Blogs from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 10

One day, long, long ago, there was a huge debate as to whether Sydney or Melbourne would be chosen as the capital city of Australia. Some bright spark decided that, due to the rivalry between these two cities, a new city, Canberra, would be born. It would be fair to say that our expectations of Canberra were fairly low, as everything that we had previously heard was negative. For instance, we had been told that the city had no character, there was not much to do there, and that restaurants and bars closed early most days. Great! Despite finding it difficult to suppress these preconceptions, we made our way into the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) with our minds wide open. Our first experience of this wonderful city was trying to find somewhere to stay. Bizarrely, for ... read more

We have now said our goodbyes to Sydney and NSW! On Tuesday we hit the road, heading south, as we had said we would do in our previous blog. This morning we arrived in Canberra, which is the Australian capital city, and is based within the Australian Capital Territory. We have parked up the van, set the awning out, and we will be using public transport for the next few days to get us in and around the city. We have loved the time that we spent in Sydney and will definitely return there. As we travel around Australia, we will be looking for the place where we would like to live and work for a while. Obviously, living in, or even remotely near to, a big city means that the price of property is somewhat ... read more

In Thailand there were a big group of Australians staying in the same place as us in Chiang Mai. We told them we were heading to Oz and they very kindly said we could stay with them if we wanted - so we took them up on the offer! The prices over here you got to take what you can when you can. There was a lady called Lyn who lived in Canberra so we went and stayed at hers for 3 nights. She was great and showed us around the town and gave us loads of advice as to where to go and what to do & see. The first night we went on 'Lyn's lightening tour' (so she called it!) and she showed us around the sights. Being the capital city a lot of ... read more

Hi All, Sorry about this, but I had not realised I had published the last blog incorrectly. I am at the airpor,t off again, but only for the day and had time whilst waiting for my flight to check after speaking to Jan last night who said to me, when will you finish the blog 27B. Anyway my apologies, but 27B is completed and there will be another for Christmas Island, as soon as I can get around to typing it. Andy... read more

In June 2010 I went to Austria and Munich to visit a couple of friends. In Munich I stayed in a hostel where a random Aussie started chatting to me, then his mate joined too and we chatted all night and had a good laugh. Thanks to good old facebook I actually kept in touch with them as I said I'd probably be in Oz towards the end of the year. Well, Adam saw that I actually was in the country and as I was travelling through Canberra on the way to Melbourne, I decided to make a stop there. Adam had a Christmas party in his house that weekend, so I was invited to that too. I arrived on a Friday evening and was kindly picked up from the bus stop. We stopped off at ... read more

Blog 17 Another visit to Canberra We had some business to attend to in Canberra, so we booked a couple of markets to do while we were there. We were invited to stay with relatives of relatives of relatives so we gratefully accepted. Jennifer and Lindsay have a large home with a separate, self-contained flat in an outer suburb of Canberra. As well as the business we had to attend to, we visited some of the tourist attractions of the National Capital. Peter had never been to Old Parliament House, so that was on the top of the list. We visited the “young” parliament house (can’t really call it “new” as it’s 22 years since it opened!). The Da Vinci Machines Exhibition in Commonwealth Park was very interesting. We went to the Royal Australian Mint which ... read more