4th - Left Sydney train station at 12pm adn arrived in Canberra just after 4pm so it was a nice short hassle free journey. We walked to the YHA hostel but they were full and the only other free (relatively cheap) hostel was out of town so we had to get a taxi about 3km out of town. hostel was clean but just in a weird location. We went and bought stuff for tea and then headed to a small irish pub in the evening, but it closed at 10pm.

5th - Up early this morning as had to cheack out before 10am as we were moving to the YHA in town as it has a pool, spa and sauna. After dropping off our bags we walked down to the lake and hired pedalos for half an hour - it was quite hard work as there was a bit of a wind. We then walked around the lak to the National Museum - it was really fun, in one part you could design a spaceship of the future, you had ur photo taken and then everyone headed into a 3D cinema wearing goggles and everyones design came to life in a little world of the future! We hung in the room this evening as we had our own tv.

6th - Today we once again had to get up early as we were moving from a 4 bed dorm to an 8 bed dorm as its cheaper. We then jumped on a local bus and headed out to the National War Memorial. At midday there was a big light display of an attack at night. This was followed by a couple of other short documentaries. The museum itself was rather impressive - but there was way too much info to take in. We had lunch in the city centre and then went shopping, well window shopping! In the evening we went to the cinema and watched MArley and Me - such an icnredibly sad film - i actually cried my eyes out in the cinema!

7th - In no rush today so allowed ourselves to sleep in. We took the bus out to New Parliament House. We joined a tour of the parliament but politics didnt really interest us so instead we wandered aroudn the building taking pictures of aboriginal art on display. We headed up on to the roof of the building where there were magnificant views but sadly it had totally clouded over making it a not very nice photo! We then made our way to the Old Parliament house but didnt go in. We headed back to hostel and chilled in pool and spa. Got chatting to a guy called Stefano in the spa - he was from Birmingham - we met up with him later in the bar downstairs for a few drinks.

8th - Gill was getting the train to Melbourne and that left in the morning (i was getting teh overnight bus which left at 8.30pm so i had a day to kill). I met up with Stefano and we headed out to the Austrlian Institute of Sport. We went on a tour at 2.30 - our guide was a fast walker. We first visited the olympic training pool and learnt all about all the techniques used by coaches to monitor the atheletes progress. We then went to the gym which was massive, the ladies rowing team were in there working out. Next stop was the volleyball courst - the junior team had just come out to practice - they were sooo tall, with the tallest being 7ft5! We then got to head into the 'Sportex' area where you could play for half an hour - you could try wheelchari basketball, test ur speed, how high you can jump, throwing accuracy etc. It was real fun. By the time we returned to hostel i made tea, watched a little tv and it was then time to head to bus station. the overnight bus wasnt too bad - slept most of the way and arrived in Melbourne at 6.15am!

Canberra is a weird city - not much there at all - all buildings of national importance have be plonked here - its easily doable in one day but cos of the avilability of buses we were there for 4.