| Canberra - page 2 |
| On our second day we ventured across the bridge to the other side of symmetry. We walked along the water's edge (as much as we could because of the lovely construction zone), passing the National Library, the science museum, Intenational Flag Walk, the National Portrait Gallery, and the High Court of Australia to the National Gallery. This was the only attraction I had taken in last time, and this time it took a lot of effort not to follow the lead of the many tourists shamelessly photographing the artwork. None of the paintings on my favourite wall of the gallery are available as prints... Frank was going to get a picture of the National Carillon (an odd musical tower on the opposite side of Anzac Parade to Lady Burley Griffin Park) from across the lake at the gallery until he realized that that was actually scaffolding surrounding the place and not an odd sort of decorative architecture (a real possibility in this place)... |
| on to the Queensland Coast ...or |
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| From there we went past Old Parliament House and the Tent Embassy set up on its lawn (a permanent aboriginal rights quasi-protest) to New Parliament House. This is indeed a very modern building. The coolest part to me was the roof. If you look at the place from the front (pic below left) there are lawns all the way to the roof, but for some reason (probably 9/11 like everything else) there are barricades preventing people from walking up there. Instead you have to go into the building through security and take an elevator to the top. The view is great (see the first page pic taken from there towards the war memorial) and the vantage point to look at the flag at the top of the building is pretty neat, too (pic right). Despite this "heightened security" for the roof, you |
| are able to walk around the building pretty freely once you are inside (surprising since George Bush was due to arrive the very next day). As one would expect in a planned building in a planned city, everything inside has some sort of symbolic meaning. They use slightly updated versions of the traditional colours and layouts for the two houses of parliament and even the marble pillars in the "all marble all the time" entrance |
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| the way home to look into getting Canadian paraphernalia for the game, but it was really windy, 5 o'clock, we'd already been walking for 6 hours, and we weren't really sure how to get there, so he took a picture of the flag from a bridge in front of parliament instead (not included because you should know what one looks like). |
| hall are supposed to represent gum trees (pic right)... (Hmmm... Maybe the reason for the second parliament house was that they didn't think the first one was overtly symbolic enough...) Anyway, from there we went back to the hotel to prepare to carry out our trip's true purpose - to go to the rugby match! Actually, Frank wanted to stop into the Canadian embassy on |
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| After a long day we skipped the pub after the match and went to bed. The next day saw an end of our Amazing Canberra Adventure as we got the hell outta dodge before Bush's arrival that evening and headed back to the Hunter Valley for round two! |
| We donned our Canadian supporter gear (I bought an official T-shirt in Sydney because of my flag-getfulness...) and headed off to the game with another bunch of Canadian supporters we met on the way out of the hotel! My fears of our being the only Canadians in a crowd of Italian supporters (a real possibility with Sydney so close by) were already being proven wrong, and continued to be when we reached our section - easily an 80/20 ratio in favour of the Canuks! While we forgot to take a photo of ourselves, we did snag one of some of our section-mates (pic below left). We also took heaps of shots of the game, with this line out being one of the best (pic below right). Final score was 14-19 for the bad guys, but the Canadians played a solid game - just a couple of missed kicks separated us from the win! |
| Frank & Lisa's Amazing Cross-Australia Adventures |
| Northern Territory: Red Centre , 2 / Top End , 2 NSW & ACT: Hunter Valley / Sydney / Canberra , 2 Queensland Coast: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 South Australia: Barossa Valley / Kangaroo Island / McLaren Vale & Coonawarra Victoria: Great Ocean Road , 2 , 3 / Melbourne New Zealand (North Island): Aukland / Rotorua / Tongariro / Wellington (South Island): Nelson / Westland / Queenstown / Milford / Dunedin / Mt Cook / Christchurch |