Money, scratch, dinero, coin, cash, moolah. Money doesn’t buy happiness but it does buy a cab ride or a falafel from a street vendor. Sure, credit cards are pretty much accepted eveywhere these days but cash is still king, which is why one of the first things you should become comfortable with in another country is their currency.
Six days ago I landed in Australia- the first time I had ever been on foreign soil (except for a trip to the Bahamas which doesn’t count). I went to the magic money machine at the airport (don’t do this, just use an ATM in the city), stuck in $200 US dollars and received A$161.80 in return. 😦 Of course I hadn’t researched Australian currency one bit so all of the sudden I had a bunch of colored pieces of paper and weird coins that felt about as useful to me as Monopoly money. It was intimidating but I found that you get the hang of it pretty quickly and cashiers will help you out even if they think you’re stupid.
Check out the pic above. The first thing I noticed is that Australian paper money comes in different sizes, getting smaller as the denomination decreases. I can only assume their A$100 is bigger than the A$50. There’s also a little transparent section on each bill which is kind of cool. Ok, so no big deal with the paper money. Where you can get in trouble is with the coins. See that little goldish one on the far right? That’s a A$2 coin and next to it is a A$1. In the US if you have a pocket full of change you might have, at best, three bucks or so (yeah we have $1 coins but when was the last time you used one?). Over here you could have A$20 in your pocket! Why their second smallest coin carries the most worth is a mystery to me.
So anyway, it doesn’t take long to get used to it. I guess the lesson is that in Australia you need to be more mindful of the little change in your pocket goin’ jing-a-ling-a-ling.
P.S. – for the curious: the coins across the bottom are, from left to right, $0.05, $0.10, $0.20, $0.50, $1.00, $2.00. I haven’t seen anything smaller than five cents.
kentuckyfriedscott 
Oh my, that would be confusing. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it very quickly. Do you have time to skype today? Let us know when.
Yes Scott, it is very humbling to have to ask what something costs (because you really can’t understand the price) and then have to ask how to pay for it. Really have to trust your fellow man! Hard to imagine your sunburn when it is almost freesing here and there is snow on the ground. I so look forward to your “scribblings”…have an adventure everyday!
Cool stuff bro. Enjoy reading your blog. You should consider keeping it up after you return to the states. Take care.
Glad you’re enjoying it! Sometimes it’s tough to find time to write but I’m having fun with it.
…and the AU paper money isn’t paper. You can’t tear it. Well, Scott might be able to. =)
There is not much better than a street kebab or falafel with a cold Victoria Bitter. Then again finding out that the 10 small coins in your pocket = 20 dollars is pretty cool too!
Glad you are having fun!
Canada just did away with their penny; their smallest coin now is CAD .05. It was costing .016 to produce the .01 coin.
do i get any points for the song reference at the end of this post? (i better ’cause now it’s gonna be stuck in my head for a bit) : )