Travel Story «Canberra»

Australia | 0 Comments 09 July 2006 - Last Update 24 December 2006

As Emily as already told you Melbourne saw myself and Lorna say a sad if not semi asleep goodbye to the girls for our mini Thelma and Louise trip to Sydney via Canberrra. The trip got off to a great start with a car upgrade. As you may recall from previous stories we have not been used to luxurious transport so hopping into our 5 door automatic cruise control car was to say the least a bonus. So off we set with bags in boot, sunglasses ( and seatbelts parents) on  and selection of classic road trip cds and a map that we / I couldn't read. With a little help from a parking warden and some very nifty Hook turns ( All legal, very confusing turning system just Melbourne has to deal with trams)by Lorna we left the city.
First stop on the trip was at Glenroan the place where Ned Kelly held his seige. To say the town makes this its tourist attraction would be an understatment. The main street and only street is like a step back in time complete wih Ned Kelly Post Office, Cafe etc. and lets not forget the 8ft statue for want of a bettter word to the man himself. So this is the point where the Thelma and Louise trip becomes more like a trip to Knock. Myself and Lona somhow managed to intigrate ouselves with a bus of senior citzens and joined them on the tour of the "museum" complete with AOP discount rate.
Once again Australian tourism came up with a one off. The museum is one mans passion for Ned Kelly and puppets combined. I really am doing it an injustice here but it is one of those places that has to be seen to be believed. So we proceeded with our new friends on a one hour tour that told the story of the seige of Ned Kelly complete with talking puppets, sound effects, being soaked with water (just so we got the idea of what  stormy weather there was the night of the seige and lots of dark rooms. I have to say it was such fun if not embarasssling enough a little scary at times. So after joining in with the singing of a Ode to Ned Kelly song (Quite a catcy little number, Ireland should think of using for next years Eurovision) we drove /hit cruise control onto Canberra.
We arrived in Canberra the capitol of Australia (I can't be the only person that didn't know that) late so just enough time to find a hostel complete with free drink on arrival. Dinner a few more drinks and an early night so we were fresh for all the excitment Canberra had to offer us the next day !
I should explain at this point since we have arived we have noticed a... how can put it... a lack of respect for Canberra from natives. To put it bluntly its the but of a lot of jokes. I will not compare it to any county at home for fear of reprisals but every country has that place. However being enternal optimists (Stopping laughing) Lorna and I headed early the next day to the tourist office, a map on a wall. We took things into our own hands and after scouring the pages of the lonely planet decided for lack of anywhere else to go we would head to the Parliment building. Lets just say Ducan Steward would have been very excited.
The Parliment is a a new building built into a hill with stunning views of the Capitol. On advice at the door we took the tour. Our tour guide (Is he gay is he straight is he married?) was great and the building itself was amazing. I won't bore you with all the details but every aspect of the building has been thought about. A theme runs from the front to the back of the building each part represnting a particular part of Australias history, Aboriginal designs, European Marble and lots of different timber and references to the land being cleared. The back of the building is where the Priministers offices are and thats the reference to decisions being made to Australias future. Either it really is an amazing building or our tour guide told a good yarn that I completly fell for. Anyway to wrap this boring little piece up when all the doors are open you can see straight through the building. They only open the doors on special occasions ie a visit from Nelson Mandela. They were obvioulsy going to do it for Lorna and I but we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves. We are out here to escape the spotlight for a while after all. 
While in the area we decided we would also go see the Aboringinal Embassy.  So as you would myself and Lorna were looking out for a building and drove around in the same cirlcle three times when there is was. The Aboringan Embassy in all its glory, a tent and a fire. Its a tent that has been there for years as a protest to lands being taken from the aboriginal people. All joking aside it makesa very profound statement in contast to the big parliament building on whose front door it sits.
So myself and Lorna finally feel we are in on the jokes about Canberra. A lovely city but its function is purley commerce and politics. So with our fill of both we decided to head on in search of ,well ,some fun !!
Our trip and fun were slightly hampered by TORENTIAL DOWNPOURS. Seriously somebody in charge of road trip weather has it in for us. We did our best to stop off places but it was run, a photo and a dash back to the car. We were however taken pity on by a lovely lady who owned a cafe we stopped at for lunch and gave us our lunch for half price. If nothing else we met some lovely people that day. The rain can really bond cultures. We kept going and decided to stay the night in Wollagong. After a lovely dinner with even lovelier cocktails  We went to mingle with the locals. In the most hip and trendy place we could fine the barman was watchin th OC on th big screen so we moved on to less classery establishment to discover that in small town australia they love nothing more tham a bit of knitting in the pub on a night out. Once we got over the shock and the realisation that this Thelma and Louise trip was not going according to the film and it was unlikely that we would meet Brad Pitt in crazy crazy Wollomollo we were looking forward to getting to the Big Smoke and more importantly meeting up with our ladies again. Group united and ideas of Thelma and Louise left back with the rental car we were ready to investigate Sydney hoping it was the real capitol ( Kinda like Cork if you are to believe everything Grainne says)