Hello fellow wanderers! Today is Friday which means it’s time for another blast from the past. In January 2012, my family and I went on a road trip up to Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Canberra is the capital city of Australia, and ended up in its own state due to a dispute between Victoria and New South Wales; both wanted to be the capital! This rivalry has lasted through the decades and you’ll still find that both cities compete with each other. Canberra is located halfway between the two cities, as this was the compromise they agreed on. It’s a fairly small city, and most of it is dedicated to the Parliament House and other governmental organisations. I was warned before going that there might not be much to do there, but I was pleasantly surprised! I actually really enjoyed the trip and we found plenty to do; we even had to drop a couple of things off the list because we ran out of time. Canberra is great if you’re interested in politics, and it’s also a great place to learn about Australia and its history.
On the way, we passed a couple of famous, Australian landmarks (both of which I’ve written detailed posts about on Tumblr; click on the names to be directed to said posts). One was the Dog on the Tucker Box, which is a memorial for the pioneers of the area that has sparked many a song and tale.
The other landmark we spotted along the way was the Ettamogah Pub, which is a pub designed to look like the Ettamogah Pub from a comic strip back in the 20th century.
The biggest highlight of Canberra itself would be the Parliament House, as it was highly informative and interesting. Definitely a good stop if you want to know more about the Australian political system.
Although Parliament was the highlight, we also saw some other interesting things, including Questacon, the National Museum, National Art Gallery and Australian War Memorial. Questacon was great fun, and would be perfect for families with kids as it had a lot of activities and interactive exhibits. The National Museum was fascinating, so I’d recommend it for any history buffs travelling in the area. We managed to see the Renaissance exhibition while it was at the National Art Gallery, which was amazing! My Mum was particularly excited to see Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting.
The Australian War Memorial was a beautiful building and I was particularly moved by the wall of poppies (pictured right), which was basically a wall of names of those who served in the armed forces that had space for people to put poppies next to the names to show respect.
The banner photo for my blog was actually taken in Canberra! We went to the Telstra Tower just before sunset to take some photos of Canberra during the day, sunset and night.
On the way back from Canberra, we stopped over in the Snowy Mountains, NSW. As we were visiting during summer, they weren’t very snowy! However, we still saw some beautiful scenery driving around the mountainous roads and the caves were nice and cool compared to the heat above ground.
All in all it was an educational trip that I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s nice to know the country you live in, and I certainly learned a lot ❤
Wanderlust 