Travel: CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA

Five hours on a Greyhound bus travelling between Sydney (read about my time there here) and Canberra is not the most fun way to spend the day, and I began to wonder whether it would have made more sense to have just booked a flight between the two cities, but alas, one must have these experiences to realise such things. 

I arrived in Canberra in early afternoon and made my way to the YHA where I would be staying for the next few nights. The hostel was reasonably nice, and the first I'd stayed in that had a pool and sauna. 

Canberra is a very educational town with plenty of museums, many of which I was pleased to find offered free guided tours. I thusly dropped my bags off and took a leisurely stroll through the pretty and peaceful tree-lined streets up to the Australian War Memorial. 

At 2:30, a small group of us were corralled by a British ex-pat who took us around the Memorial for 90 minutes,  including showing us the long walls of Anzac soldiers killed in wars which was now decorated with poppies; the grave of the unknown soldier; and into the extensive museum with its exhibits on the First and Second World Wars and beyond. Whilst I wouldn't call myself a history buff in the slightest, I really enjoyed this glimpse into Australia's military past and present.

The following day I had planned myself a full day of museum-hopping. The first of these was Parliament House, perhaps the most important building in Canberra given the city's role as Australian capital. 

My tour here took me through the Great Hall, the Senate chamber and the House of Representatives; the latter two of which had obvious influences from the British House of Lords and House of Commons. It was interesting to see how these rooms had been adapted to be more Australian, such as the colour schemes adapted to represent green gum leaves, and the red dirt of Central Australia. 

Whilst our hour long tour only scratched the surface of the 4500 room Parliament House, I did pick up some really interesting facts like that the building has 2700 clocks to make sure no members are late for votes, and that the flag atop the building is bigger than a double decker bus. 

After new Parliament House, I headed down the road to Old Parliament House. This building was significantly smaller but still had an impressive 900 clocks and even more British versions of the Senate and Representatives rooms. Nowadays, Old Parliament House is more a museum than a working building and had exhibits ranging from the press to letter writing, and even bees. 

All that information had made me build up quite an appetite so I walked off in search of Agostini's. The main pull of this restaurant for me was not only its high TripAdvisor rating but offer of a four cheese pizza which, much like mac & cheese, I find hard to resist. It was indeed rather yummy and I followed it with a tiramisu which was literally dripping in espresso - perhaps part of the reason I didn't get to sleep until the wee hours that night. 

I walked along the banks of the lake across to the National Gallery of Australia. Whilst the gallery was bustling, it was only me who opted to take a tour from one of the volunteers, which meant a private tour around the museums collections of Australian, European and Asian art. I thought the museum was well curated with its combination of Aboriginal and European settler art juxtaposing the different eras and perspectives throughout Australia's history.

I left the museum close to 4pm and figured I had enough time for a quick run around one last museum. I opted for the highly rated Questacon, Canberra's interactive science museum. However, upon arrival I discovered the museum had a $20 admission fee - probably worth it for the whole day, but not for less than an hour. 

With that off the list, I hurried to the National Museum of Australia. It really didn't matter that I only had a half hour left before the museum closed because this was really all that was necessary as only two exhibits were open, and I managed to see them all in about ten minutes, spending the rest of the time being regaled by a member of staff about a massive racehorse whose heart resides in the museum. And with that, it was time to bid farewell to Canberra and onto my next destination - Melbourne!

Having visited the city, I've come to the conclusion that Canberra is really nice, and I hope reading this blog encourages you to visit - it doesn't get enough credit, but it really is worth passing through! Have you visited Canberra, or do you have a desire to? I'd love to know - drop me a message in the comments below, and be sure to check me out on Twitter @CiarasCountry to keep up to date with future Australian adventures!