Canberra

Day 1

The Canberra City YHA seems okay. They’ve got a swimming pool and spa (just a fancy word for hot tub, not an actual SPA), pool table, big tv and key card instead of a normal key. I’m staying in a room for 10 people, it’s the biggest dorm I’ve seen so far and it’s got lots of floor space, but we have to keep our belongings under or on top of the bed or the cleaner will (re)move them. Which is fair enough I guess, at least that way it stays clean and tidy. This is also the first mixed room I’ve stayed in. So far I know there are two other women in the room and one guy, but I don’t know what the other 6 are… Not that it matters. As long as my pyjama top stays in one place!

There is also a big balcony with a clothes line just for this dorm, which would be handy if I had loads of washing. No pegs though, so it would probably just fly away.

 Canberra is the quietest capital I’ve seen. It’s just seems like a strange place to be honest. I’m not sure why, very pretty though. There are hardly any people here! But then again, I guess it’s not very often that capitals actually gets designed to be capitals. I think it would be very hard to get lost here as well. I walked around in Canberra Shopping Centre for a bit. It’s HUGE! At least I know I can go window-shopping if I’m bored.

 I’m loving the weather today, makes a change from yesterday’s grey wall. Apparently it’s unusually hot for Canberra today; I hope it stays like this until I leave.

Day 2

I walked up to Mount Ainslie today. It was a long walk, 11-12kilometers there and back, I’m glad I remembered to bring some water! There weren’t footpaths all the way, but I managed to find my way. I was a bit worried about spiders and snakes when I was walking up Mount Ainslie Drive, but except for a lot of butterflies and a dead kangaroo I didn’t see any wildlife or creepy-crawlies. On the way down I found a walking trail and I was even more worried about snakes and spiders, I almost wished I had just walked on the road, but I didn’t see anything there either.

 The view was really nice from the top of Mt Ainslie, I could really see how planned the city is. I was almost surprised there wasn’t a café or anything up there, but at the same time it was quite nice that there wasn’t anything up there to take money from tourists.

 I didn’t meet anyone else walking up to Mt. Ainslie today, but there were quite a few people cycling. I almost wish I had rented a bike myself so I could have rested my feet on the way back down, but it would have been hellish going up.

 I pretty much just relaxed the rest of the day as I was too knackered to do anything after my long walk. I do have to say though that Canberra seems like a nice city and I wouldn’t have minded living here. It’s not too busy or full of tourists and it’s pretty and clean. There are also so many statues and sculptures that I would probably be able to discover a new one every day if I wanted to. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the city tomorrow.

Day 3

I was in a really bad mood this morning. It just didn’t start right. So to calm down I lost myself in a book for a few hours. By 1.30pm I had calmed down and the rain had stopped as well, so I went out to see the Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet as it’s only on between 2 and 4pm.

 After I had taken a couple of pictures of it I walked around the lake to Kings Avenue Bridge and from there up to Capital Hill. I could not see a single shop on that side of the bridge, only government buildings, but then I guess that was the plan of it. Or maybe it was because I only walked within the “triangle”.

 I wandered down Federation Mall and from there to Commonwealth Avenue Bridge. I was thinking about looking at some more things on the government side of the lake, but my feet are absolutely killing me from my long walk up Mount Ainslie yesterday, and since I walked just as far today my feet are not happy. But I got to see all the things that were on my "must-see"-list in Canberra so I'm happy,

I went out with someone in my dorm tonight for a couple of drinks. Canberra is not really very busy on a Monday night! It’s rather dead actually. But the two places we went to still had their music on so loud that we had to shout to hear each other.

I’ve liked Canberra and I wouldn’t mind spending more time here, but I’m also looking forward to going to Melbourne and seeing what’s there, and also meeting Luna and her daddies while I’m there. Mai, who came to Byron Bay with me, is also meeting me again down there. I've got a feeling it's going to be a busy week in Melbourne!