Canberra

Greetings,

I'm still rather behind on my adventures, so the catching up continues. My friend, Ben, is originally from Canberra and he asked Gabi and I if we wanted to go home with him for a weekend so we could see the capital of Australia. On May 1 - 3, we made the 3 and a half car ride journey to see the capital.

We didn't get into Canberra until 10:00 Friday night, so we just went straight to Ben's house in the country. On our way through the country, Ben told us that we had to watch for roos to make sure he didn't hit any. Gabi and I were really excited that we were on the lookout for roos and thought we would only see maybe 1 or 2 hopping along. Oh no, there were heaps (over-used Australian word that I love and have adopted)! I couldn't even count how many we saw and had to stop for, and they were all just hanging out at the edge of the road. I think I squealed with excitement every time I saw a roo...pretty sure Ben got a little annoyed by the end. There were even roos hanging out in his front yard. It was pretty great. When we got to his house, Ben suggested that we take a walk to the top of hill so we can see all the lights in Canberra. So Gabi and I get all bundled up (it was pretty cold), Ben grabs the flashlight, and we head off through the forest and up a hill. About 10 minutes into the walk, our flashlight burns out and we can no longer see a thing, which was an issue considering we were in the middle of a forest on a very small path, so we did the whole train thing holding onto eachother's shoulders while Ben led the way. We made it out of the forest perfectly fine and just had a giant hill full of rocks and logs to survive. There were a few trips and stumbles along the way, but nothing too serious...until we were about 2 feet away from the top. Gabi did not see a giant rock on the ground and ended up slicing the bottom of her foot open, causing her to start bleeding all over the place. It was not pretty. So Ben walked back to his house, got his car, and came to pick us up. We did luckily get to see the lights of Canberra and all the stars, so it wasn't all bad. When we got back to Ben's, we were all pretty tired and got ready for bed...by setting up a tent. Yes, we camped out in a tent in Ben's backyard. Gabi is allergic to dogs and since Ben has two dogs, we decided to camp out in a tent. It was pretty hilarious; we were all wearing 3 layers of clothes and had 2 blankets on us to stay warm. I, naturally, slept very well and stayed pretty warm all night.

Saturday morning Ben took us to meet up with a couple of his friends for a breakfast BBQ in a park. However, before we went to the park to eat our breakfast, him and his friends took Gabi and I for a cruise through the windy roads and up a mountain. Gabi and Ben both got a little carsick (yes, Ben made himself carsick with his own driving), though neither of them got seriously sick. I don't get motion sickness so I was good to go and thouroughly enjoyed the nice scenery. After we enjoyed our delicious breakfast BBQ, Ben dropped Gabi and I off near the parliment house so we could see all the tourist attractions. Unlike Washington DC, where there are a never-ending amount of monuments, memorials, museums, and any other sort of historic attraction imaginable, Canberra has about 5. Gabi and I spent quite a bit of tmie in the Old Parliment House, went to the New Parliment House, walked along the river, and then went to the science museum to get a coffee (it was $15 to actually see the museum, and we were too cheap to pay it). Ben came and picked us up a few hours later and then we went to his sister's high school play - Grease. Gabi and I were super excited to see Grease and had a lot of fun watching it. Everyone in the play were trying to speak in an American accent throughout the whole thing, which was pretty hilarious. The play was also filled with American stereotypes. Every scene would end with some comment about going to get a cheeseburger or going home to watch the Mickey Mouse Club. Overall, the play was very entertaining. Later on that night, Gabi and I introduced Ben to the wonderful, delicious, amazing S'mores. He had never had one before, nor ever heard of one, and thought they sounded discusting. So Gabi and I forced Ben to start a bonfire, we went out and bought marshmallows and chocolate (my mom had already sent me graham crackers a while ago...they don't exist in this country), and we forced Ben to eat it. He ended up really liking them, but really...who doesn't love a s'more? They weren't as awesome as they normally are since it wasn't made with Hershey's chocolate (granted Cadbury chocolate is better, but not for S'mores) and it wasn't made with Jet-Puff marshamllows. Actually, the marshmallows we used tasted a little like raspberries, so our s'mores were a little fruity. Oh well, they were still pretty good.

On Sunday, Gabi and I went to the War Memorial, which was really interesting. I really didn't know a whole lot about Australian history, so it was cool to learn about it all. I really liked the World War II section; it was interesting to learn about the war from a different point of view other than the U.S. After we were done with the final tourist attraction (see..I told you there were only about 5 things to see), we packed up our things and made our way back to Sydney. So there was my little adventure to the capital of Australia!

Cheers!
Whit