It's not boring, trust me
Trip Start
May 03, 2008
1
42
47
Trip End
May 02, 2009
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Friday, January 9, 2009
Canberra's maybe a bit mathematical and rigid to the naked eye as it was planned city built just over a hundred years ago. I say mathematical because if you look at map of it it's basically two large circles with concentric circles drifting further and further out until it is met with straight streets all the way. Also it must have been a construction worker's dream as it is full of concrete shells which to be honest most aren't really imaginatively designed or that well built as someone pointed out to us the all the drains on the buildings were done on the cheap and have since been completely replaced or modified so they actually work. Canberra also has the reputation of being how should I say it well just plain dull really.
In saying all this we actually found it grew on us immediately and really shouldn't have to bad reputation it has as it has plenty to do. It started when we arrived late the first night and were dropped at the bus station in the city centre. Having booked the bus at the last minute as we didn't know we were leaving Sydney we could only get a bus that was arriving late and also there was no space in the one Hostel in the whole of Canberra. We decided to go with the next cheapest option of a Travellers Lodge on the outskirts of the city even though this was still above our price range. So there we were wandering around a block in Canberra at half nine at night looking for the correct bus stop which according to the woman who ran the lodge was "easy". We finally found it or so we thought until the driver kindly told us that unfortunately we were at the bus stop for the bus that was going in the opposite direction. But he was kind enough to actually get off the bus show us where he thought the bus left from (even he didn't know) and gave us the correct things to say to the drivers in terms of where to stop. We were surprised by his friendlessness and wiliness to help as we did not find it that often in Australia sadly. After all that and because it was getting late, we decided to bite the bullet when we saw a taxi in the next street and jumped in.
The next morning we got up and walked the half an hour walk to Kevin Rudd's house better known as the Australian House of Parliament. The building itself is a modern affair with its front façade designed with two diagonal steel buttresses meeting at the top of building. The building is surrounded by mounds of grass some of it is incorporated into the building's roof as it sits on a hill with a view that stretches all the way done past the old parliament building which in true Canberran feel is directly as the crow flies in front of it further down the hill and you can see the lake below.
The building itself was informative and a lot of it was open to the public as well. We sat in the public gallery of the government chamber but no one was there at the time, the politicians were probably on holiday as usual. Unfortunately at this point Marie Therese's camera broke which put in a not so happy mood considering she only bought it seven months previously.
The next day we spent part of the day walking around the city including the Captain Cook jet that every ten minutes or so sprouts a fifty metre jet of water into the air and towards you if you're unlucky enough to be downwind. The rest of the day taken up with boring things such as trying to figure out what we were going to do and trying to find have decent non-booked accommodation in Melbourne.
On our last day in Canberra we took a tour of the Australian Institute of Sport where we were shown around the various facilities they have and how the scholarship athletes train and prepare for future international stardom. Left on the night bus to Melbourne that night due to arrive very early the next morning.
