Canberra - A Night in the Capital City

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I can finally say I've been to all of Australia's states/territories! I spent this weekend in Canberra - which is in it's own state called the Australian Capital Territory. It's been the official capital of Australia since 1908 - although parliament has only sat there since 1927 (there were some delays in moving up from Melbourne thanks to the First World War) - are you getting the impression that I learned a lot during my 28 hours there?

I took the 3.5 hour bus ride down from Sydney on Saturday morning - main highway the whole way there, so not a whole lot to see. I had wanted to get tickets for the Hop-on Hop-off tourist bus for the afternoon, but upon checking in at my YHA, I learned that they've cancelled the afternoon portion. I then managed to take the regular city bus to the War Memorial - which had come highly recommended from every Aussie I'd mentioned Canberra to. It was a pretty impression museum - very large and lots of exhibits. I did actually learn a lot about Australia's role in the First and Second World Wars - there was a much bigger emphasis on the conflict with Japan than is usually covered in Canadian history classes (at least the few classes that I took!). Getting back from the museum was a bit more of a challenge - due to the irregularity of the bus schedule, I ended up walking back to the city centre. I had then wanted to go check out some of the other museums, but since it was already 3pm and there appeared to be no buses running in the correct direction on the weekend, I gave up and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon/evening in the mall! Not very touristy, eh? I did manage to get a haircut - the stylist was the quickest I'd ever had! But he did a good job and I saw the Dark Knight again.

On Sunday, I'd booked the Hop-on Hop-off tour that I'd wanted to do the day before. I was picked up at my hostel mid-morning and taken back to the War Memorial! It turned out that it wasn't such a Hop-on Hop-off tour, particularly as there was only 5 of us booked for the day (me and two older couples - although in Australia all the older couples seem to love me and we had some good chats). It was more of a regular tour with stops at specific times and then the driver came back to pick us up and take us to the next place. Anyway, after explaining that I'd already done the War Memorial - and while I'd enjoyed it greatly (the Aussie are VERY proud of it), I'd rather do something else that morning - he dropped me off by Lake Burley Griffin (the large man-made lake in the middle of the city) to check out the Canberra Exhibition Centre (hence my great knowledge of everything Canberra - it was basically one large room, but I managed to spend an hour there reading EVERYTHING). An hour and three-quarters after dropping me off, the tour bus came back for me and we headed over to the Parliament Building. This is where I spent the rest of my time in Canberra and the tour guide got me back downtown (by special request) for my bus back to Sydney. Unfortunately, I'd mis-remembered the time of my return bus and arrived there at 2:10pm - which was a bit late for my apparently 2pm bus (but plenty of time for the 2:30pm bus I'd been aiming for!). So I then sat in the bus station and took the 4pm bus instead (very thankful for the Greyhound clerk who didn't charge me for changing the ticket!). The return bus felt quite a bit longer - it could be the fact that unlike the 2pm bus it wasn't an express and we got stuck behind a traffic accident for a bit, but in the end I was back in Sydney.

So in conclusion, at least I can say I got to Canberra - I would have liked to see more of it, but I did what I could given their limited weekend transportation options!

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Photos

Random Modern Artwork
Most of the main streets had modern-looking structures - like this one - on them.

Canberra Centre
The building in the distance is the mall where I ended up spending most of my Saturday.

Australian Flag
I finally got a semi-decent photo of the Aussie flag!

Anzac Parade
The guy who got to design the city of Canberra was heavily influenced by Washington D.C. in the states - roads like this show their similarilties.

An Empty Road
The city felt eerily empty - almost all the main roads were as deserted as this on the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

The Canberra Contest
For those of you who don't know (and I didn't before coming here) - Canberra was designed purposefully to be the Capital of Australia. The site was formally farmland and was picked 100 years ago for development. There was an international competition for the design of the city.

Interactive Map of the City
This sorta shows how Anzac Parade lines up with the Parliament Buildings. It was all done on purpose and on a North-South axis.

Flag Pole - a Gift from Canada
Apparently Canada gave Canberra this flag pole as a gift and in return they fly the Canadian flag on July 1st each year!