Canberra, Australia's Capitol

The day began at 5 am. Carling and I would be taking a train to Central Sydney, about 30 min. and then a four hour train ride to Canberra. We had been advised not to pronounce the 'e' in Canberra and so say it 'CAN-brrah', accent on the CAN. We didn't want to embarrass ourselves so we took the advice seriously. The train wasn't that bad, besides the light not working in the bathroom, it was enjoyable. We had loads of foot space, about 3 ft actually. We would stay at Sylvia Heldon and her husband John's home. She picked us up from the station and we were off to Floriade.

Floriade is a flower show, that is an annual event in Canberra. This year, we were told, has made record number for the most people attending. It is a month long celebration of Spring, with a plethora of tulips, of every color, and other flowers making up pictures. The pictures the flowers made up were of stars, a pavlova (which is Australia's famous dessert), and rainbows of color. I was surprised to see no bugs, you would think bees and insects would be everywhere with the amount of potential pollen that could be collected, but no, no bugs. People were everywhere, we saw a couple getting their picture taken for about 20min. by some red flowers (we decided to do the same, see our pictures). Since Carling wants to be a flower guru, this event enriched her interest. They had typical flower music playing, Lilith Fair-esk women with guitars. There were some tents with students' floral art, a show about reptiles (with real snakes, Carling's favorite), and shops in which you could buy plants, expensive shawls, and garden-fun toys. We couldn't have asked for a better day, the sun was shining, luckily I had put on my 30 spf, and there was a slight breeze.

Yawning due to waking up so early, we headed back to John and Sylvia's home and had dinner and then went to the Telstra tower, also known as the Black Mountain tower. I forget how high up we went, but remember how cold it was and how beautiful the lights of the city below were. The sun had set, and the city was alive. Canberra is very different from Sydney. Sydney is jam-packed with streets, shops, and the like. Canberra is spaced out, clean, and surrounded, and I mean 360 degrees, by ravenous rolling hills. Hills make sunsets gorgeous, and the clouds not too shabby. Tired, we turned into bed around 9 o'clock, we were really tired!, with set plans to a very full day of being tourists.

There are few places one MUST-SEE when in Canberra, and those are the National Museum, Parliament House and the War Memorial. There are probably more but those were what we were told. We set out to the Museum at 10:30, perfect time because it wasn't packed and we could move with leisure from display to display. I can only speak for myself, but I loved the Aboriginal artwork, and one day will have replicas in my home. Its a good thing Carling and I are alike when it comes to Museum's, we flow at the same rate, read occasionally, and can handle them for roughly 2 hours. We went outside to enjoy the sun and soon Sylvia drove up to bring us to our next stop, the over-charged, but amusing, Cockington Green.

If you don't know what Cockington Green is, it is a menarie of dollhouse sized houses, with figurines of people playing soccer and tennis, fixing motorcycles or enjoying the summer breeze. They had an International display of real temples, and royal buildings found all over the world. This made me really want to travel. There is so much to see and these mini-castles are just a sample of what's out there. We stretched our visit to its limit of 20 min., did we mention it was $14.50?! Short and sweet, I guess. To get out we had to leave through the Gift Shop, terrible idea first of all, because we had to push our way through tons of sardine-packed pedestrians. Off to the Parliament House...

Parliament was superfine. We could tell the architect had put a lot into the building because of the lines: vertical and horizontal, oh...and because it was built into the hill! Awesome. There were skylights in almost every room, and very nice artwork. Here is where the Senate meet, their room decorated in reds, and the House of Reps, decorated in green hues. In the Great Hall is a gargantuan tapestry, one of the biggest in the world, featuring a eucalyptus forest, which took only 2 and a half years for 13 weavers to complete FYI. We took the lift to the roof, covered with grass and has an exceptional view of the city. From the top we could see it all, the rolling hills, the tower, museum, old Parliament house, and the War Memorial. Soon it was time to head home.

Another 4 hour train ride, then a 30 min. one, not including waiting time, and a 10 min. walk to our front step later, we were home, it was almost 10:30pm. We really enjoyed Canberra, the capitol seems like a great place to live, even if only for the view. Our thanks to John and Sylvia Hicks for hosting us.

Shout-outs:
To Fauve "Her Greatness" Bouchard: We wish you were here to experience the city life.

Sending our love,
Sarah and Carling