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Published: December 5th 2007
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Capt Cook Fountain
Taken from the roof of Parliment hill Well that was Canberra…????? Many describe it as a souless city and I can see why, it is a lot like Milton Keynes… Completely man made and lacking in substance… At some time early last century the Ozzy government decided they needed a more central capital city… so they thought I know lets put one here… in the middle of nowhere… it takes hours to get there… and hours to get out….We were only going cos we needed to get our visa’s, but other wise we wouldn’t have gone near the place…
I booked a motor Village over the net, on the website it looked huge… it wasn’t,!!! I think we have been spoilt in New Zealand cos the hotels here just aren’t as good…. This was 2 poxy rooms with a living dinning kitchen areas, supposedly you could sleep 8 but I wouldn’t like to live there with 8 people… it was cramped for us… I spent the first night going backward and forwards to the reception for various reasons, ranging from the internet not working to the toaster blowing up…. We also got there at the start of a major storm that lasted most of our
Inside Parliment building
Looks like something out of starwars!!! stay…. However the girls had a great time as they made some friends, and we had some beautiful tame parakeets that seemed to like something outside our cabin…. I wont mention the spiders….
Our main purpose of being there was to get visa’s so we went out to check where the embassies were, so we knew where we had to go the next morning, This was a success although on arriving at the Laos Embassy we found it was shut due to a Laos holiday, so we went off to find the Cambodian Embassy . On the way back through the city we stopped to see the Parliament buildings and war memorial. One thing I will say about Canberra is the layout of the city fascinated me, whether it is intentional or not, it reminded me of a crop circle or an Aztec temple…. It looks amazing from a distance….
Next day we got up early to get to the embassy so we could get our applications in… that being done we went off to see parliament hill…..
Now never being in our parliament buildings at Westminster, I was impressed. The architecture is amazing… I cant remember the name of
the Architect but he won an international competition to design the building and they are stunning, they are built in a manmade hill there are lots of glass pyramids and atriums and loads of marble…. When we went in we were asked if we would like a tour, and thought what the hell lets do the tourist thing… at least we’ll know what we’re looking at.. So we dutifully sat and waited in the Great hall, ( the kids entertained themselves by rearranging the seats and running round… this entertained me, as I sat and thought if this were England we would have been arrested by now for treason or something… we then got shown round by a very entertaining lady that reminded me of Grotbags minus the stripy tights…. As they’ve just got a new prime minister she kept getting mixed up with who’s, who’s… but she was very good and knew her stuff, and even got the girls some freebies after the tour.
Next day we went to collect our Visa’s from the Cambodian Embassy so we could go off to the Laos Embassy to get the nxt lot….. We were VERY lucky and the guy there said
he would do them then and there which realy was fantastic, as we would have either had to come back a week later or get them posted. Which would have been a real pain in the A***. I hope the Laos people are as obliging .
We had to hang around till 3.00 pm to collect them all, so went off to the shopping area and I got my feet done by a Chinese reflexologist which was great if not a little painful…..
The only thing I regret not doing in Canberra was going and talking to the Aborigines’ that live in tents at the old parliament house… they have been there for years, to demonstrate for their land rights….. They have a little hut which was shut when we stopped and I would have liked to have gone back to offer my support. I am quite disturbed to see on the Australian maps I have seen, that they have less land than the American Indians do…. I hope one day this will be rectified. Although I was very pleased to see they have just been given back a huge area in Northern NSW on the border of Queensland…. Good
Anzac parade
Veiw from War Memorial looking down to Parliment house Luck to them as this is their country at the end of the day…..
We are now in Bega (Nice cheese!!!! So we are told), watching the Gallars (Pink and grey noisy parrots) and minding where we tread due to the Red belly black snakes that the neighbours cat keeps bringing in…. Erk!!!! Off to Melbourne first thing….
P.S I now know why the Ozzies have corks on their hats….. BLOODY FLIES EVERYWHERE!!!!!
P.P.S I won’t mention the spiders……
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