The Capital

It has been a very busy week in Canberra, museum and gallery wise that is. I have also bought some gloves, because it gets really cold here... and to give you an idea what really cold is: they have an iceskating ring here in CBD.... I have to admit that by now I'm a bit 'museum/gallery' tired, so I decided to spent my last day here inside the internet cafe updating you guys and watching some series even though it is lovely outside (blue skies, still cold though). Will fly to Adelaide tonight and will take it slow there the next two days. Just doing laundry etc, getting ready for my 7 day trip from Adelaide to Alice! Of which 3 nights will be spent sleeping in a tent/swag, so that will be extremely cold (it freezes at night, lets hope the sleeping bag I'm hiring is warm enough). Also bought a cheap raincoat, just in case... Anyway the week was as follows:

Saturday:Morning spent enjoying the National Portrait Gallery (including a free tour) a walk along Old and New Parliament House followed by a longn walk in Yarralumla, the neighbourhood with all the embassies. The hostel rents out DVD's so in the evening I watched 2 days in Paris, brilliant, I kept laughing! In the middle of the night 2 very drunk Ozzie girls were brought in the room by 4 slightly less drunk German roommates and woke everybody up. One of the girls was so drunk that the police and ambulance came. Wonderful guys, really..... A new low hostellife wise I'd say.

Sunday I went to the National Capital Exhibition in the morning and read about how Canberra came to be. After 2 hours I'd seen it all and walked along the lake to the massive National Museum of Australia. After a couple of hours my brain shut down and I decided to head back to the hostel when I met Mary (a nurse from Canada and roommate at the YHA) in the museum shop who was also ready to head back. We walked back together and had an amazing hot chocolate at Koko Black (a local chocolaterie) and waited for her bus to Sydney. I decided to watch another movie, but this one was so boring that I decided to go to bed halfway.

More galleries and museums were waiting for me (I don't understand people who say that Canberra is boring, there is so much to do and the history of this place and all that is going on now is shaping this country legally), so after a nice sleep I headed to the National Gallery in the morning (just looking at art, not really reading much I have to admit) and the Old Parliament House with it’s National Museum of Democracy in the afternoon. They have really nice guides and it teaches you a lot about how government works here in Oz! Bought a ticket to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 for Tuesday evening (because seats are running out very quickly and Tuesday is the cheap cinema day here in Oz). In the evening my Japanese roommate asked me if I was married yet. Obviously I said 'No'. He replies 'Why not, you’re very beautiful'. What on earth are you supposed to answer to that: because I have an aweful personality??? So I said nothing (note to self, prepare an answer to any possible question someone could ever ask you). It implies something must be wrong with me, not being married at the old age of 29.. thanks. He probably didn't mean it that way, but beautiful was also a very weird thing to say seeing that I was in my winter sleep outfit all week: 4 layers during the day and at night wearing thick grey and tan coloured walking socks (the ones with L and R on them, yes I actually own a pair of those), a very baggy pair of sweatpants and 4 layers on top (with a fleece sweatshirt zipped up to my chin, it is very cold in the room). Lovely and very very charming ahum.

Tuesday was my last full free day here so I decided to visit the Parliament House and take a free tour. Very interesting again and the view is amazing from the top of the building. In the afternoon I watched Sleeping Beauty at the cinema (very arty) and of course HP2 in the evening. It was a nice movie, not outstanding (although the girl behind me cried during at least half of the movie, see really was 'into it'), but a good way to spent an evening. Today I'm all done with museums etc, so just bought lots of internet time and decided to update you guys and chill out until I can take the bus to the airport. More news probably from Alice Springs!

Oh pictures are on FB, Blogger doesn't let me upload mine again...sigh...