Australia Day 5: Capital of Australia

26-12-2009

All the while, I thought that Sydney is the capital of Australia but it’s not, it’s Canberra. It is about a 3-hour drive from NSW. They say that this is a dead place. Chili and Rein also tells us a saying that goes “Why wait for death if you can go to Canberra”. :p

Formule1 Hotel

We went there and we stayed in a hotel named Formule1. It is like a backpacker’s hotel, a cheap one. It is around $82 for 2-3 persons a night. It is a small room that has a comfort room that looks like the one you can see in the airplanes. It’s really small and I think it is really intended for short time stays.

Formule1 Comfort Room

Anyway, in Canberra you can see all the government related buildings. The embassy is located there, the Parliament house and others. We went first to the Parliament House. It was funny thinking that I’ve been inside Australia’s Parliament House and never been to the Philippines’ Batasang Pambansa! Inside the house are the paintings of all the Prime Ministers of Australia. We also joined the Guided Tour to know more about the details of the Parliament House. It was like a highschool when you go on a school field trip and will take an exam after the tour. He was talking about how the Parliament was built, how many senators per states, how many bills they read, how many months before a bill is approved and all. Even the architecture and all the stuff like that were discussed during the tour. There in the middle of the Parliament House hangs the biggest Australian Flag and it is being replaced every 3 weeks manually!

Infront of the Parliament House

Entrance of the Parliament House

After the tour, we just went inside the Souvenir Shop but all the items were pricey. So we moved on to the Australian War Memorial.

Infront of the War Memorial

Inside War Memorial

Inside the War Memorial lie the heroes of the country who gave their life during the war. You can see a looong list of names who offered their lives for the country. They were very much respected here and the museum was really good.

Names of the people who died during the war

There was a special exhibit called “Love and War” where they get to remember the soldier’s love stories. I got teary eyed when I saw one corner there where the soldiers write to their wives and saying that they might not be coming back. Imagine the suffering and the sacrifice they’ve undergone just for the country. Some were only married for 10 days and never get to remarry. So sad.

Love and War Exhibit

Anyway, there was also a Discovery Center where they made a replica of what happened during the war. There were helicopters, submarines, bikes, etc. We had fun when we played dress up like nurses and sailors. Cool stuff!

Fooling around with the Helicopter

Feeling Sailors

Playing dress-up

The Parliament House seen in War Memorial

I liked the pins and shirts they sell in the Souvenir Shop but I forgot my money inside the car and was too shy to borrow money from my mom and Hannah. So I’d let go and hope to find another one like that in Melbourne. Since the shops all over Australia closes as early as 5pm, we don’t have any place to go. We looked for something to eat for dinner so we went to the mall for fast food. I think it was the only mall there. We had shawarma for the night. I also saw a store named “Kathmandu”. Hahaha! I liked it since it is close to my name. After dinner, we went to Gloria Jeans inside Borders, a bookstore like Powerbooks. It closes at 9pm so we are very happy since we can stay there long enough to be tired and just go to sleep when we go back to the hotel since we can’t do anything there.

Kathmandu Store

By the way, Dec 26 is “Boxing Day”, a public holiday for them. You might ask why it is called Boxing day, this is because they are boxing their old stuff since they’ve receive a new one during Christmas day. I thought it’s like a Manny Pacquiao thing. Hehe. And so, there is massive Sale everywhere! However it’s only 3 days and after that all will be back to its original price. Cool huh?

Canberra, maybe this state is for the old people. They get sentimental with this kind of stuff. Also, my mom said that the architecture looks like Washington DC.

It was a tiring and fun day. Tomorrow, we’re off to Melbourne.