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G'day to all at home!
We're in Canberra and really enjoying ourselves. We hope you enjoy our update below;
On Thursday we left Melbourne at 7am and arrived in Canberra at 3pm. Our last long bus journey - woo hoo! We checked into the YHA hostel which is lovely and the best thing was that we got a cheap rate as we decided to extend our stay for 6nights. Well, Chris was reading up about the capital and realised there is lots to do so we decided to change and cut our stay in Sydney to 7 nights. It cost us $75 a night instead of $110 so we were chuffed! We popped to the supermarket to get supplies and then cooked stir fry for tea and had an early night as we were really tired.
On Friday we walked about 7km to the Royal Mint which was really interesting. It was free to get into and we were able to watch a short film about the history of coin making before walking around the visitors centre and taking a peak at the factory in operation. The worst thing was there were no free samples but we had fun! hehehe! We spent the afternoon checking out the shops and I was pleasantly surprised at the standard! There was just one huge mall called Canberra Central so we had a busy afternoon!
Saturday was spent on another tourist trip to the National Museum. Again, it was a good walk but I guess it's about time we started burning calories again. The museum was really interesting as it was focused on 3 areas - land, nation and people! We learnt a lot and spent a good couple of hours wandering around the different parts. We were that tired and full of knowledge we had to have a coffee and share a sausage roll before leaving! hehehe! We then found a quiet spot to eat our sandwiches on the way back and then had a wander around the shops again in the afternoon. Then we had the best night EVER! We went to see Pirates of Penzance performed by Opera Australia and it was fantastic! It was really funny and really tongue in cheek so we had a good laugh and enjoyed the special night. With it being the last night of the tour it was probably the best show to go to see. We did look at what was on at the Opera House in Sydney but it's already been there so we decided to do it in Canberra as it will make our visit to the Capital more memorable. After the show we went for a Baileys in an irish pub which was a lovely finish!
Today we went on another hike to the market at the Old Bus Depot which was really good. It was about a 5km each way and the weather has been getting hotter over the last couple of days so it was pretty hard at times. The market was huge and really crafty which was great. Chris treated me to a lovely apron with Cupcakes all over it - how cool! He said I can wear it when I'm making him sticky toffee pudding when we live together! Good try hey! We've had a pretty quiet afternoon as we're really tired! All this exercise is getting to us - got to get fitter again for Sydney so it's doing us good. We had a quick swim in the hostle pool but it was freezing so was brief. We popped to the supermarket, had a starbucks frapaccino and we're now going to have a nice night watching Pop Idol. We're cooking steak sandwiches for tea and going to enjoy them infront of the program so we'll both be happy with our favourite things - hehehe!
We're having a day of Cycling tomorrow and hoping to cycle all the way round the Lake Burley Griffin (around which the city is built). It's a total of 36km so it'll be a real achievement at the end. We're going to stop at the War Memorial on the way round.
Tuesday is our last day in Canberra and we're planning on visitng Parliament house. More history lessons! It's a really impressive building actually but again it's a good walk away!
Seriously Canberra is so weird, we can't decide if we like it or not. You see, Melbourne and Sydney were both competing to be the capital so it was decided that a Capital City would be built in between them so the city was designed by an architect from scratch before it was even built. The random thing is that everything is so bloody far way - it's a good walk to anything. Good for toning but not if you're trying to see lots of sights in a limited amount of time! It's also annoying how every landmark is trying to be the best e.g. National Museum, National Gallery, blah blah blah! It's got a very upmarket feel though which is nice! We have had fun though, it's just a strange city really!
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