Day 13: Canberra ACT

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Very early morning ride to the airport. I had wanted to take the train but it did not run early enough so I got a ride from the hostel manager for $45 AUD. Had to wake up at 4:30AM to pack up and take a shower. Car left promptly at 5AM and 45 minutes later I was at the airport and in line for my Virgin Airlines flight. I am usually good about my flight planning but here I made a mistake because I didn't realize my ticket did not include checked baggage. I had to pay an extra $70 for my bag. If you buy through Travelocity or Expedia than always check with the airline itself to confirm what it covers.

Ok first flight took me to Sydney and I will say Virgin Airlines does feed you even on short flights and the cookies and juice they served me was enough to keep me from going hungry. My luggage was checked all the way through to Canberra so I just had an hour or so wait in Sydney before hopping on another short haul flight to Canberra. I would be taking a lot of short haul flights through Australia and this was due to lack of choice because I avoid short haul flights due to the time requirements.

Landing in Canberra I didn't have an idea how to get to the city center but as always there were various ways of getting into the city. I chose the a shuttle bus which cost $12 and took only about 30 minutes. The bus took me right across the street from the Canberra YHA hostel. I usually don't stay at a lot of YHA hostels because I find them too cold and corporate. The strange and interesting hostels are where you meet the strange and interesting people. In this case I chose my hostel because it was only a few blocks from the greyhound bus station.

I had no real plans for Canberra because the few catchups I had planned in the city had fallen through. The only place I could think of visiting was Parliament. So I started walking from the hostel to Parliament. It was a very nice day and I was in good shape. Canberra is not really a tourist city as people keep telling me. It is a pretty city full of parks and marinas and it reminded me a lot of Ottawa, Canada's Capital, back home. Parliament itself is built on a large hill and is fairly new having been built in the last 30 years. I got there just in time for the hourly tour. It starts out in the observation deck of parliament and they explain how it was built and the history of Australia. We went through the Australian House of Commons and the Senate and how each chooses it members. The part about the 2 animal symbols on the Australian coat of arms, the kangaroo and the emu was interesting. The tour guide explained these two animals were chosen because like Australia they only go forward not backwards. My favourite part of the tour was the showing of the Magna Carta. It is one of only 4 Magna Carta's known to exist and 2 of them are in England and 1 of them is privately owned in America. The American paid over $24 Million dollars for his copy. That is an impressive investment for Australians because they only paid $12 000 for theirs back in the 1950's.

After my tour I had lunch in the café and I will say they have the tastiest burger I have ever eaten traveling. So if you are in the Australian Parliament and are hungry try the burger in the café. They dress it up nicely and it tastes great as well. Last part of my visit was going on the roof. The roof was accessible to all visitors and you can get a good view of the giant Aussie flag on the roof. It was windy on the roof but you can get good pictures of the Australian Capital Territory from up there. After that it was time to leave parliament.

I could have done a few other things in Canberra such as boat rides or nature walks but I have done those often enough everywhere else so I just went back to the hostel to rest before my bus ride to Melbourne.

At midnight that evening I would have my only bus ride of the trip. It was with Greyhound Australia and it was an 8 hour overnight bus to Melbourne. I chose it because it allowed me to sleep while traveling and was a bit cheaper than flying. I am quite good at sleeping sitting up so I have no trouble with overnight buses. My review of the bus will be on the next blog.

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Photos

Australian Parliament Flag
Giant Aussie flag at the top of the Parliament hill

Burger in Parliament Cafe
Tastiest burger I have had traveling

Magna Carta
1 of only 4 Magna Cartas in existence