suburban canberra

We were on a half-day bus trip through Canberra today, which was organized by the International Education Office. It was a kind of sightseeing trip that was hindered by a lack of interesting sights. As the national capital, Canberra is the home to the national parliament, the national library, the national museum, the national university (of course :-)) and the national war memorial, as well as the national science museum (called questacon) and a lot of other national institutions. I’m positive that the museums‘ exhibits are quite interesting, but from the outside most of the buildings look quite boring, and that’s what you get to see on a sightseeing trip. Apart from the city center (Civic) and the government triangle (I wonder if people get lost there like in the Bermuda triangle) most of Canberra is reminiscent of the suburbs of any american city–a few bungalows and two-story houses with a lot of trees and grassland in between. There are just a few shopping areas and „strip malls“. Every now and then, we drove by a high-rise residential building, most of them were of the eastern european style. As a highlight, we were at a small market/shopping center where we could buy fresh food at incredibly low prices (e.g. apples for 0.99AU$ per kg–approximately 0.65). The real highlight of the tour was Mount Ainslie, a vantage point with a very good view of parts of Canberra and the surrounding countryside.

dsc00712-web Click the thumbnail to view the entire picture. The National Parliament is in the middle. To the right is Captain Cook Memorial Fountain. The Civic center is to the right of the frame (not shown).