What the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the Opera House is to Sydney, its iconic roof rising over the harbor like billowing sails. In fact, the Danish architect’s father was in the shipping business, which had an influence on the design, not only the roofline, but also the windows, which angle out over the water and you feel like you’re on the bridge of a ship. What appears at a distance to be a solid white roof is actually...

We go through life making connections, some sought, but many appearing happenstance. When looking for your calling or pursuing a dream, many of the best connections appear synchronistically, amazing “coincidences” that move you ahead in wonderful ways, that there’s no way you could have dreamed up. Traveling is one of those times when synchronistic events seem to come in waves, I’m not sure why. I’ve read that they...

Yes, they do call their friends “mates,” and crocodiles really exist in abundance, waiting to chomp on unwary tourists. But there are a lot of different things you won’t necessarily have heard about or seen in the media, like different signs… …and different foods. There are very different plants… …and insects (these green ants weave a nest of leaves, but don’t get too close, they bite!) and...

Woke at 5am to what sounded like the rattle of rain on the metal hostel roof, but when I went outside, discovered it was giant palm fronds brushing the roof in the wind. Saw the orangey yellow sky as the sun rose, then the gray rain clouds moved in. Passed a camel farm, on the bus on my way to Uluru, sacred land of the Aborigines, renamed Ayers Rock by some white guy named Ayers, then renamed Uluru back again, in respect to the Aboriginal...

Where I’m staying, just outside the town of Cairns, may look like an ordinary neighborhood, but it’s surrounded by hills covered in rainforest. A short drive away you can catch a cablecar that goes above and through it, or stop and see the giant curtain fig tree. It doesn’t always rain in the rainforest, there’s a dry and a rainy season, or, like now, a relatively dry rainy season. A short jaunt and you’re in the...