There are certain learning curves that come with traveling.  Of course, many things are lost in translation when visiting a country that does not speak your native tongue.  HOWEVER, things can still be ‘lost in translation’ when English is being spoken.  This was something Julia and I discovered pretty quickly in Australia (but perhaps not quickly enough.)  The dilemma: ordering coffee.  I know, I know my life is so demanding.  The struggle is real.  But, coffee IS a big deal.  Not only am I a more friendly and kind person after my morning cup of coffee, but I can experience physical withdraw if I don’t have it.  Headaches, shakes, nausea, weird thoughts . . .  Basically just think of all the side affects you hear about on prescription medication commercials and that is essentially me without coffee.

My ‘go to Joe ‘ is a large iced coffee.  No cream. No sugar.  For this past year, it’s been difficult to find my favorite cup and that’s quite okay.  In Spain, I indulged in café con leche; in Italy, tiny little espresso, and in Argentina delicious café cortado.  I love coffee and as a result, enjoy trying it around the world.

Being in Australia is so similar to the states I figured I could easily order an iced coffee with no problems. Nope. Not the case. Think again.  Iced coffee in Australia is essentially a coffee flavored milkshake.  Coffee with ice cream, heavy cream and whipped cream.  It may sound delectable, but in the morning it’s a diabetic shock waiting to happen.  After a couple of errors, we finally got it down.  Mystery solved=A ‘long black.’  A long black is two shots of espresso with water, similar to an Americano My order typically sounded like this: ‘Hi! I’d love an iced long black, lots of ice, no sugar, no cream, sorry for being difficult, thanks so much’.  Sometimes I got hot coffee with a couple of cubes of ice, other times I got a heaping glass of ice with wonderful coffee poured over it. Either way, the sweet, sweet caffeine was worth the effort.  And on some days we just had to forget where we were, go ‘full American’ and hit up the local Starbucks.