A couple of weekends ago, we spent a Sunday afternoon celebrating Canada Day with the Canadian-Australian club on a floating restaurant at Darling Harbour. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and as always, it was so comforting to hear the sounds of Canadian accents. At our table was a woman who had been in Sydney for 24 years. She had this very romantic story of meeting an Italian guy and sailing from Italy to Australia where they ended up staying and raising a family. At one point in the conversation, I told her about how we're heading back to Canada soon for a visit and asked her if she had any tips for Australian souvenirs to bring back for our friends and family. Without hesitation, she told us that on the first visit back, you must bring back all the Australian kitsch that you can stuff in a suitcase.
Heeding her words, yesterday we went to Paddy's markets to load up on boomerangs, cane toad wallets and kangeroo furs. We were totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff, and ended up with gifts for only a fraction of the friends and family we're planning to visit. We're thinking about going back for a second run, so all you Canadians out there, here's your chance: if you're at all interested in a koala backpack or kangeroo claw backscratcher (we saw one, and it's just as gross as you would imagine), now's your chance to let us know.
Here's some pics of Gus being a goofball for the grandparents, taken on the floating restaurant where we celebrated Canada Day.
3 comments:
Great idea on gifts to bring back. I brought back Sipahhs straws - and they were a big hit with my nephews. I also brought aussie shaped key chains and kitchen towels with kangaroos and koalas.
When are you going to be back? We're going back to WI...we'll be back in a week.
Hi Catherine, I forgot about those sippah straws. Thanks for the tips on gifts!
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