I am back!

So our 3 weeks trip around the globe finished safely. So now I will be busy by sorting tons and tons of photos and video. However I like to share with you some thing that wonder and even puzzled me.

Our roads in Australia are firs-class. Anyone who said that we have “3-rd country” roads either never been anywhere else or plainly blind. I could believe that in Germany roads better that ours (never been there as yet), but in France they no nearly as good as ours. Toll roads are better, but no way they better then our Hume freeway. “Ordinary” roads….. just ordinary. Narrow, without shoulders and no nearly “smooth as glass”. In Canada roads pretty much like ours with fewer double-lined separated freeways. In Japan roads utterly shocking. In California there are *ABUNDANCE* of freeways – if we have as many as they, then each street with 70km/hr and higher in Melbourne would became freeway. Their freeways very well organized and at some places can handle up to 6 cars abreast. Quality of road surface, however, very much as we use to use on ours freeways – better on evidently new roads and not that good on older one.

“Speed kills” only in Australia. Everywhere else it does not kill somehow. In California they do 80+ m/hr (130 and more km/hr) where signed speed 65-70 m/hr. On my question being catching by cop they answer that their cops only stops them if they drive well faster then other traffic. Similar situation in Canada. On roads very much as ours two-lines roads in rural areas they doing 120-130 km/hr with posted 100km/hr limit. Explanation the same – one should exceed speed significantly, say 40-50 km/hr to be stopped and booked. In France I been driving by my own. I been doing 60 where 60 is posted and been continuously overtaken by all other irritated traffic. I heard an opinion that Victoria is “Police State”, but never took it seriously. But the fact is it is true.

And last funny (for me) things – dogs (and I guess cats for this merit) permitted in Canada *EVERYWHERE*. All parks, caravan parks, walking tracks accept dogs. Plenty of people walking with dogs on tracks. Maximum “dog restriction” can be observed in biggest parks where there small part of camping spots reserved for “no dogs”, but never other way around. My Canadian friends told me that they never even think to go without their dos and could not recall even one place where dogs prohibited. This particular matter always been puzzled me – we as nation pretending to love our pets to death but in fact support “rid of your dog if you going out” mentality, thus actually (again as nation, I am not talking about individuals here) happily put our “member of family” in small kennels in “dogs hotels” and lets them suffer for weeks. We use to use it and believe that it is OK, but in fact there is other way to manage it and I saw it in great success with my own eyes.

Cheers
Serg