Loveable, like a rogue
Trip Start
Nov 05, 2002
1
38
69
Trip End
Aug 13, 2003
Canberra,
Australia
Monday, May 12, 2003
We left Sydney a few days back and after a quick stop off to see the Big Merino in Goulburn we arrived in Canberra and that is where you find us at the moment. It's a nice, if somewhat stale, place. The city was only created in 1908 when the new Australian federation needed a capital city and the bickering between Melbourne and Sydney for that right prompted the building of a new city equidistant between the two of them in an area designated as ACT, Australian Capital Territory. Well, it's said to be equidistant from both but it is actually nearer to Sydney, a fact the people in Sydney are all too happy to share with the visiting tourist. Canberra was designed on paper and built over numerous years to exact specifications. A nearby river was even diverted to create a lake in the centre of the city. I found it to be very like the American capital, Washington DC. All the main administration buildings are placed in a line from one end of the city to the other exactly as in Washington. As a result this young, manufactured city feels a bit sterile but nonetheless it's a nice place and we enjoyed a few good days there. We did a tour of the very funky and modern looking Parliament building. It's built into a large bank or hill at one end of the city and as a result some of the hill doubles as part of the roof. Because of this, the building looks small enough from the outside but inside it opens out into a very impressive structure. We also visited a great museum as well as the Australian Institute of Sport. It's here all the countries top athletes are trained on government based scholarships. The government decided to set up the institute as a result of the poor performance of the Australians in the Olympic games about 30 years ago. Another idea that I'm sure would work at home but is unlikely to be adopted. We also spent a good night out in King O'Malleys Irish pub. It didn't feel very Irish but then again that's what we get for visiting an Irish bar far from home. Still a bar is a bar, even if it's pretending to be something it isn't, and needless to say we had a great night followed by the inevitable sore heads upon waking in our little cabin on the outskirts of the city the following morning.
Having spent 3 nights here we are quite pushed for time (something I am all too aware of as I didn't get the time to visit the War Museum which I hear is excellent) and we intend to hit the road in the morning, hoping to get to Melbourne, via a stop off at Philip Island, by Thursday.
Hope to see ya there.
Dave
