The main reason that the trip to Australia was planned was because Shaun is getting his doctorate at the Australian National University. And since they're married, I guess Kristen decided to go too. However, this created a reason to go to Australia, but our time in Canberra was only a small portion of the almost three week trip to Australia.
Fri May 26
We arrive in Canberra after a scheduled three hour bus trip from Sydney. The actual time was a little longer because the main road into Canberra was under construction; pedestrians were moving faster than us. Kristen was there to pick us up at the bus station and we walked back to their apartment.
We went and saw the Australia’s Capital Building which was very nice. Congress was not in session however so we were not able to see any squabbling.
We then made our way over to the University to meet up with Shaun and his colleagues at the University Bottle Shop. Bottle shop I guess is a nice way of saying convenience store because it looked like that. Anyway we picked up a six pack of Carlton Draught and found a place at the outside courtyard. Two things that made the beer interesting was one, the six pack is shrinked wrapped together, no cardboard thing like in the US. Second, the bottle caps had little trivia questions on them and so we had a little bit of trivia each time someone opened up a new beer. And I actually got one right however it was about an American Horse, Seabiscuit
Shaun made a booking for an Ethiopian restaurant in the CBD. With the full intention of getting 20% off the bill using his entertainment card which was going to expire at the end of June. So we made our way over to the restaurant and ate the food which was quite different but still good. The bill came and then we found out that the restaurant was under new management and that they were not accepting the card. I guess we missed the business card sign that was in the window. Too bad we did not realized it at the time but the restaurant did accept the privileges card I had bought.
Sat May 27
On Saturday, we went to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve where they supposedly have koalas in a large enclosure. They give walking tours though the enclosure and however most time you don’t get to spot an koala. Even the one koala that they usually have in a smaller enclosure was not to be seen, he was off getting treatment for the burns he received during the bush fires in 2003. We also went to the NASA/ Australia Space Center. If I remember right, the Australian Space Center was used to communicate with Apollo 11 during it’s landing on the moon.
We then dropped Shaun off at the Uni so he could start production on a movie. We made our way to the Telstra Tower which at dusk provided spectacular views of Canberra. That night we walked into the CBD and I was able to try Kangaroo meat as an entree.
Sun May 28
Sunday morning we woke up and followed Shaun and Kristen’s typical routine of going out to early morning coffee. We then went to the Old Bus Depot Market, which had nice crafts and fresh foods for the week ahead. They also had one of the coolest juicing machines I’ve seen. Not a problem I think this is the type we saw, Zumex!
We then went to the Australia Institute of Sports where we were able to try out some sport themed video games. The Australia Institute of Sports is a School/University that most of the Australian Olympic athletes attend. The program is established to train and teach the students at the same time. It looked like a lot of money was used to buy the students the best equipment available.
I had to do some whining to get Kristen to go to the Mint. It was interesting to me how they made the coins and how they were smart enough to phase out the penny. Shaun dropped us off at the National Museum, so he could get some work done.
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