19-year-old Germans

You go to Australia expecting to see people from everywhere around the world, maybe a bit more British than anything else, but you’ll be surprised as there is an incredible amount of Germans.  You’ll find them in every hostel, in every city, on the both coasts, in the Outback, in Darwin, everywhere. And they’re all 19-year-olds! And most of them already with cars!

You get there, probably with not much money after paying for the flight, and you have to bust your ass working to save up, buy a car and start travelling. Well, guess what, the 19-year-old German kid who just graduated high school, already has a car and is ready to do all the road trips there is to make around Oz. 

It’s a bit of the shock at the beginning to see so many of them. After a while you get used to it and you might discovered (at least that happened to me) that they’re funny, with a great sarcastic sense of humor, they’re great travel mates as they’re organized, they love the outdoors and are always up for hikes. But the best part is that they love to drink beer and that’s always positive.

Friendly French

I don’t know if this has only happened to me, but I’ve had the pleasure to meet a lot of friendly French. In fact, all the ones I’ve met have been great. Talking to other backpackers before I went to Oz they all said the same thing: “French are the worse because they’re close-minded, they only speak in French between them and they’re arrogant”.

Needless to say, I was expecting the worst from them. Surprisingly, it was the other way around.  Yes, they can seem shy at the beginning, but I learnt that’s because they’re embarrassed of their English, so they prefer to either stay quiet or speak to other French.

Nevertheless, most of them try speaking and improving their English, and they’re funny, open-minded, like a good party and are great cooks. Lots of times I had the pleasure to be offered a French typical dish by another backpacker who had just cooked it. Fuck it was awesome!

Sexy Scandinavians

Most of them are concentrated around the East Coast between the months of December and April. I guess that’s because close to the North Pole they’re freezing their asses off and prefer to go somewhere nice and warm, enjoy the summer, put on their bikinis and get a nice tan in the beautiful Australian beaches. And well, I think most of the backpackers are really happy about this, and hope they keep doing it.

I don’t know if Scandinavian guys are also popular between female backpackers, but if that is so, I guess we can all say that we’re glad Scandinavians have decided to come to Australia!

Hard Partying Brits

Everybody loves a good beer or a nice cocktail, followed by a fun night out at a cool venue. However, most of us have suffered from terrible hangovers on the next day and decided to stop drinking at least for one night.

Not the Brits.

Even though sometimes they’ve been so drunk and so loud that they have annoyed me a bit (just a bit hey!), I have to admit that I admire how much they can drink (boys and girls alike), and the spirit and energy they have to wake up completely fucked up the next day, looking like zombies, and managed to open another beer and start drinking again.

Fun fact: during my Whitsundays trip I competed with two Brits, trying to outdrink them. Well, I woke up in the grass, feeling like a train had run over me, and with no idea of what had happened. The two Brits also looked terrible, but they managed to stay alive all night.

Argentinians And Their Mate

For those who only speak English it’s maybe less common to mix up with Argentinians or Latin Americans in general, but they’re great fun. Most of them prefer the beach and warm areas, so you’ll find them around Manly in Sydney, St. Kilda in Melbourne, Byron Bay, etc.

The mate, for those who don’t know what it is, it’s like an infusion made with the mate herb, and it’s served inside a dry pumpkin, mixed with hot water and they drink it through a sort of metal straw.

And so you’ll see the Argentinians sitting by the beach, in small groups, passing around the little pumpkin and taking sips of the delicious mate. The best thing about the mate is that it’s really good, it relaxes you and it’s perfect for good chats with the Argentinians who are some of the coolest backpackers I’ve met.

Extremely Polite Canadians

Canadians are by far the nicest backpackers ever. It’s incredible how polite and amicable they are. Always saying thank you, sorry and all the other polite expression that we are taught but never really use. Thanks Canada for sending such nice people abroad to remind the rest of us how to be polite, respectful and friendly.