It is winter back home in Ellensburg, WA. It should be. It is the perfect time for it -- it's December. However, this year I decided to visit some friends Down Under, where is summer. I mean 29C.  Real summer with sun, the ocean, the flowers --the whole package. 

But these open minded Aussies use other currency than the good old greens. It is good, because I imagine they have the queen all over the bills, but definitely a drawback for me, because I needed some of their currency to buy some things when necessary. One would think I should have used my credit card and the problem is solved. I did and it worked. Easy, painless and working solution. 

However, I was thinking that I still need some cash money but I was wrong. Everywhere you can pay with credit card. Everywhere. And I did. To travel to the city I am using the metro line -do not ask me which one because I don't know and I do not even need to buy a ticket, just use my phone to pay for the ride. I am impressed. In return in America we barely have touchless payments.  It is kind of a paradox knowing that America is the center of the technical innovations these days. Probably these Aussies do better because of the weather, or the kangaroos or just because they eat too much vegemite.