Canberra - Part 2

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Saturday November 21st was our second day in Canberra. Since we had gotten quite a bit done the day before, we decided to check out the city’s main shopping center. You know, not one of the biggest attractions, but a good time to relax. We grabbed a bite to eat, and then walked over to the National Museum of Australia. A very cool museum with tons of info spanning the history of the country. Plenty about sports, the wars, major achievements and the evolution of a nation. We spent the majority of the afternoon in there, before heading out for a long walk back to the hostel. Actually, we walked through the Australian National University on the way back, and got to see some campus life outside of Charles Darwin University.

That night we popped over to a nice Italian restaurant for some pasta. Something a little better than fast food or our own cheap pasta. And it turned out that we picked the right place because just in the public square of the outdoor mall we were sitting in, was a screening of Iron Man! Hillary and I had both seen the movie already, but we could never turn down a free movie.

Sunday was the day we completed our tour of Australia! Our next stop after Canberra was Sydney, the city where it all started. To think, Hillary and I had basically traveled from Sydney to Cairns, from Cairns to Alice Springs, from Alice Springs to Darwin, from Darwin to Perth, from Perth to Melbourne, and from Melbourne to Sydney again! You can’t exactly say we didn’t see enough of the country to get a feel for it.

So Sunday after some lunch we hopped on the bus for the relatively short ride to Sydney. We checked in that night back at our old hostel, 790 on George (right beside the YHA). Unsure of how to spend that evening, we grabbed a pretty late showing of New Moon. We got back to the hostel around midnight, and it was straight to bed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to last long.

Now, everyone’s heard of some of the crazy things that go on in hostels. Boozing, partying, sex… For the most part Hillary and I had been able to avoid witnessing many of these acts. But as if to help complete our backpacking experience, we were woken at 4am that Monday morning to an unfortunate sound… the sound of a drunken backpacker urinating in the middle of our room, and on Hillary’s backpack.

Imagine this. I’m on the bottom bunk, Hillary on the top. It’s dark. You hear that unmistakable sound of a steady stream of liquid hitting the carpet. And then you open your eyes to a guy standing in the middle of the room, one hand steadying himself by holding our bed, and his other hand naturally aiming straight ahead. Completely dumbfounded, neither Hillary, our other roommate or I knew what to say. The next thing out of our mouths was “What the hell are you doing?!” He murmured something about drinking that night, and then finished up. I jumped up, turned on the lights, and questioned what he thought he was doing. By this point, he was now denying doing anything wrong. At first, I thought he had broken into our room (which had happened in this same hostel back 10 months prior). Earlier that day when we had checked in, there was a girl sleeping in his bed. So with the other three beds occupied, I assumed he did not belong in this room. So while up, I opened the door and told him to leave. He stared at me for a few seconds and said that THIS was his room. We glanced over at his bed only to see a pile of men’s clothing, meaning this really was his room. We were not happy by this point, which was just leading to more frustration. A bit of cursing was of course exchanged, and let’s just say he went back to the bed while the rest of us moved over to another room. I felt bad for our new roommates in our new room though, because it must have sucked having three people loudly move into your room at 4am. By the end of it, Hill and I laughed it off. Luckily, the bag that was soiled only held her toiletry kit, which was mostly all replaceable, and the poor guy even paid for the dry cleaning. We never did see him again after the little incident (he paid for the cleaning through the receptionist) but there were no hard feelings. Just another wild thing to add to a very long list of memorable moments on this trip.

Kevin

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Photos

Shopping Centre
Ready for a bit of sun.

Statues
Is it just me, or are these statues VERY weird?

Parliament House
Way back there in the background.

National Museum of Australia
Nice sign.

National Museum of Australia - 02
Not quite sure what that is, but it looks cool.

National Museum of Australia - 03
The main entrance.

National Museum of Australia - 04
The main lobby.

National Museum of Australia - 05
The centre of the building had a bit outdoor area.

National Museum of Australia - 06
This island area was shaped like Australia, with the bump we're standing being Uluru (we think).

National Museum of Australia - 07
The narrows was an area where Hillary worked while in Darwin.

National Museum of Australia - 08
Bringing back not so old memories.

National Museum of Australia - 09
The main building was basically a big horseshoe. This photo was taken from the exit at one end of the horseshoe, and now we would walk outside back to the entrance.

Map
A map of the Australian National University.

Bus Stop
Architecture students recognize anything?

Sign
You've officially arrived at the Australian National University.

Restaurant
We don't always eat fast food.

Bus
Back to Sydney!

Bus - 2
I think that's a very dry river bed.

Sydney
Back in the city, and it's warm.

Puddle
This was the spot our roommate unfortunately mistook for a urinal.