Christmas Day in the sunshine…26°c today!! We awoke to the sound of the alarm today, but didn't mind getting up early cos it's Christmas! We headed straight up to the roof terrace for our Christmas Day breakfast…and had to pinch ourselves to make sure it was real - hot sunshine, clear blue skies, views of the Bridge and Opera House…and us clutching our bag of prezzies sent over from everyone back in England! It was just what we imagined Christmas morning...

It's Christmas Eve…apparently! We still aren't feeling very festive, but I'm sure that will come! Today we decided to have a wander around near the hostel, not venturing too far, as tonight we have to pick up our cruise tickets at 5pm, so we'll have to get ready to go out early. After breakfast, we walked into the shopping area, not far from the hostel. Dave managed to buy some jeans and a red tshirt (for the red and white themed cruise tonight!) for $15 in th...

Today we left our hostel late morning to catch our bus to Sydney. We've really liked Canberra and we're glad we decided to come - apparently lots of backpackers miss it out but we thought we had to see the capital of the country and there was plenty to keep us occupied! The bus to Sydney wasn't as bad as the bus to Canberra - only took about 3 and a half hours this time and we'd had a proper night's sleep! When we arrived at Central Station, we caught a local tr...

Today we visited the National Museum of Australia, which is an unusually designed building - there's something which looks like a rollercoaster / skating ramp coming out of the building at the front! We walked from the hostel, along the edge of the lake, and down a bit of a dirt track to get to the museum. Like all good museums, admission was free, and there were lots of exhibitions, so you could easily spend a day there. The first exhibitions we looked around w...

After a good night's rest, we were ready to head out into Canberra to explore the capital. We decided to head for Parliament House, and the guy behind the desk at the hostel told it would be a 15 minute walk…it took 35! We walked over the bridge that crosses Lake Burley Griffin in the centre of town. It is just one of many features planned in by the architect who designed Canberra as the capital city, when politicians couldn't agree whether Sydney or Melbourne ...