Left Sydney at the end of January, which I found quite sad as I had really grown to like the city although I have to say temping there, was hell! I caught a bus to Canberra to go visit my friend Lauren who I met at University in Canada.Lauren has been twice to Europe since we met in 2004 so it was about time I met up with her on her own turf so to speak.

Not sure where to start with Canberra to be honest as it is a bit of a strange place.Before arriving whenever I mentioned I was going to Canberra most people would say…"Why in the world do you want to go there?"and to be fair Bill Bryson in his book does not sell Canberra to the reader very much either.So I had a mixed view on what I was going to see there and it pretty much lived up to that expectation.Seeing Lauren was great as expected and we had so much to catch up on but it was also a god send having someone with a car to drive us around as Canberra is not a backpacker or walker friendly place.

The main attractions are not at all central and between them are huge avenues which all start to look the same after a while.I visited the new Parliament Building, which I have to say was so modern and beautiful; it was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.Next was the Old Parliament Building, which we did at lightning speed before heading to the Anzac memorial.I have been to quite a few of these throughout Australia but this was amazing to visit and the museum…well you could have spent days in there looking at everything.

The evening was spent with a lovely meal out and some drinks in town.As Canberra is essentially full of civil servants who get paid very well there is a lot of disposable income and so a lot of people eat out on a regular basis.The next day we went and had a picnic by a river out in the countryside.It was very hot over this weekend in Canberra so some of the group headed into the water to cool off before heading back to the City.

On my final day in Canberra we headed to the Art Gallery of Australia, which houses all sorts of different types of art.For someone who is not much of an arts buff this was quite enjoyable to walk around although it was the first and last one I did in Australia so possibly I was able to handle it for one day!

The next day I flew to Melbourne, which was to be my last but one stop before heading to NZ!Although Canberra seemed like a nice place, other than to see Lauren again it is not somewhere I would rush to go back to.If I did I would definitely hire a car!