Canberra for the first time

Now that you are paying 500 dollars for a domestic flight, you might as well make the best use of it, and it's been a long time since we saw Barry, my little brother from a Nigerian mother. So we decided to make a trip to Canberra, the beautiful capital of Australia.

We booked a bus tour with Murray tours and for me and mother it cost only 80 dollars one-way from Sydney to Canberra. The bus was very comfortable, starting at the central bus station in Sydney with a stop at the Sydney airport then non-stop all the way to Canberra in just over 3 hours. The countryside New South Wales is mostly covered by farm land stretching all the way to the horizon studded by a few mountains. In this scorching summer day the sky was of a beautiful blue with refreshingly white clouds scattered all over, it was a beautiful scenery to behold, well of course in the comfort of the AC of the coach.

Leaving all the farm land behind, we reached Canberra, and it hit me again (first time was when I first came to Australia), where are all the people? for a Friday noon, being the capital, I expected the city to be bustling, instead it was very calm and appeared very slow... We got off the bus and was greeted by a familiar voice shouting across the street, Barry in his little blue Peugeot, grinning ear to ear, we were very excited to see each other to say the least! I had a quick flash back of how much this guy got scolded by me trying to learn driving in Sri Lanka, and now he's driving here in Australia, well done Barry :)

On our way to the hotel we stopped at Kingston to have a slow lunch, absorbing the silence of this beautiful capital with restaurants by lakes, restaurants by roads and even more restaurants by parks. No matter how many restaurants there are, they are more expensive compared to other cities I have been to. I would not forget one of them, the Indian one by the lake, which served Vindaloo, literally fire in a bowl...

After dropping our bags in the hotel we started going around. First stop was the parliament, the old and new parliament buildings are closer to each other. The old one had this majestic British look to it, which reminded me of a colonial house from Sri Lanka.

Whereas the new one was very contemporary with a beautiful open space architecture. I am a huge fan of open spaces and contemporary architecture and I could have just stayed there hours. There are free tours of the parliament, but it was too late in the evening for tours.

We took off to see our next attraction, the war memorial. This is Australia's national monument for her war heroes. What a beautiful monument standing proud in the capital, showcasing the courage of the past heroes and the strength of the Australian military. The center courtyard has a memorial pool with an eternal flame lit at one end and flanked by passage ways bordered by rosemary plants and bronze plaques with the names of over 100,000 brave Australian men and women who sacrificed their lives in battles. My mother was too tired to walk around while Barry and I had a stroll around the area before we called it a day.

 

We woke up late the following day, had a brunch, of course at that Inidian restaurant which serves fire, and headed to mount Ainslie. I think the best views of Canberra would be from here. You can see the Australian capital in a single snap shot, how masterfully this city has been planned over 100 years ago by Griffin and lying in this valley standing the test of time.

After our mount Ainslie lookout trip, I wanted to see Barry's university, the university of Canberra. I was so glad to see this place, only the god, Barry and I know how much we struggled to get entrance for him here. Fighting with his Sri Lankan school admins, preparing for IELTS, hunting for school agents, preparing the documents for visa, praying at Kalutara temple so he gets the university entrance. I was getting too tired sometimes and thought he should just give up and go back to Nigeria, but his perseverance kept me going too and I can't believe that he is just a few months away from his graduation, from one of the best universities in Australia!

Next day it was time to leave Canberra. Wait a second, who would leave Canberra without having a freakshake? We had a freakshake with a big breakfast at the birth place of freakshakes, Patissez's cafe.

There was still some more time until our flight, we stopped at lake Griffin on our way to the airport and spent some peaceful time absorbing more of that calmness this beautiful capital has to offer.

Finally it was time to bid our byes, we left our little black brother / son with a heavy heart with hopes to return for his graduation.

Tips:

• If travelling from Sydney, the easiest and cheapest way to get to Canberra would be by bus. Flying may seem faster, but what about the time you should allow to check in, all the undressing for security checks etc.
• Just 2 days would be more than enough to tick off all the major attractions in Canberra. 
• Canberra appears to be more expensive compared to other major Australian cities.
• Don't miss the mount Ainslie look out.