We're staying in Canberra for a whole week. Most backpackers wouldn't do this. Australia's capital has a reputation of being dull. Partly this is due to lack of nightlife, which many backpackers crave, but we eschew.
We're here a week because we got a great rate on a $110 a night apartment! All the backpackers' hostels were full of school groups, so we looked elsewhere and found an apartment instead. With the dates we originally wanted they could only give us the apartment for six nights at $660. A week's rental is $440. They wouldn't be flexible and give us six nights for $440. Monkeys.
The woman on the phone kept warning me that this was only a two star apartment. I became concerned. Is it clean?, I asked. Yes, I was assured. Can we cook there? Does it have a TV? Yes again. So what's so bad about it? It doesn't have a phone, I was told.
I think this woman didn't realise that we're not used to the luxury of two star accommodation.
We arrived at the apartment and were overjoyed. It has a lounge/kitchen, a small dining room/hall, a bedroom and a bathroom. That's two more rooms than we had in Sydney and we were there for three months! Plus, there's A BATH in the bathroom. When Anne saw this she jumped up and down, whilst still wearing her 18kg backpack. She complained her back hurt for two days after that.
After a coffee, we rushed to the shops and blew our budget in the supermarket. We bought wine (red AND white!), ice cream, fruit 'n' veg, cereal, yogurt, olives, hummus and nachos. Budget be damned!
Anne had a bath that night, with a special fizzy bath tablet from The Body Shop. It was a bit like dropping a big Berrocca into the bath. She lay back with a glass of wine while I fed her olives. (Obviously I averted my eyes - she was nudie, and we're not married.)
The next night (Thursday) Anne cooked a fab curry (Chicken Tikka Massala) with trimmings! We had yogurt (with cucumber), banana, chapatti and rice. And wine! Glorious. I felt like I was home in Ealing.
We treated ourselves on Wednesday night, and left the washing up. We're used to having to wash up straight after dinner, so this was a luxury. We left it on Thursday morning too - we're so naughty! Imagine our horror when we returned from swimming on Thursday afternoon to find that the maid had done all the washing up! We felt terribly ashamed! (And Anne noted that the maid hadn't actually done the washing up very well.) The maid even cleaned up a dead moth that had been annoying us on Wednesday night and I'd squashed with a copy of Empire. She must think we're scum!
Capital City
So what's Canberra like? This famously purpose-built capital is a very odd place. It's so spacious! You have to walk miles (or kilometers) to get anywhere. I think the place is designed for drivers, as there are loads of car parks, and sometimes not many pavements. Anne and I trekked the 5km from where we're staying (near the main shopping area) to the Parliament and couldn't figure out how to get there. We ran out of pavement and ended up legging it across a busy dual-carriageway, over a wall and up a steep lawn.
We had a short look around the Parliament, but we're going back on Monday for a tour so I'll write about it after that.
Today we went to The National Museum of Australia (a 3km walk, in a different direction from the Parliament). I figured we'd seen about all there is to see of Aussie history and museums in our travels, and it proved to be so since there was little new here. Fortunately the museum is in a really striking modern building and had some good displays, so it didn't matter. We spent three hours there.
And it was free!
In the middle of the museum there's a big courtyard with an odd display and an empty tunnel. Anne and I tried to figure out what merit this courtyard had, before deciding it had none. We decided that Australians just have too much damn space, and sometimes feel obliged to fill it, just for the sake of it. The same principal could be said to hold for their capital city. Why does the Parliament need to be 5km from the city centre, and the main museum distant from both?
At least it's keeping us a bit fit. Which we need considering the tub of ice cream that's sitting in the freezer back in the apartment.