Canberra: "The Booming Metropolis"

Friday 18 March
     This weekend my friends and I decided was the weekend to see the capital city. I was really excited to go and so were my friends. I've never been to Washington DC but I hear it has a lot to offer, and so I thought maybe it was the same for Canberra. After talking to some Australians and hearing about it in class I wasn't sure I wanted to go anymore. I was told there is nothing there, don't waste your money, and asked many times why would I even think about going there. My friend Jess has a travel guide book about Australia, its relatively detailed, and even that only had 3 pages about Canberra. Since it seems to be so small and boring we have come to call Canberra "the booming metropolis." So after all of this negativity we decided we would just go for a night.
    We took the bus from Sydney which is about a 3 hour ride. When we got to Canberra the first thing said was, "Wow, a building." and "Hey, its actually a city." Everyone had made it seem so bad we were pretty much expecting a big empty field with maybe 2 or 3 buildings around.

Right off the bus at the hostel, making a PB&J with my fingers. 

    Once we got to the city we headed straight for the hostel and called our friend Greg from orientation week, (he is studying at Australian National University, but not many people go there so he was put into out orientation group.) Greg took us out and showed us around for a bit, and then we realized HE HADN'T TRIED TIM TAMS YET! So obviously we went into the first convenience store and bought a box, he loved it!
     After awhile he took us to a club called Mooseheads. We weren't expecting there to be a nightlife, and it was nothing compared to Manly or Sydney but it was a nice change. It wasn't over crowded so we could actually dance. We had a great night.

Saturday 19 March

Old parliament

     The next morning we were exhausted and let our alarms go off over and over again for about an hour (I'm sure our hostel mates just loved us!) We finally left and started the day with pancakes and then headed to see the city. We had to walk for a little over a half hour before we got to our first stop, old parliament.  We took lots of pictures outside but didn't go in because it wasn't free while the other things were.


     Our next stop was new parliament. We went in and looked around. Its very weird to see things with the queen. They are also very into women in government. They had a ton of stuff about it and I must say it was very empowering!

New Parliament

In front of the art museum.

     After this we went to an art museum. Unfortunately they don't allow you to take pictures but there was a ton of interesting aboriginal art. That was very cool to see. My favorites were the masks. Then there was the international art, this was interesting I guess is the right word. I'm not sure what makes a white canvas with half an orange circle art, but it was in the gallery. They also had a costume/ fashion exhibit going and that was really cool to look at.

Australian Royal Navy memorial. 

     After this we went to our final stop, the war memorial, my favorite. Unlike the US they pretty much have one memorial for all their wars. It took forever to get there. In Canberra nothing is really near to each other. To get the memorial you walk up a long street and along the way there are small memorials to different wars and different branches of the military. The war memorial is at the end of the street.

Front of the war memorial

Inside the memorial they had walls of names of people who had died during service and people were able to put the paper poppies next to the names. It was so beautiful and moving. This was my favorite part of the whole memorial.

Wall of Poppies.

    After this we walked back for lunch/dinner and then got ready to take the bus home. Altogether we walked over 11 kilometers (7 miles)!!! But it was definitely worth it. It was really cool to see and I know people say there isn't a lot there, but I had a great time. I wish I would have stayed another night and gotten to see more than just the touristy attractions. It had a great small town feel that I loved.