Canberra Trip - how it really was (more details and pics!)
0 Comments Published by Svetlana Zhukova on Wednesday, June 06, 2007 at 3:13 PM.
So that was how the trip started - one week-end several weeks ago me, Gabi and Mandi set our feet to Australian capital city - Canberra.
The trip is quite short, it's just about 3 hours drive, so we just rented a car and went on one saturday sunny morning! Girls' Power trip - and what a match we got with the car, girly enough color :)
The first stop was in Goulburn, a small town which is said to be the first inland city. It's famous with a gian statue of a sheep, Big Merino - which I thought how people told me, was a ship, marina... Imagine my surprise when instead of a boat we got to a sheep :)
The city is actually very nice, it has its charm of a small town - cool for a break, but not the one where I see myself staying for long...
The road itself was great - it was actually the first time I went out of Sydney and saw something more of Australia than the city. I loved the vastness of the landscape, reminded me somewhat of Russia or Kazakhstan - the power of huge plains and mountains... And the road, it equals freedom! Just you, blue sky, and your land around you.
I liked Canberra a lot, and even though many people say it's nothing there and it's boring, I disagree. It's all about people and outdoors in Canberra :)
The most amazing part for me was the fact that the city is so different!..
You drive just for 3 hours from Sydney with it's ocean and summer forever, palm and forever green tress - and Canberra welcomes you with so much a European landscape!
It looked so much like some Germany or Switzerland or something like that - trees are golden and red, the sky is blue or gloomy sometimes, mountains around, and even same style of buildings!..So different from Sydney - if I flew from another country to Canberra, I wouldn't tell I'm in Australia, it's great!
(I think Geneva has similar fountain on the lake?..)
The city is very young - it was build to be the capital city (like Astana, or Brasilia), which it became in 1927. Therefore it's quite well-planned, with the type of architecture that was modern at those times. Interestingly enough, on Sunday afternoon when Mils was walking me around the city, I've realized that some city center parts remind me Rotterdam so much! Wide enough streets, boulevard shopping streets, not too tall buildings, golden leaves, cafes outdoors, and not too many people. Felt like home at times :)
Canberra has a few of attractions (meaning not a lot), and we managed to visit some main of them. And a good part that almost everything is free :)
Parliament House (open for public, some pics above - the distinctive fetaure is that everyone was so friendly in there - I wonder how it'd look like if they opened Russian parliament for public visits:) Or may be it's already open?),
War Memorial (dedicated to all the wars Australia participated in).
It's a great museum, interactive etc, and was good to see another perspective on events that meant so much for my countries' history. However I couldn't spend too much time in there, we have so much already of history and reminders of it (WWII)since childhood, that it's enough - and more, every time I'm in a war museum, I just think how wrong is that to fight other people, and in case of Australia in WWI - for some idea that didn't actually affect your country much, but country men died for that...
Great to see though that people do commemorate and respect their history - I think actually even more than people in countries with older history do, Russia for example... May be there were too many wars in our history that we loose the hard feelings about them...
(this an eternal flame, as we call it in post-USSR countries - it commemorates the lives people gave in wars, and an eternal flame symbolizes an eternal memory we should have for soldiers)
Well, on a light note - Canberra is so great on a sunny morning!.. We had our lunch in a smaal park near the Art Gallery, on the side of the lake, it was soo peaceful and relaxing, perfect mood for sunday morning!..
Canberra is also famous for Questacon - an interactive science museum, mostly kids' paradise - where you can do whole lots of stuff, measure your balance, check the gravitation, see the sound etc etc. It's all really visual and you can experience everything!! Me and Gabi were some of very few adults there, enjoying all those cool things surrounded by crowds of children :) Was great though to feel yourself a 5-year old!.. hehe
(this is my after the free-fall experience - when you fall with 0 gravitation)
However the place I liked the most was the National Art Gallery, especially the exhibitions of Asian art and modern Australian art, i think it's great!!! There were also original works of Picasso, Monet, Andy Warhol, Kandinsky, which was great to see.
The entry to the gallery - how awesome is that???
I definitely liked Canberra - however I wouldn't like to live there. The city is great for a week-end/short visit or so, but Sydney is the best anyways :)))
The trip is quite short, it's just about 3 hours drive, so we just rented a car and went on one saturday sunny morning! Girls' Power trip - and what a match we got with the car, girly enough color :)
The first stop was in Goulburn, a small town which is said to be the first inland city. It's famous with a gian statue of a sheep, Big Merino - which I thought how people told me, was a ship, marina... Imagine my surprise when instead of a boat we got to a sheep :)
The city is actually very nice, it has its charm of a small town - cool for a break, but not the one where I see myself staying for long...
The road itself was great - it was actually the first time I went out of Sydney and saw something more of Australia than the city. I loved the vastness of the landscape, reminded me somewhat of Russia or Kazakhstan - the power of huge plains and mountains... And the road, it equals freedom! Just you, blue sky, and your land around you.
I liked Canberra a lot, and even though many people say it's nothing there and it's boring, I disagree. It's all about people and outdoors in Canberra :)
The most amazing part for me was the fact that the city is so different!..
You drive just for 3 hours from Sydney with it's ocean and summer forever, palm and forever green tress - and Canberra welcomes you with so much a European landscape!
It looked so much like some Germany or Switzerland or something like that - trees are golden and red, the sky is blue or gloomy sometimes, mountains around, and even same style of buildings!..So different from Sydney - if I flew from another country to Canberra, I wouldn't tell I'm in Australia, it's great!
(I think Geneva has similar fountain on the lake?..)
The city is very young - it was build to be the capital city (like Astana, or Brasilia), which it became in 1927. Therefore it's quite well-planned, with the type of architecture that was modern at those times. Interestingly enough, on Sunday afternoon when Mils was walking me around the city, I've realized that some city center parts remind me Rotterdam so much! Wide enough streets, boulevard shopping streets, not too tall buildings, golden leaves, cafes outdoors, and not too many people. Felt like home at times :)
Canberra has a few of attractions (meaning not a lot), and we managed to visit some main of them. And a good part that almost everything is free :)
Parliament House (open for public, some pics above - the distinctive fetaure is that everyone was so friendly in there - I wonder how it'd look like if they opened Russian parliament for public visits:) Or may be it's already open?),
War Memorial (dedicated to all the wars Australia participated in).
It's a great museum, interactive etc, and was good to see another perspective on events that meant so much for my countries' history. However I couldn't spend too much time in there, we have so much already of history and reminders of it (WWII)since childhood, that it's enough - and more, every time I'm in a war museum, I just think how wrong is that to fight other people, and in case of Australia in WWI - for some idea that didn't actually affect your country much, but country men died for that...
Great to see though that people do commemorate and respect their history - I think actually even more than people in countries with older history do, Russia for example... May be there were too many wars in our history that we loose the hard feelings about them...
(this an eternal flame, as we call it in post-USSR countries - it commemorates the lives people gave in wars, and an eternal flame symbolizes an eternal memory we should have for soldiers)
Well, on a light note - Canberra is so great on a sunny morning!.. We had our lunch in a smaal park near the Art Gallery, on the side of the lake, it was soo peaceful and relaxing, perfect mood for sunday morning!..
Canberra is also famous for Questacon - an interactive science museum, mostly kids' paradise - where you can do whole lots of stuff, measure your balance, check the gravitation, see the sound etc etc. It's all really visual and you can experience everything!! Me and Gabi were some of very few adults there, enjoying all those cool things surrounded by crowds of children :) Was great though to feel yourself a 5-year old!.. hehe
(this is my after the free-fall experience - when you fall with 0 gravitation)
However the place I liked the most was the National Art Gallery, especially the exhibitions of Asian art and modern Australian art, i think it's great!!! There were also original works of Picasso, Monet, Andy Warhol, Kandinsky, which was great to see.
The entry to the gallery - how awesome is that???
I definitely liked Canberra - however I wouldn't like to live there. The city is great for a week-end/short visit or so, but Sydney is the best anyways :)))
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