Monday 26th - This morning I caught the coach to Canberra. It only took three and a half hours which is definatley shorter then going to Melbourne!! After I arrived in Canberra I caught the bus to my hostel which was on the other side of the lake. From the hostel it is only a 20 minute walk to all the places i wanted to visit. After checking in I walked to the National Archives building. I wanted to have a look at the exhibitions they had here but they were changing one over and the other was a few item from 1976 which they were about to archive. I didnt stay long here and instead walked around the corner to Old Parliment House which also houses the National Portrait Gallery. For $2 i was able to walk around the whole builiding which is very big and very impressive. Like the New Parliment House which i visited on my brief visit to Canberra last July there are two seperate areas for the senators and the MPS. I still dont really understand this system!! I went up into the press gallery which i found interesting. I was even able to pretent to interview a MP and it was recorded. THere is a script which i read and the answers were obviously preprgrammed. Afterwards i was able to go into the next room and here it played back, i only listened to it for a minute as i dont like hearing my voice!! I carried on walking around and went into the speakers suite and the PMs suite and then to the opppostie side of the house which was for the senators. After this i looked around the Portrait Gallery. There was a mixture of old portraits and modern ones including Glenn Macrath (cricket player) Steve Irwin and Princess Mary of Denmark who is from Tasmania. There were also some very strange pictures. Looking around here took up the rest of the afternoon. I walked back to the hostel via the supermarket. The hostel is small and quiet as its also a B and B. spoke to one of my roommates, cooked some dinner, and watched some tv.

tuesday 27th Feb - Had breakfast which is included in the room rate and then walked to the NAtional Library. It was a cloudy morning and started raining as i was walking to the library. In here there was a exhibition about the start of cricket in Oz and a photo exhibition of temples in Cambodia. The other exhibition was being changed over. i looked around the bookshop but didnt buy any more books. Then i walked along the road to the National Gallery. This is a big gallery with everthing from Monet and Picasso painting to aboriginal art, modern pieces and a display of statues from Cambodia which were several 100 years old. THere were also painting from the early setterlers of NSW and Victoria so these were about 100 -150 years old. I liked seeing the Picasso and Monet pieces because at least i have heard of him. I found the statues from CAmbodia fvery interesting just because they are so old. The modern pieces as usual i didnt understand, and it included one piece that was all white and was about 1m by 2m square and this is hanging in the National Gallery of Austalia!?! After looking around all the gallery i had my lunch in the cafe at the gallery. The weather had cleared up now and was humid and sunny. I walked across to the other side of the lake past the National memorial for the Navy and Police and went to Blundells Cottage. This is a small surving cottage near the edge of the lake that was built in the 1840's. Three families lived here with the Blundell family being the second, but longest staying family in the house. There were four small rooms to start with before the Blundells built two more. There is a outhouse building (where the boys slept before the extension) and a small garden. I think the lady that worked there said the last lady lived the till the 1960s and its still not connected to the water system!!

After looking around here I carried on walking around the lake to the Capitol Exhibition which was all about the building of Canberra, why this area was choosen for the capital and who won the competition to design the layout and buildings of Canberra. THere were lots of school children in here so i didnt stay long. I carried on walking around the lake then crossed back over and headed back to my hostel. On the way i stopped at the Chocolate Cafe to have an Iced Chocolate. Later this evening there was a huge storm which went on for several hours.

Wed 28th - The weather was clearer this morning. When i was having breakfast people were saying there was a lot of storm and hail damage in the city centre, apparently there was a huge hail storm during the storm. I checked out of the hostel and caught a bus to the city. Here i could still see piles of Hail and huge puddles and lots of leaves on the floor. I caught another bus around to the National Museum. THis was a failry new and bright museum which took me a few hours to walk around. There were displays on 'the people, the land and the nation'. This was all fairly interesting. The pieces i found the most interesting were the pieces abput Captain Cook. His telescope and a few other belongings were there. ALso after reading the journal of the botanist that was on his boat the 'endeavour' i knew that they ran a ground on a reef and threw a few large things overboard. These were found by divers of the coast of Queensland and are now in the museum. I am now reading '1788' by Watkin Tench which is his account of what happened when he and the first fleet of ships and convicts left England and arrived in OZ. In the museum is the first edition of this book. After i had finished looking around i had some lunch and then caught the bus to the Botanic Gardens. however when i got here it was shut due to the storm. I then walked back to the city thinking i can waste a few hours until my 6pm coach back to SYdney by looking around the shops. However the majority of shops were shut due to flood damage. So instead i waited for a few hours at the coach terminal and managed to finish my book. Was back in Sydney by 9pm.