Sydney - Canberra, The Capital

Not surprisingly, most people think that Sydney is the capital of Australia. The capital, however, is actually Canberra, which is about 3 hours or so outside of Sydney. A lot of people here hate on Canberra, saying it's boring and that there isn't really much to see or do there, but I set my mind to it when I first knew I was coming to Australia that I would visit Canberra. If I'm going to visit a country and live there for 16 months, I feel like it is only right that I see the country's capital.

I took a Greyhound bus (for the first time ever) to Canberra. It was a smooth, quiet ride with power outlets, wifi, and reclining seats. The seat next to me was empty so I had double the space. Got to the hostel, bought groceries, got cash out, got my bus card (because Canberra's only public transport is buses, they don't have trams or trains), and headed out to see what Canberra had to offer.

I started with the Parliament House. It was just as all the pictures had shown it - A large white rectangle with several rectangles cut out of it and sloping gray on either side with sparkling water in the front, and on top was a massive flag pole. The building is actually built into the side of a hill. When I went inside my bag got checked, I went through a metal detector, and my hands got swabbed for explosives.... Kind of killed the whole beauty of the architecture thing, but understand it needing to be done for safety measures. Once inside, the foyer looked like somewhere a princess would have a ball with large columns and grand staircases leading up on the left and the right. From upstairs I saw where the House of Representatives and the Senate sit. I also went onto the roof and get a better idea of the size of the flag pole and look out over Canberra at the beautiful view. Then headed back down and on to my next location.

Australia's Coat of Arms - Seen EVERYWHERE in Canberra

House of Representatives - Compare to photo of when I visited the National Museum of Democracy (or the Old Parliament House)

The ANZAC Parade, War Memorial, and Mount Ainslie

I got to the War Memorial around 3:45, thinking that an hour (the memorial closes at 5) would be plenty of time. Boy could I not have been more wrong... After an entire hour of constant reading, taking in dioramas, and looking at artifacts... I had only made it through 1.5 sections/rooms of the memorial before it was time to gather outside for the closing ceremony - there were at least 5 more sections to go through. I decided I would have to make time to visit again while here. Since I had to go back, I'll save the experiences and pictures for a separate post (http://dreamjourneytooz.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/sydney-canberra-war-memorial.html). 

I headed back to my hostel for dinner and a shower. This hostel was probably the best experience in terms of roommates (my first hostel, at Sydney Harbour / The Rocks, was the best hostel in terms of facility). There was just me and 2 other girls, both from Sydney. They were friends and in Canberra on a placement for Vet school. The best part about this is that they went to bed at a reasonable hour and while they woke up quite early, they were extremely quiet when they did and by the time they were leaving it was time for me to get up anyways.

For my 1st full day in Canberra I decided to start my day off with a morning in the Bible Gardens before heading out to do all the national things. The Bible Gardens are located on the campus of Sturt University. It is a decent sized garden where every plant has a plaque with the plant's name, a Bible verse where the plant is mentioned, and then a description of its significance in the Bible. While, the garden could have been better kept, it was still pretty cool to see all these plants from the Bible all in the same location and read about how they were used or when they were mentioned.

To begin my day of national locations I went to was the National Archives. There are over 40 million items housed here. Security almost kicked me out when they found me taking pictures of some of Australia's most precious documents. I explained to them that the lady at the front desk said nothing to me about not taking pictures and there were no signs about not photographing. I told them I would delete the photos (since I thought it was a possession issue), but they explained it's the light from the camera flash that is the issue - it fades and damages the documents. I sincerely apologized and made sure they understood that had I known not to, I certainly wouldn't have. The items and stories were so interesting and such a huge part of Australia's history that I could have spent way more time here than I did, but there were just so many other places to go.

Australia's Coat of Arms (Again)

That was followed with a trip to the National Museum of Australian Democracy which is actually in the Old Parliament House. The Old Parliament House was opened on May 9th of 1927 by the Duke and Duchess of York. Next to the War Memorial, this was probably my favorite of the "national" places. The whole thing was really like taking a step back in time - it even smelled old. One of my favorite areas was the press rooms upstairs because it responded to your presence. The rooms were triggered to play certain recordings when your feet hit the top stair or the doorway of the different rooms. It sounded just like it would have years ago when it was in operation. They also still had all the old equipment up there. I could have spent a good portion of my day here, but I had other things to see/do so I moved on.

The Old Parliament House - Now the National Museum of Democracy

Prime Minister's Office

Press Filming Room for Prime Minister

The old equipment in the upstairs press rooms

House of Representatives - Compare to previous photo of when I visited the Parliament House

On March 18th of 2003 'No War' was painted on the sails of the Sydney Opera House to protest against Australia's support of the invasion of Iraq by the USA. 

Australia's Coat of Arms (Again - 3rd time)

Next was a stop at the High Court (which started in Melbourne), but not before I had a slight panic attack at the fact that I couldn't find my phone. I retraced my steps and found it face down in the sand/dirt. For as square and somewhat boring the outside of the High Court is, the inside was big, grand, open, and had a lot of artwork. Because the courts don't sit during the time I was there I got to go into Courtroom 1 and 3. The first one was very red/purple with high ceilings and a balcony area to sit in addition to on the floor. The third one was very teal and while I love that color it just kind of clashed with the wood paneling and the size of the room - which was much smaller than the other courtroom. In the courts in Australia they still wear the wigs and robes so they had some of those on display as well.

Notice the Australian Coat of Arms (Again, 4th time)

Court Room #1

Right next door was the National Gallery so I decided to take a quick stop there. And by quick, I mean I took a 5 second look and then went back out the door. It's not that I don't appreciate art, but I feel like I needed a lot of time to be able to actually appreciate the pieces and time was something I didn't have much of. Plus, I was hot, hungry, and tired of reading/looking at things. I went outside to something called the SkyScape, which is an art installation outside the gallery, but it was really the wrong time of day to get the full, proper effect. The installation itself though was pretty cool and looked like a massive effort.

I continue my "national locations journey" by heading over to the National Library where there were two exhibitions on at the time. One was called Things: Photographing the Constructed World. This was a collection of photographs taken over time, by major Australian photographers, as well as little known or anonymous photographers. The collection included pictures of anything and everything - old barrels, old syringes, billboards, a robot dinosaur, etc. One thing mentioned in the explanation of the exhibition is that every photograph is taken for a reason at the time it is taken and sometimes when looking at a photo that reason may be hard to see or it might be obvious. It made me think about some of the photos I've taken or been in and the purpose behind photographs. The other exhibition was titled The Treasures Gallery. This gallery included items that all have something to do with Australia and the country's history like James Cook's journal, an original manuscript of Waltzing Matilda, and a display of how Jorn Utzon designed the Opera House. He designed the buildling and won the contest, but no one thought about how to actually build it. After quite some time Jorn Utzon came up with this idea inspired from an orange peel.

I was going to call it quits for the day after all of that, but when I realized I still had an hour or two before everything closed - that's one of the hard parts of being in Canberra, because everything is national/governmental it closes at 5, which doesn't give a whole lot of time to see everything - so I decided to push on forward to two more locations. My second to last stop of the day was the National Film and Sound Archive. This was much smaller than I thought it would be based on the outside of the building, but it was quick, air conditioned, and entertaining for what it was. There was a sound effects area where I played with different things like coconuts, shoes, rain sticks, etc to make different sounds. There were sections done by decade (for the most part) with a TV screen that played TV shows, documentaries, and news from that time period in Australia - these portions were my favorite. There was also clothing and artifacts from certain popular Australian films and TV shows. My last stop for the day before heading back to the hostel was the National Museum. This is another place I could have spent more time at if I had the time. The building itself takes time to take in - their is a huge loop outside, many different colors, different metals, it's set along the water, the inside is like a puzzle with random doors and staircases leading to different sections of the museum and the main hall's walls are curvy and twisted. In one way or another each aspect of the architecture represents Australian history and culture. The items and displays inside also represent Australian history and culture. Some of the displays were interactive, like when I got to record a radio broadcast in Broome, Western Australia.

All materials were local to the forest... The door had to face away from the cold southerly winds that came off the ocean. The flooring was always hard packed dirt, which was an insulator, staying cool in summer and warm in winter. There had to be a two-metre clearing around the hut to keep at bay the leeches and other nasties... The beds were always located to the back of the hut, away from the food area... During winter, people would put a brick in the fire, and once warm put it into the bedding. Beds were always off the floor constructs with hessians bags stuffed with fern fonds for the mattress, overlaid with kangaroo or possum fur or sheets if you had them. - Plaque posted with 1920s hut

The first aboriginal person to be elected mayor in New South Wales (2004)

To start off my 2nd full day in Canberra I began with Questacon - the National Science and Technology Centre. The people I had talked to about Canberra raved about Questacon so I went in with high hopes. Honestly, I was fairly disappointed with the centre. A few interactive displays/exhibits weren't working, one I had already done in Philip Island (and it was better than Questacon's), a couple required crazy skill and strength that I watched even big men fail at, and several were just so far beyond any typical person's (especially children's) intellect or didn't have proper signage/explanation that they would just mess around with it and then walk away bored (I know from watching, but also experiencing). However, there were a few interactive displays/exhibits that were done very well and I thoroughly enjoyed like the colored light beams that made a sound when you stepped on them and you could change the theme of the sounds, the copper pipe and extremely strong magnets that allowed you to make the magnet float in the air, the white wall with the light projector that showed how images are made of a base 3 colors, the mirror that makes it look like there is an infinite number of yous, the entire deep sea exhibition, the robot that could move every part of its body (even individual fingers), could answer questions, and knew what you were "saying" (through choosing options on a computer) to it, and the periodic table done with shadow boxes that had examples of what each  element was and things that it is in in your daily life. There was another experience that sounds weird saying I liked or enjoyed, but it was the earthquake simulation. You walk into the living room and kitchen of a small house, sit down, and start watching TV. Next thing you know the house starts shaking, cupboard doors open, the TV goes to static, light fixtures sway, the fridge tilts forward and the doors hang open, the lights go out except for one dim one, shelves are tipping, and then the side of the house splits. And suddenly out of nowhere the shaking stops. The lights come back on and everything just slides right back into place. I didn't really "enjoy" it per se, but it I've never experienced an earthquake before so it gave me a better understanding of what it might be like. It really got me thinking about the fear that people must experience, the damage, the heartbreak, the defeat of having to start over, etc. In the deep sea exhibit I learned about a fish called the Smalltooth Cookiecutter Shark. Aw, that sounds cute and lovely doesn't? WRONG!!! When they attack they attach themselves to their prey's side (usually whales and dolphins) using their lips to stick like suction cups. Then they spin their bodies like power drills to create cookie-cutter shaped holes!!! They travel near the surface at night... so if I was you... I would stay out of the ocean at night unless you want to become cookie dough!!

Einstein statue from the front

Einstein statue from the side

Massive and Cool Periodic Table

Just a few of the individual elements in the periodic table

Ah, the world needs a few more of me. ;)

My Advice to You... Don't go down into the deep waters of the ocean!!!

I then took a 2km walk to the National Carillon to hear a concert. The carillon is a 50m tall bell tower with 53 bronze bells weighing between 7kg and 6 tonnes. The concerts are about an hour long and can be heard from a number of locations in certain proximity to the carillon. The carillon is located on a small island just off the edge of the lake connected to the land by a bridge. I walked onto Aspen Island and found a shady spot under a weeping willow (my favorite tree), had lunch, and then laid back as I waited for the concert to begin. The concert began and the chiming and gonging of the bells was beautiful. I remember thinking about what I was doing - laying under a weeping willow on a beautiful sunny day in Canberra, Australia listening to a bell tower concert... and then the next thing I know I opened my eyes, 30 minutes of so had passed, and there was only 10 minutes left to the concert... If you know me, you know I love my naps and that I can nap anywhere at any time... well this was one of those times.

Once the concert was over I headed off on what should have been a nice, breezy, quick walk along the edge of the lake to Captain's Cook memorial... What it really was was a tiring, 2km walk along the water, with NO shade. I'm pretty sure with the combination of the heat, direct sunlight, and reflection off the water, I could actually feel my skin burning. I finally made it though to the memorial for Captain Cook who had the first recorded European contact with the east coast of Australia. The globe has Captain James Cook's expeditions mapped out in different colors for different expeditions and the water jet throws 6 tons of water 147 metres in the air.

Then I had a 3.5km walk back to the hostel. Because the memorial was technically in a park it was kind of confusing to get out of and back to roads I recognized because the park paths weren't on the map. Luckily, I ran into a local guy who walks the area every day. Unluckily, that guy is a speed walker / runner. He speed walked me through the crazy park paths and since he worked right across from the hostel he just walked me all the way. It was a lovely chat so I didn't mind the company, I actually welcomed it after not really chatting with anyone for a couple days. I didn't really welcome the speed though, especially after all the walking I'd already done. I went into the kitchen at the hostel to refill my water bottle before setting back out. I then caught a tram back to the War Memorial, which I will post a link to once that blog is written. That blog will also include my walk along the ANZAC Parade.

Then it was time to head back to the hostel, have dinner, pack up, and prepare for my last stop in the morning before heading back to Sydney. In the morning I headed off for a tour of The Australian Institute of Sport. AIS is Australia's sports training institute. There are 36 programs in 26 different sports. Students of AIS live and train on the campus. The dining hall serves up to 1,100 litres of milk, 960 tubs of yogurt, 860 litres of juice, and 120 kg of bananas each week!! There is an interactive museum at the AIS that has simulations and activities ranging from wheelchair basketball, to balancing, to rowing, biking, sprinting, luging, bars, soccer, and more. The gymnastics room had a huge foam pit along the entire back of the room, a long runway trampoline, and a spring floor with any kind of gymnastics equipment you could possibly require. The pool was an infinity pool and their is a place underneath it where the coaches can go to watch the swimmers' technique. And one of the ends of the pools could be disconnected and pushed down the pool to shorten the length for swimmers to practice their turn arounds so they wouldn't waste energy swimming the length of the pool just to practice turning around. There were so many really crazy facts and things that I wish I could remember, but it was just too much and I was tired and it was time to head back to Sydney.

Luc Longley was the first Australian to play in the NBA in the US, where he played for 11 seasons.  He played alongside Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman. 

The Gym

I took the Greyhound bus back to Sydney and once again had the seat next to me open so I could stretch out to read and sleep. Before my next big adventure. Riding home I just got to thinking about Canberra, everything I did, everything I didn't get to do, and my opinion on the place since everyone I talked to back in Melbourne seemed to not have any good feelings towards it. Here's my final opinion: As a capital city to visit, I love Canberra. There are so many tours and opportunities and so much history and culture. There are mountains and lakes in the scenery no matter where you look. There are no buildings over a certain height, so you can always see a good amount of the sky. However... A city to live/work in (as I almost did...), I would hate Canberra. You would quickly run out of things to do after just a couple weeks and there is no ocean or bay nearby and the mountains aren't massive so you could quickly explore them. There isn't the feel of "culture" like Melbourne or Sydney have (which are two different cultures) and there is nothing going on after 5pm. So... after visiting, I love Canberra, but I am also grateful that my first potential job with a family in Canberra didn't work out. And honestly, as mentioned before I believe God knew I'd be miserable there and he had already arranged my host family and church in Melbourne for me. I just so pleased that the door to a job in Canberra slammed shut before I could walk all the way through. =]

Random Photos From the Trip:

Melbourne Building. There was a Sydney one too. 

Black Swans. Not sure I've seen any white ones since I've been here.

The Aboriginal Embassy (not considered official by the Australian government). Controversial. Started in 1972 in response to the government's refusal to recognize Aboriginal land rights.