Better Late than Never!

So....I'm a little behind in blogging. But let me tell you about Canberra:

The last couple of weeks I've been in Canberra for work. Canberra is the capital city of Australia so it houses Parliament and all the other government offices that are necessary to run a country. I'm always interested in government so being surrounded by it and it's workers, and I promise there's no avoiding political discussions here, has been interesting. I'd also like the quickly add that anything you hear from Senator Fielding, especially relating to climate change, should be quickly disregarded. I have a tip from an extremely good source that the man is an absolute nincompoop.

There's only a few hundred thousand residents in Canberra and most of them are either white collar public servants, students, or support workers (hotels, restaurants, etc). This makes Canberra have a feeling of affluence. Also, since the entire city is planned, it has a very clean and extremely roomy feel to it. Roads are wide and lots are quite large. The cycling in Canberra is EXCELLENT! In fact, the rural areas surrounding Canberra are very good for cycling as well. I went for a nice ride last weekend and saw kangaroos and wallabies!

But the best aspect for this mid sized city is the availability of cultural institutions. What other city in the world with only a few hundred thousand residents houses national museums, national libraries, national galleries, or an impressive war memorial? Kat and I took the time to visit them all and they were very impressive.

One of my favorite things about Australia, and so far Canberra has been the best place for it, are the birds. There huge flocks of sulfer-crested cockatoos and gallahs here, and I've also seen black cockatoos, swamp hens, black swans, native ducks, cormorants, and more than half a dozen varieties of lorikeets, rozellas, and parrots. These colorful birds seem so out of place here in Canberra where there's sometimes frost in the morning, but the cockatoos are still there every morning, rolling in the frosty grass.

You may have heard negative things about Canberra so you may be wondering why I'm so positive about it, but it's because it really is a nice place. Many people will snub their noses at Canberra in favor of Sydney and it's beaches and harbor, but in my opinion Sydney is sometimes overrated while Canberra is even further underrated. Perhaps if you visit Australia you may not take the time to make it out to Canberra, but let it be known that this is a nice city indeed!

I don't have pictures of Canberra online yet, but here's some pictures from my last trip into the Blue Mountains. It was a great trip with spectacular waterfalls and I even spotted a dingo!