Come With Us Now On A Journey Through Time and Space...
Ungh. I'm sick. In The Upper Florentine we picked up a hitch hiker and brought him back to hobart. Only about half way through the journey did he mention he was sick. 2 days later i've got a sore throat and i'm all stuffy. Thanks Iftar. So where was i...?
Woke up, ate breakfast, and caught a lift into the city with Copey's room mate, Brooklyn. Really cool guy, he reads the news for the local radio station. Both the people in the house work in the media, with Copey doing the logs for channel 10. The other person had just moved out, so i got a whole room and bed to my self again!
Once in the city i wandered around the canberra center and city walk areas, drinking coffee at cafés and watching the people go by. I also wandered up to the City hill and had a look around. Dan was finished work at 3 so i made my way over to the hostel a bit before then. We met up and headed to the conveniently located Transit Bar just under the hostel where you can actually get a proper pint. Thank goodness, because schooners just don't cut it. Plus, at happy hour, a pint is only a fiver.
It was caroline's birthday the following day, so we invited her down for a few pints as well.
Dan managed to get his shift the following day pushed back untill noon, so he made the most of it by getting rocked. He spilled a beer all over my bag and my shorts. He also started trying to speak german to a german girl named Innis (Dan: "it's said just like Guiness, but with out the 'Gu'") who had come to sit with us, but she didn't understand a word of his slurry sprechen. Another guy named Joey joined our table and Dan's drunken comments provided him with plenty to laugh about. Kate eventually dropped by, a cigarette between her lips and a "how to quit smoking" book in her hand. After making her way about half way throught it hadn't yet made an impact. At about 7 or 8 Nathan popped by and we headed back to copey's castle.
We grabbed some pizzas and another slab of thooey's and vegged out on the couch, polishing off the end of the first season of the mighty boosh before calling it a night.
The following day i again caught a ride into the city with Brookly, getting dropped off at canberra center. Today was to be my big Canberra adventure day. I started it off by going back to a coffee shop i had found the day before. The coffee was really good and well priced AND they gave you a cookie! Aah yes, life in canberra is good.
While i sipped my coffee i thumbed through my book and planned my route for the day. Having already seen the war memorial and quickly snapped photos of parliament, i decided to wander down to centennial park where the capitan cook memorial fountain sat out in the lake. I enjoyed the sun shine and from there decided to walk to the national museum. On a peninsula that juts out into the lake it sure looks alot closer than it actually is. The temperature was really hot, in the mid 30's, so the long walk really tired me out. I thoroughly enjoyed the air-conditioning in the museum. Also really enjoyed the museum as well. There were alot of really impressive exhibits on wildlife, colonization, and aboriginal history. There's a very strange "garden" in the middle that of the museum's courtyard, which is an artistic amalgamation of australia's two histories. It's a bit of a trip, full of strange sculptures and a gigantic camera obscura.
I walked out of the museum and back into the sweltering heat. I could see that the Capitan Cook fountain was shoot water about 100 meters into the sky, and also that the wind was blowing towards shore. I made my way back to coronation park to let the fountain spray cool me down before making my way across the bridge and up to parliament hill.
The lonely planet books have city walking tours, and ever since my first oversea stop in London i have done every listed walking tour for the cities i have visited (with the exception of the Sydney walking tour, because it's actually in manly... but i plan to do it soon) and the canberra walking tour meanders it's way through the pretty parliament area.It goes back and forth for about 6 km's through the area, taking you past new and old parliament, the aboriginal tent embassy, the national portrait gallery, magna carta park, the flag exposition and many other sights. By the end of it i was completely knackered. I sat on the water's edge, looking out at the carillon and listening to the bells toll while i sipped my water and continued sweating profusely even though i was in the shade. And apparently it was just going to get worse as days wore on...
I must have walked like 40km's that day, finally getting back to the YHA to check up on Dan. His hang over had subsided and he and Kate had gotten the AOK on their new place that morning, so he was in good spirits. I slunk back for a moment while he talked to a customer, only to be grabbed by Joey.
The day before we had chatted a bit about this that and every thing, and he found Dan's drunken anticts to at first be entertaining and later annoying. today his speech was just barely understandable. How the tables had turned. He was just plastered, but told me we were going swimming, grabbed me by the arm and wisked me off to the pool. He then realized (and i'm impressed by this because of the state he was in) he didn't have his boardies on, or a towel, and so wewent to his room where he got his kit and lent me a towel. He went to the bathroom to change and i think he fell asleep in there for a bit. He later emerged with his boardies on (backwards) and we headed for the pool. Thank god i didn't have to play life saver, because as we passed reception Copey was there chatting with Dan. I explained to Joey that i had to leave because my ride was here, so he suggested we play tennis early the next morning.
I knew that wouldn't be happening, but gave him my number any way. He never called for the tennis... Infact, i never heard from him again. Dan never said anything about someone drowning at the YHA so i'll assume he's still alive.
Copey and i went back to the castle where we grabbed a couple beers and hopped in the paddle pool to cool off. We then jumped into season 2 of the mighty boosh, laughing hysterically at the antics of old gregg.
Ungh. I'm sick. In The Upper Florentine we picked up a hitch hiker and brought him back to hobart. Only about half way through the journey did he mention he was sick. 2 days later i've got a sore throat and i'm all stuffy. Thanks Iftar. So where was i...?
Woke up, ate breakfast, and caught a lift into the city with Copey's room mate, Brooklyn. Really cool guy, he reads the news for the local radio station. Both the people in the house work in the media, with Copey doing the logs for channel 10. The other person had just moved out, so i got a whole room and bed to my self again!
Once in the city i wandered around the canberra center and city walk areas, drinking coffee at cafés and watching the people go by. I also wandered up to the City hill and had a look around. Dan was finished work at 3 so i made my way over to the hostel a bit before then. We met up and headed to the conveniently located Transit Bar just under the hostel where you can actually get a proper pint. Thank goodness, because schooners just don't cut it. Plus, at happy hour, a pint is only a fiver.
It was caroline's birthday the following day, so we invited her down for a few pints as well.
Dan managed to get his shift the following day pushed back untill noon, so he made the most of it by getting rocked. He spilled a beer all over my bag and my shorts. He also started trying to speak german to a german girl named Innis (Dan: "it's said just like Guiness, but with out the 'Gu'") who had come to sit with us, but she didn't understand a word of his slurry sprechen. Another guy named Joey joined our table and Dan's drunken comments provided him with plenty to laugh about. Kate eventually dropped by, a cigarette between her lips and a "how to quit smoking" book in her hand. After making her way about half way throught it hadn't yet made an impact. At about 7 or 8 Nathan popped by and we headed back to copey's castle.
We grabbed some pizzas and another slab of thooey's and vegged out on the couch, polishing off the end of the first season of the mighty boosh before calling it a night.
The following day i again caught a ride into the city with Brookly, getting dropped off at canberra center. Today was to be my big Canberra adventure day. I started it off by going back to a coffee shop i had found the day before. The coffee was really good and well priced AND they gave you a cookie! Aah yes, life in canberra is good.
While i sipped my coffee i thumbed through my book and planned my route for the day. Having already seen the war memorial and quickly snapped photos of parliament, i decided to wander down to centennial park where the capitan cook memorial fountain sat out in the lake. I enjoyed the sun shine and from there decided to walk to the national museum. On a peninsula that juts out into the lake it sure looks alot closer than it actually is. The temperature was really hot, in the mid 30's, so the long walk really tired me out. I thoroughly enjoyed the air-conditioning in the museum. Also really enjoyed the museum as well. There were alot of really impressive exhibits on wildlife, colonization, and aboriginal history. There's a very strange "garden" in the middle that of the museum's courtyard, which is an artistic amalgamation of australia's two histories. It's a bit of a trip, full of strange sculptures and a gigantic camera obscura.
I walked out of the museum and back into the sweltering heat. I could see that the Capitan Cook fountain was shoot water about 100 meters into the sky, and also that the wind was blowing towards shore. I made my way back to coronation park to let the fountain spray cool me down before making my way across the bridge and up to parliament hill.
The lonely planet books have city walking tours, and ever since my first oversea stop in London i have done every listed walking tour for the cities i have visited (with the exception of the Sydney walking tour, because it's actually in manly... but i plan to do it soon) and the canberra walking tour meanders it's way through the pretty parliament area.It goes back and forth for about 6 km's through the area, taking you past new and old parliament, the aboriginal tent embassy, the national portrait gallery, magna carta park, the flag exposition and many other sights. By the end of it i was completely knackered. I sat on the water's edge, looking out at the carillon and listening to the bells toll while i sipped my water and continued sweating profusely even though i was in the shade. And apparently it was just going to get worse as days wore on...
I must have walked like 40km's that day, finally getting back to the YHA to check up on Dan. His hang over had subsided and he and Kate had gotten the AOK on their new place that morning, so he was in good spirits. I slunk back for a moment while he talked to a customer, only to be grabbed by Joey.
The day before we had chatted a bit about this that and every thing, and he found Dan's drunken anticts to at first be entertaining and later annoying. today his speech was just barely understandable. How the tables had turned. He was just plastered, but told me we were going swimming, grabbed me by the arm and wisked me off to the pool. He then realized (and i'm impressed by this because of the state he was in) he didn't have his boardies on, or a towel, and so wewent to his room where he got his kit and lent me a towel. He went to the bathroom to change and i think he fell asleep in there for a bit. He later emerged with his boardies on (backwards) and we headed for the pool. Thank god i didn't have to play life saver, because as we passed reception Copey was there chatting with Dan. I explained to Joey that i had to leave because my ride was here, so he suggested we play tennis early the next morning.
I knew that wouldn't be happening, but gave him my number any way. He never called for the tennis... Infact, i never heard from him again. Dan never said anything about someone drowning at the YHA so i'll assume he's still alive.
Copey and i went back to the castle where we grabbed a couple beers and hopped in the paddle pool to cool off. We then jumped into season 2 of the mighty boosh, laughing hysterically at the antics of old gregg.
