Winter/Summer Vacation Part 3: Canberra

The last leg of our trip began when we reached Canberra--the capital of Australia. I should have taken photos there but was so exhausted and tired of carrying my camera bag everywhere so I gave myself a break.

We didn't do much the first day because we got in so late but did eat some delicious food! The next day we hit up the Australian National Gallery to see a special exhibit from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. They are appearently doing some renovation work so they sent over some of their finest pieces for exhibition in Australia including Van Gogh's Starry Night. It was pretty special and I really enjoyed our day at the museum. Not part of the exhibit but on display were several of Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup paintings. Does anyone else out there love pop art? I am a huge Roy Lichtenstein fan.

After the museum we went out to Parliament House. I really should have brought my camera. I figured that because of security reasons photos would not be allowed but I was wrong. We were able to take photos pretty much everywhere including the representative and senate chambers. The Australian Parliament House is a rather odd structure and not really much too look at. It has this weird pyramid thing on top which elevates the flag and the roof has been sloped and covered with grass but the ideas behind it are pretty cool. The architect wanted people to be able to walk over parliament so that symbolically the people would always be above them (sort of a government serves the people thing). Also on display here was a copy of the Magna Carta. If you didn't know, the Magna Carta is an agreement between King John (of Robin Hood lore) and his barons that basically declared no one--even the king--is above the law (this was needed because the king was basically bankrupting the country in order to save territory on mainland Europe). The Magna Carta also established Habeas Corpus which is the set of rights you have when detained for legal purposes (ie. right to appeal, right to representation, etc.).

For the remainder of the second day, Jeremy and I drove around Canberra looking at his old house, his old schools, where he used to ride his bike and deliver papers, and a few other sentimental places. It was fun to see all the places he's told me stories about. I hope I get to bring him to my home town soon too!!

One of the interesting things about Canberra that you'll notice right away is the lack of people. For a capital city, Canberra is rather empty. This is largely because it is a planned city. In the early 1900s, Canberra was designed and built by a Chicago architect to be the city/state where the government would be base. Why not Sydney or Melbourne you ask? The basic answer is that the two cities kept fight over who was bigger and better and best suited for politics and some crazy out there decided the best solution was to put the capital halfway between the two. It's not really halfway but this is to say that no one really moved there because they wanted to--they moved there because their job did.

Canberra is rather empty when parliament is not in session because most people don't really live there--they just fly in and fly out for work. That being said, there is quite a bit of urban sprawl but you'll also notice a significant number of sheep and cows relatively close to the city center.

You'll also notice an abnormal amount of parks or "green spaces" and parking lots in the city. The architect designed the city with expectations that it would become a bustling center of commerce. This never happened. Now there are loads of free and empty parking lots (much appreciated but mostly unneeded as there aren't too many people there anyway) and what isn't a parking lot is made into a park of some sort.

The one really nice thing about Canberra is that it was a lot dryer and colder. Sydney is a sweltering pit of humidity right now. It's not actually that hot here but the humidity has been high.

And that pretty much concludes our winter/summer adventure! We returned to Sydney on New Year's Eve and spent the night out on Sydney Harbour waiting for fireworks. I'll post about that later though. :)