Do you know the Muffin Man?

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So after another day in Sydney, I had enough of the busy city. I feel that Sydney is like NYC. All the tourists want to go there...it's the place to go. But I'm not a huge fan of NYC, and I'm not a huge fan of Sydney. Especially after the wonderful hike in the Blue Mountains...it was a bit of a shock being back downtown. I spent the last day in Sydney by visiting the Museum of New South Wales, and hanging out with two girls I met at the hostel.

And then I was off to Canberra. I've been told by many people, including my roommate in the hostel room in Canberra, that the ACT (Aussie Capital Territory) boring and not worth spending time there. Or I've been told to "spend only a day or two there", often stated with much chagrin. So I wasn't sure what to expect. I've heard it's like a duller version of Ottawa from some people...but I've had a lot of fun in Ottawa.

I suppose if you're a big city person and like partying and whatever else there is to big city life, then yes, avoid Canberra. But if you like peace and quiet, and like to see free museums and wander around quiet streets full of random art, Canberra's totally worth a visit. Did I mention FREE things to do?

On the first day, I quickly learned that Canberra isn't quite as pedestrian friendly as it could be. I walked to the National Museum, and it took me the better part of the afternoon, as I walked along the lake in the dense heat (Lake Burley Griffin, a very large manmade lake named after Walter Burley Griffin, an American architect who designed the city of Canberra). I don't know how hot it was, but I imagine it was near 40° (104°F)...maybe it was only 35° but anyways it was HOT. And the smoke from the huge bushfires in Victoria was blowing into Canberra by the late afternoon, leaving the sky a dirty yellow colour.

The next day wasn't much better...also hot and smokey. But a really AWESOME guy (who knows the Muffin Man) offered to drive me around, and so I got a tour of Canberra by car. We went up to Mt Ainslie, and saw the view from there, which was pretty neat, then went to the Parliament House. We wandered around aimlessly for a while (the Aussies aren't paranoid like the Americans, so you can just wander around). Then we followed a tour, which turned out to be really interesting! We ended up spending several hours at Parliament, learning about the system of governement and the symbolism of the buidling. Did you know that the seven points on the Aussie star stand for each of the states and territories (well, only one point for all of the territories)? And we saw a copy of the Magna Carta (there's only 4 or 5 copies in the world, and one of them is at Parliament!)

Two comments on the ironies of Parliament/Canberra: 1) ACT (as well as most of Australia) is suffering from severe droughts. Can someone explain to me why the roof of Parliament is so green?!
2) The coat of arms of Australia has a kangaroo and an emu. Supposedly these two uniquely Aussie animals cannot go backwards, and thus by having them on the coat of arms, this represents the idea that Oz can only move forward. I'm sure any liberal Aussie will question this with the current government (or at least, this is what I've gathered thus far). Any ways, one thing I noticed about Canberra is that there are a lot of round-abouts (traffic circles for the Americans reading this). If Oz is always moving forward, then how come the people in the Capital are always going in circles?!

After having a very late lunch of Turkish pizza and recovering from the heat by watching the Producers (awesome, over-the-top musical which must be seen), and getting LOTS of information on Melbourne from his parents, we went to look for kangaroos.
And we found some! Wild kangaroos! We slowly approached them. There seemed to be one big male, who stood his ground for a long time as the rest of the herd (what is a group of 'roos called?) scattered one by one.

And then we spent a memorable evening people-watching over drinks, until it was time to take my overnight bus to Melbourne.

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Photos

In Front of Parliament
Quack! We're in front of the Parliament!

Lounging Around
Canberra's full of random art. Such as this sheep.

In the Wild!
Kangaroos at dusk!
Note the big male in the back (slightly right of centre, the one with the big arms).

Lake Burley Griffin
Here's a view of the lake.

Comments

[Aussie guide]

Stop-start
I'd rather we were going round lots of circles than stopping at traffic lights all the time! At least then we're still moving (and in a forward motion, even if not going exactly forward) rather than stopping dead still!