Touchdown in Australia: Where’s our underwhere?

We arrived in Sydney at about 6:30 AM. It was no sweat going through customs but we weren’t out of the woods yet. Our bags were marked to our final destination, Darwin, but we were told we would have to claim our bags and take them through customs since Sydney was the first Australian port of call. Except no bags matching ours appeared from the depths. The Qantas agent told us they were likely going to be a day late because US baggage handlers often get the date change confused with US to Australia travelers. The agent took our lodging info for Darwin, handed us a bag of toiletries, Qantas t-shirts and a $400 stipend for clothes to tide us over.

We sulked over to the Qantas lounge to get some snacks and shower. We then decided that we would go into Sydney before our flight to Darwin to get some essentials and clothes.

Sydney's Central Station

We took the subway to Central Station to look for clothes. This was our first indication of how expensive Australia would be. We were in a major shopping mall and couldn’t simply find t-shirts under $35 AUD (equivalent to about $30 USD). I looked at the best cost barometer in the clothing category I could find, a Lacoste polo. I think the Lacoste polo should be used like the McDonalds hamburger for worldly cost comparisons. A simple polo shirt was astonishingly $145 AUD. Two or three years ago when the USD was much stronger this price might have made sense. My dear new Australian friends… if by chance you really love Lacoste polos, might I suggest you travel to the US and go hog wild. At full retail you would only shell out $60 USD for this simple commodity. Even in pink.

Emergency apparel. Orange should do.

Graffiti in Surry Hills

Is saying the "Down Under" subway redundant?

The moral of the story… our US dollar is seriously hurting. Travelling to anywhere in the EU or Australia is financially draining.

After procuring underwear and socks we made our way back to the airport for our flight to Darwin. A relatively short 3.5hr flight meant going from temperatures in the low 60’s in Sydney to low 90’s in Darwin.

Quattro Qantas