A very early good morning to all of you!

It's 5am here in Oz and Pete and I have decided to watch the football as Germany is playing in the Euro championship finals today. Well, for you it's 8pm but early start for me… Not very considerate…

Anyway, I'll be leaving shortly for the airport to fly to Brisbane. Well, again, this isn't quite true as my flight to Brisbane that I originally booked was cancelled and I am now flying via Sydney! But I'll get there in the end, I hope! In Brisbane I will be meeting up with Ian Clementson for my last day in Australia. And then tomorrow at 11am I will commence my long journey back to the UK!

When I was chatting to people in the YHA in Sydney about where I was headed next (Canberra), they all asked me why?! And I can now understand what they meant. Although Canberra is a very pleasant city with lots of space, there really isn't much else to see. Well, that's probably a bit harsh but not in the sense of visual attractions. There are lots of good museums around but as I am not the museum kind of person, that wasn't really an option. Anyway, Snoozy Pete and I found plenty of things to keep ourselves entertained. We went up MountStromlo for nice views of Canberra (and some of my friends, the kangaroos) followed by visit of the Australian Mint where I made my own $1 coin. Well, admittedly it wasn't really good value spending $2.60 to get a $1 coin but it was fun to do! And against whatever I thought, it was actually really interesting to read about the history of making coins. After this we went for a walk up MountAinslie and a visit of the Anzac War Memorial. And lunch obviously, as I was feeling rather peckish by that time!Oh no!!!!! Spain has just scored and is now leading 1:0.

After lunch we went for a tour around the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) where we saw the national Taekwondo team train. Quite interesting. And they had a little play area as well, which I probably enjoyed most as you will be able to tell from the photos (once they are uploaded)! We went for a swim afterwards and that was our day complete. Yesterday was another busy day with the Bus Depot Markets, the CSIRO Discovery Centre and some rock climbing. I hope I haven't worn Pete out too much and he'll have me back one day! For dinner we had a 'cubic metre' of pizza, or at least it feels like it today… But it was a damn fine home-made pizza, that's all I can say!

Anyway, it's time for me to sign off, have some breakfast and make my way to the airport shortly. I know, I'll be missing the second half. Terrible but it can't be helped if I want to make it to Brisbane at all today. So I hope you enjoy the rest of the game. And hopefully Germany will put up a good fight and score a goal or two but whatever happens, stay safe and keep smiling everyone!

Yvonne
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