Okay, confession time, who thinks the capital of Australia is Sydney? Or Melbourne? Or any other place besides Canberra for that matter? Don't worry, it was only from reading Bill Bryson's "Down Under" that I learned that it is in fact Canberra! And after reading all about this crazy-sounding "designed" city, I was desperate to see it for myself. So Nicola, Kirsty and I took ourselves off there for a little adventure.
Now let me start by giving you a brief overview of the history of the city. When the different states came together to make the country Australia in 1901 there was much discussion about which city should be chosen as capital. It was impossible to decide whether it should be Melbourne or Sydney, so a suitable solution seemed to be to build a whole new city, between the two, that way no-one loses. Which is exactly what they did! And the result was Canberra...
Australians are not generally very complimentary of their capital, and most people's reaction to our trip there was something along the lines of "What?! Why are you going there?? And for two days!! What on earth are you going to do there for two days?! You crazy people!" You get the picture. Anyway, I was intrigued enough to want to draw my own conclusions, but didn't have very high expectations. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that Canberra is in fact a very interesting place, with lots to do! We ran out of time to go everywhere we wanted to go and could easily have spent another day there. Having said that, it's all museums and galleries so if you're not into that sort of stuff then it would be a boring place to go.
We, however, embraced the "school trip" feel and very much enjoyed looking around Parliament House, the old parliament (The Museum of Australian Democracy), the art gallery and a "Writings" exhibition in the library which contained handwritten letters/scores/diaries/other documents from various authors/musicians/scientists/philosophers throughout history. It was fascinating to see manuscripts from composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms, alongside handwritten papers by the likes of Da Vinci, Louis Pasteur and Marx. I personally enjoyed reading the ones in French, even if I could understand very little of them!
We made use of our YHA membership once again (which added to the school trip experience as we were sleeping in bunkbeds in a dorm) and were happy to find a deal on at the pub nextdoor, where we spent the evening drinking a glass of wine over a game of Scrabble... For once I managed not to lose to Kirsty, and quite remarkably, we ended up with a tie!! (Even with the points deducted, for those of you serious Scrabble players).
I think the old parliament was a favourite amongst all of us as you were free to wander around all the old offices, meeting rooms etc as well as the Senate and the House of Representatives, and everything has been left just how it was when Parliament was rehoused in the 80s; lots of brown decor and old phones, fax machines and computers. Much photographic fun was had posing in various locations pretending to be MPs! The new Parliament was less brown but still not really conducive to making important decisions, with the chambers resembling Dulux colour charts... How anyone can concentrate and not feel sick when faced with all those shades of salmon is a miracle...! Sadly there was no action going on for us to sit in on but we were learnt a lot about British politics from a friendly volunteer lady in the old Parliament. For example did you know that the current Speaker's Chair in our London Houses of Parliament was a gift from Australia, after the bombings in the war?? Well, now you do, should that ever come up in Trivial Pursuit.
If I had to sum up Canberra one of the first words that comes to mind is "wet" - on the second day it absolutely poured it down and we got soaked through walking even five minutes from one building to another. Waiting for the bus back to the hostel we were paddling at the side of the "river" and Kirsty in particular was not at all impressed with the Manchester-esque weather... 3 weeks on I think she may possibly just about have got over it, and the rain cover she fashioned out of plastic carrier bags for her Dora rucksack is still going strong!
It would, however, be unfair to judge the place on those two days of grey, miserable weather... I would also say it's the strangest capital, and city in fact, that I've ever been to. It's an extremely interesting place from a cultural point of view, but otherwise seems very soulless and lifeless. There's definitely a "planned" and "purposeful" feel and I was reminded at several points of memorial gardens we went to in South Korea, as there are big parkland areas with buildings dotted here in there. I wonder whether on a sunny day it would have had more charm, with a more pleasant walk between attractions (rather than a swim) and the opportunity to sit out in one of the many grass areas.
Anyway, that's another capital visited, something ticked off the list a good experience all in all!
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