I am back from down under. Upon reaching land here, I felt so hot and sweltering. Even though the weather there was in the twenties, still the wind was rather cooling and not humid, so now that I am back home, I feel hot all over.
It was a great trip overall. I had a great time with my brother, and meeting up with the rest of my relatives too. I took the flight to Sydney, and then a bus to Canberra, so I only managed to reach Canberra on the evening of 17 October. I had to check into my brother's hostel on my own as he was busy on campus.
The first street sign to indicate that I have reached Canberra
When I reached the bus station in Canberra (the Jolimont Centre), I realised that all the shops were closed! It was close to six in the evening, and the shops all closed at five. It was literally a dead town. I could not buy a prepaid bus ticket, and had to walk around looking for the right platform. I was told that the bus interchange was next to Jolimont Centre, but what was "next to" took me a twenty minute walk, with my luggage and backpack and all.
The platforms were not well-marked and not in sequence. It took me a while to find the right platform. Luckily, quite a number of buses go to my brother's hostel and the bus driver was friendly and helpful, so he told me when to alight and where the place was.
The platforms were not well-marked and not in sequence. It took me a while to find the right platform. Luckily, quite a number of buses go to my brother's hostel and the bus driver was friendly and helpful, so he told me when to alight and where the place was.
My brother's hostel, where I stayed for three nights
When I reached my brother's hostel, he had already gotten someone to open the door, so I just needed to call and the door was opened. The person then took me up to the room and unlocked the door, where I started unpacking until my brother came back and gave me some bread for dinner. I was not that hungry despite the long overnight flight as I bought a burger at Sydney Airport before waiting for the bus to Canberra.
The next day I started exploring since my brother would not be free to accompany me until 19 October. I had already booked a farm visit (refer to this for my review of the trip) beforehand. Since I was not driving, I had to take a bus to the place. Unfortunately, the buses of Canberra do not stop at every stop, so I had to take a bus to Belconnen, another suburb away from the city, and then change to another bus to this place called Federation Square, and then walk down.
When I took the bus, the bus driver asked if I was a student, as he said if I am a student, I only needed to pay A$3.80 for the full day with unlimited bus rides, otherwise I had to pay A$4.00 per ride with only one transfer within ninety minutes. Needless to say, I nodded in the affirmative. So I only paid A$3.80 and could take as many buses as I liked for the day! Why did the bus driver that took me from the interchange to the hostel not tell me that the day before?! For that, I wasted A$4.00 for an adult ticket which I alighted after just two stops!
The next day I started exploring since my brother would not be free to accompany me until 19 October. I had already booked a farm visit (refer to this for my review of the trip) beforehand. Since I was not driving, I had to take a bus to the place. Unfortunately, the buses of Canberra do not stop at every stop, so I had to take a bus to Belconnen, another suburb away from the city, and then change to another bus to this place called Federation Square, and then walk down.
When I took the bus, the bus driver asked if I was a student, as he said if I am a student, I only needed to pay A$3.80 for the full day with unlimited bus rides, otherwise I had to pay A$4.00 per ride with only one transfer within ninety minutes. Needless to say, I nodded in the affirmative. So I only paid A$3.80 and could take as many buses as I liked for the day! Why did the bus driver that took me from the interchange to the hostel not tell me that the day before?! For that, I wasted A$4.00 for an adult ticket which I alighted after just two stops!
Bus tickets that you could buy on the bus direct from the driver. The left one was the adult ticket and the right was the concession ticket for student.
I took the bus to Belconnen, then took another bus to Federation Square. Not all bus stops are marked, some are just poles, so I really had to look carefully where to alight. But finally I managed to alight at the right stop and walked the way to the farm.
This clock tower is the icon of Federation Square
I thought I could find my way to the farm as it looked so easy on the map. Unfortunately, I got lost. The farm was off Barton Highway, and I believed I was on the right track, but after walking for twenty minutes and still could not find the place, I started to panic as I was in the middle of a highway with nothing around me but cars and trees. So I called the farm and they got someone to come pick me up. I just had to wait at the spot for a while and the person really did come to pick me up. Nice service!
Trees and jungle like area along the highway
The farm visit also includes a boomerang throwing experience, which you can read about here. Apparently, a group of university students were also on the farm tour. After the farm visit, being a lone traveller, I requested for the chartered bus to drop me off at Federation Square, and the kind driver actually obliged!
Back to Federation Square (this building is behind the bus stop)
After getting down, I paid a visit to the Cockington Green Gardens, which I have also reviewed here. Since I still had time after visiting the gardens as my brother told me not to be back until around five in the evening, I went opposite to visit the Ginninderra Historical Village.
Ginnenderra Historical Village, just opposite Cockington Green Gardens on Gold Creek Road
Most of the old houses of the village has been demolished, but some were preserved and now restaurants, bookshops and stores selling crafts and artifacts have taken the place of the residents. What remains of the old village is now some wheelbarrows that used to cart agricultural products.
One round the village took only ten minutes or so, and I went back across the street to wait for the bus, which took about forty minutes before it arrived. I took the bus back to Belconnen, and since I still had time, I decided to go to Belconnen Mall next to the bus station and enjoy a cup of Max Brenner's hot chocolate before going back to the hostel.
Enjoying hot chocolate at Belconnen
The next day, I woke up bright and early, and saw a very nice view just out of the window. My brother is so lucky! If I have this view, I would not mind studying so hard everyday just to gaze out of the window!
View from outside the window
We went out around eleven in the morning. First we walked to the car rental company and got the car. It was a Nissan March, one of the cute cars I like. And because we were both too cheapskate to get a GPS, thinking that the GPS on my brother's iPhone 5 would suffice, we paid a big price for that, but that would be a story for later.
The car we rented
We drove the car to his campus first and picked up his friend, then went on to the Canberra Glassworks for lunch at Brodburger, which turned out to be the biggest burger I have ever seen!
This burger may look small here, but it is bigger than my hand and I could not even fit the whole thing into my mouth! I had to dismember the burger bit by bit before I could finish eating.
We also ordered chips (fries) on the side, also a very big serving
After lunch, we went on our adventure. We initially wanted to go to this suburb at New South Wales called Bungendore, but because we did not get a GPS, we lost our way and ended up in some nature reserve somewhere. And that was when we realised that the iPhone GPS is totally unreliable as it brought us on a wild goose chase. In the end, we gave up and turned back. (Note to self : do not ever save on GPS. Invest in one as it is a life-saver indeed.)
We then started on our way to Queanbeyan, a town around the border of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territories, but again missed a turn and ended up at Canberra Airport. Incidentally, Canberra Airport is relatively new as it was only in the past couple of years that Canberra started having an airport to serve both domestic and international airlines.
We took a toilet break at the airport, then went back to Queanbeyan. Queanbeyan is a small town with a modern shopping mall, nice lake and a bridge. We wandered around the mall with a Coles department store, before heading back to Canberra, where we went to the Parliament House, War Memorial, and then up to Mount Ainslie for the aerial view of Canberra.
Canberra itself has many free attractions around the same area. Lake Burley Griffin separates the two sides, and the attractions are all on both sides. Canberra is the place designated to hold the capital since both Sydney and Melbourne could not come to a consensus, so the government then decided to choose somewhere in the middle. Mr Walter Burley Griffin, an architect, was tasked to design a town plan.
His design was very good indeed, as from the lookout at Mount Ainslie, there was actually a straight line from the War Memorial to the Parliament House. The lake cuts in the middle of the two sides. I would think Mr Burley Griffin went up the mountain and started visualising just how his town would look like. Anyway, our adventures can be found here.
We ended the day feeling satisfied. Upon reaching the hostel, we rested a while, then my brother and I drove out again to visit Woolworths, another department store about ten minutes drive away. Incidentally, that place happened to be the Chinatown of Canberra.
The next day, I got up early, and my brother dropped me off at Jolimont Centre, where I took the bus to Sydney. More to come about my adventures in Sydney.
Passing by some pastures en route to Sydney
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