Living Like a Local

This post has been entered into the Granturismo/HomeAway Holiday Rentals travel blogging competition.

http://grantourismotravels.com/2010/11/10/grantourismo-travel-blogging-competition-november/

www.homeaway.co.uk

Meet a Local!

One of the easiest places to ‘live like a local’ is Australia. You don’t have to do it consciously, you just sort of absorb the way of life by a sort of osmosis. Or, at least I did. I’ve lived in Australia; my wife is Australian and we’ve visited often.

There aren’t any problems with the language for me, even the Australian version of the English language … expressions like ‘She’ll be right!’ or ‘Give it a go!’ have crept almost undetected into my vocabulary. I’ve even taken to referring to a carton of fruit juice as a ‘fruit box’.

I did think I’d be excluded because I don’t like pavlova, Vegemite or fritz … but neither do a lot of Australians. And, I do like pies, caramel tart, Cascade Premium (among many other brands) and Bundaberg ginger beer.

Usually, we stay with relatives, which helps greatly. We often see the sights with them, rather than joining organised tours. I rather liked the South Australian Tourist Commission’s line ‘We don’t have tourist attractions. We have places we go to that we like to share with our visitors’

I’ve reached the conclusion that, to ‘live like a local’, you must stop trying to live like a local. It’s something that can’t be taught … it just happens.