Calm (or Comatose) Canberra

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Trip Start Jun 24, 2008 Previous
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  Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

For those of you who don't know (like me, before I came here) Canberra is actually the capital of Australia (yeah, I thought it was Sydney, too).  Canberra is, by the far, the calmest, quietest city I have ever been to.  And by calm and quiet, I mean no one was around and the city was pretty much a ghost-town while we were there.  But for Paul's insistence that we visit, I probably would have by-passed it.  Surprisingly, however, we went and had a pretty good time.  Indeed, we found people particularly nice in Canberra. 

First, while waiting for the bus to Canberra from a tiny town called Yass Junction (the first part of the trip was by train, and I felt like a little kid when I saw kangaroos go bounding by--they have quite a vertical jump and easily leaped over four foot-high fences), Paul got to talking with this older gentleman from Canberra who was a wealth of information.  From him, we learned that Canberra was planned by Walter Burley Griffin, an architect from the Chicago School (i.e., Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, etc.) after a contest was held

Memorial for Australian Soldiers

.  Keeping with that school of thought, it's laid out in a unique triangle pattern, with a lot of green space.  He also helpfully explained to me the difference between a solicitor and a barrister, which I was dying to know.  I won't bore you non-lawyers with the details on that, however.  He also kindly helped us figure out where we were staying that night--the first hostel of our trip--the Canberra City YHA hostel. 

Now, as many of you know, I am opposed to staying at a hostel because I am 30.  However, Paul was actually interested in staying at one at least once, and it was the only place that fit in our budget, so I went along.  It was actually a very nice hostel--very clean, lots of space and amenities.  And, surprisingly, there were people of all different ages, including families with children.  The downside was all of the younger people (heathens) who were talking very loudly in the hallways very late at night and very early in the morning.  I was particularly irritated with one child that kept screaming in the morning.  But, for some reason, Paul kept saying it was a bird.  Turns out, it was a huge blackbird whose caw sounded exactly like a three year-old child, and who had managed to get into a bag of McDonald's it had filched from the garbage.  Paul started yelling at it to leave the McDonald's alone because it could kill you, but the bird ignored him. 

Later that night, Paul and I ventured out to an awesome pub called Wig and Pen where they had not one but four types of chocolate-flavored stout

War Memorial

.  I was in chocolate beer heaven.  My favorite was this kind of beer called Fiery Aztec, which tasted like chocolate with chillies--it was awesome.  Now, up to this point, I had commented to Paul on more than one occasion that Australia was one of the least diverse places I have ever been.  Every other major city I have been to in the world is diverse--you see people from all different backgrounds (white, black, asian, latino, etc.).  In Australia, not so much.  Apparently I am not the only one who feels that way, because while we were in Wig and Pen, a gentleman stopped by, took my hand, and said "I always have to introduce myself to people with nappy hair."  Um, thanks?  But, he was interesting--he was from Zimbabwe and we had a nice little chat about the current political situation there (his position--it's a Zimbabwean problem and Zimbabweans need to fix it, as evidenced by Iraq and Afghanistan--no argument there). 

The next day, we set out for the Australian War Memorial, which was stunning and very touching.  It also was quite a walk and, as people know, I get bored of seeing tourist sites rather quickly, so I went back to the hostel while Paul went to look around some more on his own.  The following morning, we got up early and hit the other spots--the old Parliament House, the new Parliament House, and the High Court of Australia.  While Paul was bored out of his mind at the High Court, I found it fascinating, particularly because the attendants were so knowledgeable and friendly as I plied them with questions in an effort to learn how the system differed from the American system

View of Parliament Houses from War Memorial

.  And, although it's been explained to me on more than one occasion, I still don't quite grasp Australia's relationship with the UK.  I mean, technically, the Queen of England is also the head of state for Australia on paper, although I guess not in practice.  Strange. 

We also inadvertently stumbled across the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in front of the old Parliament House.  The Aborigines have spent decades struggling for equality and for restitution.  In 1972, they established a tent assembly outside of the old Parliament House as a protest against the denial of land rights and the right of self-determination.  Since 1972, the embassy (which literally is a group of tents) has been manned, and it really was a very powerful (and sobering) symbol.  Although I did have a chuckle at the stickers plastered all over the statute of King George--be sure to take a look at the close-up of his knee--it's not a band-aid.

Finally, we headed to the train station to move on to Sydney.  Like many Australians, our taxi driver was a sports fanatic, and he loved having the chance to school us on the intricacies of rugby, Australian football ("footy"), Gaelic football (who knew? he says it's even weirder than footy--I can't even imagine what that must be like), cricket and netball (Paul and I saw a clip of the game on the news--it's like basketball, but they don't dribble the ball and there's no backboard--just a net)

Hall of the Unknown Soldier

.  The driver got so carried away that he didn't seem to notice that his car was on E--I mean, the little red fuel pump symbol was just blinking away, and I was worried the car would die before we got to the station--and he didn't seem to want to let us get out of the car once we arrived at the station.  Luckily, however, his cell phone rang, so we slipped out of the car, went into the station, and began our journey to Sydney.  

**In keeping with the conclusions we are making about life in the States, I have to say another way Americans are cheated is the birds.  Here in Australia, their equivalent of pigeons and seagulls are these beautiful and awesome looking parrots, which come in all different colors--we've seen red ones, white ones, green ones, and pink ones.  They are so much prettier than the pigeons from Chicago. 

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier	Stained Glass at the War Memorial	Monument to the Navy	Shannon
Vietnam War Memorial	Vientam War Memorial	Korean War Memorial	Korean War Memorial Obelisk
Crane	Captain Cook Fountain	Birds--so Much Cooler than Pigeons	Bird
View of the Lake	New Parliament House	Me at the High Court	Us
Paul and the New Parliament House	Foggy Morning View of the War Memorial	Aboriginal Tent Assembly	Word.
Tent Assembly	King George's Knee	King George	View of the Tent Assembly
Old Parliament House	High Court Room Where Full Court Sits

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