Parliament House Canberra

After Sydney we went to Canberra. Canberra is Australia's capital and its political heart-land. The city was planned in 1908 as the new seat of federal parliament to end rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. Canberra was once little more than a sheep station on the edge of the Molonglo River. Its name is based on an Aboriginal word meaning "meeting …

17.10.11
After a 4 1/2 hour trainride I arrived in Canberra where I met my new couchsurfing hosts. What a lovely couple. Very nice and well travelled. Got a home cooked meal that night :) Yummy :)
They were very helpful and gave me a few tips where to go and what to see but there isn't as much as I expected. Basically just the Parliamennt …

Canberra wasn't really a place that I thought I would get to see because it is so far away from every other city and the fact that it’s out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of New South Wales. But when Lisa and Louis the people we were doing our farm work with had to go and get some supplies they asked us to go along for the ride.
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While we were in China we were travelling with the most amazing couple, Anne and Brent, who were on their way back to live in Australia after many years working in Scotland. They invited us to come and stay with them when we got to the country, and we very excitedly left Sydney knowing that we would get to see them again.

Brent picked us …

President Obama jetted into Canberra, the capital of Australia, from Alice Springs for negotiations regarding the military base in Darwin and several other matters. The main purpose for this leg of the trip was to reaffirm diplomatic ties between Australia and the United States, negotiate for more troops to be sent to the US' military base in …

... we found it quite interesting! We only had one day there really and didn't do vast amounts but we did managed to see the Parliament House. We took one of the tours around and learnt lots (and lots of things that I don't know about the British government ...

... would be the best time to watch in the public gallery, as it's Question time then. A short walk down to the Old parliament House was the next logical place to visit. However, on arrival I didn't actually go in as I was distracted by the Aboriginal ...

... and disciplines. Unfortunately Bisham Abbey and Crystal Palace fall somewhat short of the mark nowadays! That afternoon we headed back to Parliament House and took some photos from the roof of the building. I stayed on and took advantage of the guided ...

... here since 1972. It is a strange contrast to the smart buildings and lawns that form the rest of that area of Canberra. When I arrived at Parliament House I was lucky enough to be at a good time to catch up with a tour that was running. That ...

... not above the people but rather at the same level. Each room in the building is also part of a timeline of Australia. After the Parliament House we were going to hire bikes and cycle round the lake but then we read one of the information leaflets ...

... mild twinge of suffocation? Maybe it was the fact that I was told to piss off by the Feds for taking a photograph of Parliament House? Either way I was out of there. So I'm sitting once again in suburbia, a place called Queanbeyan. With Les. ...

... ). And if you want a change, well then, there is a fitness circuit with exercise benches located in gardens surrounding Parliament House. And it's all done very professionally, including marking out the running routes with a white line and signs saying ...

... wasn't. Knackered by the ride to the war memorial, we rested for an embarrassing amount of time before heading on to Parliament House. To make things interesting, there were a group of protestors outside chanting about the dangers of nuclear food. Well ...

... Parliament House, passing a few of the embassies (including UK and Canada, which Shelina and I though apt!) on the way. Parliament House is another impressive building that is built into a hill, and in keeping with the surrouding area has grass right ...

... from his drops (he didn't learn to drop and roll in the field). We then headed off and had a guided tour of the New Parliament House, that was really quite cool, and our tour guide was really good fun. We liked that the flag was about the size of a ...