Uff gettng up at 5.30 is hard, even when you're going to do nice stuff during the day. But after this short night in Sydney, my last one there, I had to. It's time to move to Melbourne to get ready for the first Grand Slam of the year. But to go there, I join an international group of people and we travel with a mini bus to Melbourne in 3 days time.

So when we took off, it was 6.30 and everyone was quiet because of the early time of the day. ;) We were lucky that the bus wasn't even half full so everyone could sit on a spot for him or herself without having to bother other people. I like it to have two seats so I can lay down if i want to. We took off to take a group picture at the Australian Capital Terrritory sign,before heading to Canberra. There we visited a lookout over the city, can't believe that this city is only a 100 years old! It was designed by an architect. When Australia became an own state with own goverment, in 1901, they needed a place for that government. Both melbourne and Sydney were interested,but they decided to make a new city in the middle, and this became Canberra. Canberra is aboriginee for 'meeting place'.

We got to see the war memorial too and a quick visit to the museum about all wars where Australia was involved. I still don't get it, but this museum really got me, it made me emotional seeing all these things and pictures. In highschool history class, the second world war has always interested me a lot, and seeing here that even Australia was involved that really impressed me. I am glad that I wandered around on my own so nobody saw my tears in the eyes...

After this visit we had a lunchbreak and I ended up walking around and having sushi with Laura, from Germany. We met earlier this morning in the hostel, both waiting for the tour, and she is a big tennisfan too, (Roger fan that is :P) so plenty to talk about. After lunch it was time to see a bit more and we got to see the Aboriginal ambassee and the ambassees of all the countries in this bus. Also we went to the Parliament and learned something about Australian politics with their governors and senators. it's interesting but a pity there were so many groups out there, beside our group.

This was all for Canberra, time to head to our accomodation for the night. It's a hotel in the Snowy Mountains, though there is no snow to see. No matter how far I could see, I just saw a hilly landcape with trees and brownish grass and stones. We passed cute villages and if you have ever been to Austria in summer, especially the Tirol region, well that is what it reminded me of. In winter you can hire here skis too and go skiing, hard to imagine after the 44 degrees day of yesterday in Sydney!

The more I see of this country and the more I talk to other people traelling, the more the need grows to do the same. I wish so, so much that I could find a way to work here for a year and travel around and see more of the country. To be here longer and see what is possible. After all, the percentage of unemployed people is very low here, 5 in the whole country and in Canberra even 3 and a bit percent. Not that Canberra seems an attractive city to me, but well, just to mention that it's not as high here as in Europe. Imagine how it would be, just imagine...

Our hotel for today is a hotel that is used in winter to host the people who come here to ski or snowboard. Now we are divided into groups to share the rooms, with two people in our group having the privilege to have their own rooms. So jealous haha. :) Anyway, we had dinner in this hotel and now everyone is lazing on their beds. It's kinda cold outside, we I noticed when I went to the ATM. Tomorrow we'll go climb the highest mountain of Australia, really looking forward to that one! :) I guess we go sleep early in this room tonight, a long day ahead tomorrow, because we'll do a lot of driving after this mountainclimbing and end the day at the beach, in the coastal lakes district. Really curious for that one too. :))

So speak to you tomorrow, hopefully if there's an option to go online. Will make an album now with pictures of Canberra today.