Canberra

Last weekend I went to Canberra (the capital of Australia) with Cody, Renee and Maryse. Instead of taking the bus we decided to rent a car, since it was the same price but more convinient. We picked it up on Saturday morning and headed towards Canberra. None of us had driven a lot in the left-sided traffic, but we each got to try it during our trip and did pretty well (despite of few minor mistakes lol). We arrived in Canberra at around noon. Our first destination was the National War Museum, where we spent over 2 hours. It presented mostly Australia´s involvement in WW1 and WW2, which was a lot of new information to me, having studiet the wars focusing mostly on European countries and the US. Now I know why they celebrate ANZAC-day: It was an invasion to Turkey by Australian and New Zealand troops during WW1. Even though the invasion was unsuccesful it showed some character and commitment of the soldiers. The museum was big; displaying lots of miniatyre war schemes, weapons and other equipment, and some bigger items, such as tanks, aeroplanes and cars.

A view from the War Memorial - The Old Parliament House

We decided to stick to museums and drove straight to the Australian National Museum. Even though we were already a bit tired (and really hungry) when we got there, we ended up spending some hours explorering the interesting museum. We began with Circa, which is a rotating cinema. The 15-min long performance was pretty cool: It included one big screen and 4 smaller moving screens forming a combination, and some lights. The theme was land/environment/being an Australian. After Circa we walked around in the museum, which is pretty modern. There´s a lot of indigenous art, as well as general stuff about Australia, including an artisty outside area.

The Australian Museum outside area

Renee, Maryse, Codee and I

From the museum we drove to the city centre to look for a convinience store for snacks. We couldn´t find one, but had burgers/muffins/coffee/cookies at a food court at this shopping centre. We discovered stores close even earlier in Canberra than in Sydney! After some more walking we found a supermarket. I´m glad we went there, because they were selling real näkkileipä and hapankorppu! The brand is called Finn Crisp, made by Vaasan & Vaasan Oy. I bought so many packets of them :P Then we drove to our bed&breakfast hostel, which was located a few kilometers from the city centre. We had our own room, equipped with a heater :) We hung around at the hostel for a while, talking to some American guys, before walking to Kingston neighbourhood centre for dinner. The other girls had bought a few bottles of wine before, so we went to this BYO (bring your own = you´re allowed to bring your own drinks, usually only wine) Italian restaurant. My salmon pasta was delicious :P After dinner we decided to spend a relaxing night in our hostel room, just chatting and eating TimTams :)

We woke up at decent time on Sunday morning to attend the breakfast, that was advertised as "famous". It was just coffee/tee, toast, different kinds of cereal and outmeal (my favorite). We were allowed to use the coffee machine and Cody, who had worked at a coffee shop, made me a nice cappucino. We began our day visiting the parliament houses. We went to the New Parliament House first. It´s basically just like any business building with an entrance hall, offices, conference rooms and rooms for the senate and house of representatives. The coolest part of the building was its roof top, from where you can see a good view over the city. There´s also this tower/monument/thingy on its roof, that, to be honest, would fit better to a sports hall, in my opinion. Our next destination was the Old Parliament House, which was more interesting than the new one. It had been built in 1925 (I think) and was greatly influenced by the British style. The senate and house of representatives rooms had royal colors, and their tables and chairs had been made of dark wood. There were a few portrait galleries of some important people, and a kids play room with old fashioned costumes, which we naturally just had to try on ;)

Maryse, I and Cody playing in the Old Parliament House

Since none of us is really interested in politics our parliament houses were pretty short. Then we drove to indoor Sunday markets to take a look at the handicrafts; clothes, candles, lotions, jewellery, wooden stuff, glass arts...pretty much the usual stuff you can find at markets. Being such food lovers we spent most of the time at the food section with all the free samples, before heading to the food court for lunch. They had food of different nationalities and we each had our own things. For dessert we shared two big pancakes, one with berries and one with chocolate. I also bought a mug of self-made apple cider. It wasn´t the kind of alcoholic cider we drink in Finland but more like hot apple juice with cinnamon. I used to drink it in the US (hadn´t found it anywhere else before), and it made me miss all the good times in Michigan!

We had planned to go to visit Telstra Tower for a view over Canberra, but because it was a rather cloudy day we decided not to. Instead we started driving towards Sydney, intending to visit a few wineries on our way home. Our first winery wasn´t a big success: It was under renovation and we were only allowed to enter a small entrance hall. Sampling costed $5, so we decided only to use their toilets. The next winery along the highway was a small one and we got to do some free tasting. Since I´m not a big fan of wine I only had a few sips. Cody ended up buying a bottle of rose wine. I drove from the winery to Sydney, and driving on the left side wasn´t hard at all. I drove an automatic for the first time, and I gotta admit it was convinient not having to switch gears. It started raining before we arrived in Sydney and there were some traffic jams. I made a mistake trying to pay for the road fee :( Maryse had counted the exact amount ($3.80) that I had to throw out of the window to this thingy. But the light didn´t turn green. I got a bit nervous and just drove through, and as we passed the red light a camera light flashed. I hope we won´t get a big fee. Some of the money must´ve gotten stuck in the thing, since we really paid the correct amount. When we arrived in Sydney we had to find our way home, which ended up being rather difficult. After exiting the highway we came to Princess Hwy, but turned the wrong way and drove till we were at the other end of the city. Then we stopped to take a proper look at the map, and Cody went to a nearby convinience store to ask for directions. It wasn´t hard finding home after figuring out we had been driving the wrong way. It took some time and wasted some gas, though. When we got home we celebrated Renar´s Birthday. He´d bought heaps of Indian food for everyone, plus a huge chocolate cake :P So it was a nice ending for a nice weekend :D

(Pictures will be posted later, once I get everyone´s pics to pick out the best ones...)