My dear friends Aussies, I wish you a very happy Australia Day celebration!
When I read the topics that galenkp gave to us, I should have thought that I could write about any of them except the last one, because I never had the opportunity in my life to meet a person born in Australia.
I have been in contact with people who have lived or still live in Australia, but not Australian born.
I have never been to Australia, but if fate had dealt the cards a little differently, I might have been born there 😀
Radivoje, brother of my grandfather (my father's father), emigrated after World War II from Yugoslavia to Australia and settled on a ranch on the eastern side of Australia, near Sydney.
When my father served his military service in 1969, his uncle invited him to move and live with him (since his uncle had no children), but my father decided to stay in Yugoslavia.
And I think he was wrong, given that he stayed to live in a communist country that fell apart in a civil war 20 years later...
If my father had moved to live with his uncle, he probably would have started his family there, so maybe I too, if I had been born, would have been an Aussie 😀
This way, my father was forever separated from his uncle.
And I never had the chance to meet my grandfather, who died in 1986, when I was less than 10 years old.
After him, only his wife remained, with whom my parents were not in contact, and thus the family ties were broken.
All I have left is the address where his ranch was located, in the town of Penrose, as well as the number of the grave site at the Rookwood cemetery in Sydney.
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At the opposite end of Australia, in the west, in the city of Perth, my friend from elementary school has been living for the past 15 years.
She moved to Australia with her husband, a guy from Serbia, and her newborn son. They have another child in Australia, a daughter, and settle permanently, without the idea of returning to Serbia.
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When I saw the first topic:
If you could be in Australia this weekend, what would you like to do? Cuddle a koala, go surfing (with the sharks), pet a kangaroo, visit Sydney, the tropical north, the outback or one of our amazing beaches, rain forests or mountain ranges for instance? What would you do and why?
I definitely decided for that topic!
But to which side of Australia, to the east, to my friend's place, or to the west...
Considering that it's only this weekend, too short two days, I wouldn't be able to do what I would like to do in such a short time, if I traveled so far, so instead of the west coast, I would choose the east coast.
And what could I do in those two days?
I wouldn't go to the beach, I wouldn't pet koalas, I wouldn't take selfies with kangaroos, go to mountains or forests...
There wouldn't be time for any of that...
I would plan my two days as follows...
I would buy all the necessary tickets in advance, ask where, what and how I am doing and do the following:
On Saturday morning, immediately after landing the plane from Europe to Sydney, I would go to Rookwood general cementery, Serbian orthodox zone 3, I sector/53 and light a candle on the grave of my grandfather Radivoje (grandfather Bata).
From there I would take a rental car to Penrose, postcode 2691, which is about 150km away from Sydney, to look for any trace of his St George Orchard ranch.
The question is whether you would find the same thing there... Probably nothing...
From there I would head back to Sydney and visit the Sydney Opera House in the afternoon, for which I had previously bought a ticket.
If I couldn't find tickets for a performance that day, since the celebration of a national holiday is near, so the question is whether the performances are being held, I would pay for a tour to visit this extraordinary building, which has been synonymous with the Opera all my life.
And then, depending on whether I bought a train or plane ticket (I would probably choose a plane ticket and shorten the return trip from 22h to 5h), I would head either to the airport or to Sydney Central railway station.
Destination Melbourne, AO final, tennis tournament Australia open between Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev.
As I write this text, I know that the new champion AO is Jannik, who dethroned Novak Djokovic, whom I have been rooting for years, but I am aware that his time is slowly passing and that younger, better tennis players are appearing.
Jannik, congratulations!
After the end of the final, I would probably drink a beer in a pub in Melbourne and take a train (or plane) to Sydney, from where I would catch a plane to Europe early on Monday morning.
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This could be the plan for the past weekend, but again, it seems unrealistic to visit Australia from Europe, only for a two-day stay 😀
My colleague from the company I have been working with for 15 years, to whom I am superior, in 2018 asked for the approval of an extended annual leave and spent the whole month around the Christmas and New Year holidays in Sydney, with his family.
When he returned to Europe, from the warm Australian summer and +35 degrees to the cold European winter -15 degrees, he could not come to himself for several days 😃
I would have felt the same way, if I had traveled to Australia for this weekend, I would have spent days recovering from the trip and the emotions I would have had...
Thank you for stopping by my post and I hope you enjoyed the story I shared with you.
No pictures this time, I've never been to Australia 😀