ended up taking a job going door to door selling things (backpacking yay!) and I was amazed how few times I was told to f**k off."

"Before I arrived in WA I knew it would be big and hot. However, I wasn't prepared for it to be this BIG and this HOT. Frogs in the toilet were another surprise, the increased number of frogs when flushing was a bigger surprise. You couldn't see the water for the frogs."

milkflakes said:
"A sign on the beach saying "beware of snakes"."

ezekiellake replied:
"Someone got bitten by a snake at the beach and died in August, so the signs aren't just for pretend."

jdbatche said:
"Flies! Flies, everywhere!"

phraeda1606 replied:
"Agreed with that! And everyone was so casual with it like it was a big deal to have a ton of flies flying around you when you are trying to have a relaxing day at the beach."

nothefuzz said:
"Drive through alcohol shop."

subkulcha replied:
"Bottle-o. It's for durrys and tinnies."

"'Yay, I'm in Australia. Let's get drunk!' 'Time to get a bottle of vodka... checks price... oh... nevermind.' ...and that's when I began my relationship with the goon."

idleflightsoffancy said:
"Driver stops in the middle of a zebra crossing, windows winded down, to greet us, strangers, good morning."

InertiaCreeping replied:
"I would put money on the greeting being something along the lines of "Howwya goin"??"

lowflyingsatelites said:
"My friend has recently moved over from Texas, and has said the thing that's shocked her the most is how much Australian millennials love The Simpsons."

BadgerBadgerCat replied:
"It was on Free-To-Air TV just after dinner time for years from the mid-90s to early 2000s and was basically something everyone was watching and enjoying together."

"All the random big things. Big banana, giant mango, giant prawn, giant kangaroo matilda.
I just thought of another, I knew you drive on the opposite side of the road there, but I did not expect the escalators to be opposite as well. You go up the left side, that was cool."

"Aussie surfer girls... my god the greatest thing my eyes have seen."

Thetford34 said: "The amount of famous Australian actors that have an acting credit in Neighbours and/or Home and Away."
 
Faze_Elmo1 replied: "My substitute teacher was on Neighbours, I'm convinced that most of the population has been on it."

"Your crosswalks.
The CLANGA-CLANGA-CLANGA is terrifying the first few times."

"Normal people without boomerangs."

"I thought it would be like walking on the ceiling with the feeling I could fall up into the sky. Sadly I was disappointed. Earth must be flat after all."

"As a truck driver, the road trains fascinate me, I want to visit and drive one."

"That they don’t have a thriving film industry yet. So many good actors from there but they all make it big in Hollywood."

wembley said:
"That it produces great prog metal bands like Twelve Foot Ninja and Caligula’s Horse."

Stompsie replied:
"True!!! Can’t forget Karnivool, TBE, and COG."