Canberra

On our way to Sydney we decided to stop off in Australia's capital, thinking that, being the capital city, it might have something going for it. Another reason to visit was the fact that my cousin now lives there and I felt that as I'm finally on the same continent as him in God knows how many years, the least I could do was meet him for a drink.

The Place

My first observation of Canberra was of its similarity to England's Milton Keynes. I do hold Milton Keynes close to my heart, as it's where I spent much of my childhood, visiting my Grandparents, but I must admit, that to someone who doesn't have such dear memories of the place, it can come across as soulless and uninspiring. Which is exactly how Canberra came across to me.

It's extremely clean, I'll give it that, but everything is really spread out, and the footpaths that run from the town centre to the sights are situated alongside highways, extinguishing all hopes of taking a nice scenic stroll around Australia's capital city. In all honesty, walking around Canberra is not a pleasant experience, and it's made even more stressful by the cyclists who come screaming up behind you, ringing their bells and calling you a "stupid girl" for not jumping into the nearest bush to get out of their way.

If you take into account the roadworks and the building sites (which do nothing to improve the already unattractive scenery), the flies that wouldn't stop buzzing around our faces, no matter how many times we batted them away and the elephant-sized ants that obstructed our path at regular intervals, and surely it's easy to sympathise with how short our tempers quickly became. A 'nice scenic stroll around Australia's capital', indeed.

The Sights

Two things I was particularly interested in seeing in Canberra were Captain Cook's diary and the original sketches of the Sydney Opera House (which I'd read about in Bill Bryson's 'Down Under') and so, in pursuit of these items, we found ourselves walking around the city once again.

As we approached the National Library to read Cook's Endeavour Journal, we were surprised to see how desolate the area was, but when we signed in, we learned that we were the fifth group of people to look at the diary that day - and it wasn't even noon yet. It just goes to show that there is at least one thing that makes Canberra worth visiting (apart from my beloved cousin, of course - sorry Ross!).

We weren't allowed access to the original copy of the journal, because for preservation reasons it's only brought out to the public every couple of years, but to see Captain Cook's handwriting - even if it was just a copy - was like stepping back in time to a monumental part of history. The diary of Captain Cook's first Pacific voyage records his landing at Botany Bay, when he claimed the east coast of Australia for England, describing his encounters with Aboriginal people along the way.

With renewed enthusiasm for Canberra, sparked by our brief history lesson, we tried to locate the original sketches of the Opera House...without a shred of success. Every single person we asked had absolutely no idea what we were talking about. One museum attendant suggested we try Sydney. Going back to Sydney? I wish. So that was the end of that.

We decided to take an alternative route back to our hostel, hoping that it might be more inspiring than our usual walk along the freeway. And when we came across the beautiful Commonwealth Park with its huge lake (to get some idea of its beauty, Tash referred to it as 'duck heaven'), we decided we'd made the right decision. That was, until we stumbled across the dead fish. A huge trout-like thing just lying on the bank of the lake. Cut in half. For no apparent reason. Duck heaven had become fish hell in an instant. We couldn't get out of there quick enough - the horrendous smell that was emanating from the poor thing was growing more pungent with every second.

The people

As well as for its politics, Canberra is also known as a university town, so I shouldn't really have been surprised to find myself slap bang in geek central. But nothing could have prepared me for nerds that are so dorky, that they make Millhouse from 'The Simpsons' look like The Fonze. I know I should feel bad about saying this, but most of the people we met in Canberra were extremely rude to us. So this is my way of getting them back. Ha.

Saying that, we did meet a couple of helpful strangers, but inevitably, my lasting impression of the people of Canberra will be of the very annoying, socially inept guy in our dormitory who, at 6am, saw no problem with drawing back the curtains, flicking the light on and off and slamming the door.

Summary

After two days in Boresville we were more than ready to leave. Looking on the bright side, we supposed that after the amazingly fun time we had in Sydney, we needed to spend some time in a less fun place so that we could appreciate our next stop (Melbourne) by comparison.

Put it this way: Aside from seeing my cousin and Cook's journal, the highlight of our trip to Canberra was paying for a 12-bed dorm at the YHA Hostel and being put in a 4-bed dorm. Enough said.