Everything Ends – Part IV: Australia

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For years I had wanted to go to Australia.  Twice I planned to fly into Sydney for New Years Eve, and twice those plans fell through.  When I started this trip, I knew there was always a possibility that I’d end up in Australia, but I knew there were so many reasons why I shouldn’t go.  Who goes to Australia in the winter?  Do they even have a winter?  Where do you go after flying all the way down there?  Eventually I found the answer to all of those questions and more.

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Short words on the city of Cairns

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Cairns.  It’s quite possibly the second most difficult word to correctly pronounce in the entire Australian vocabulary.  Sure – I’ll admit that I’ve heard grammar rules in my life about what to do when two vowels are together in a word, but I’ve never found any rules about silent r’s being added just for fun.  Subsequently, I cannot tell you why “Cairns” is pronounced as “Cans,” but I can tell you that I hate that stupid “r.”

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