Canberra - Trip to the Capital

All of a sudden week Number 6 is over..... That happened really fast! Wednesday and Thursday I was in surgery, but it wasn't all that spectacular and a little bit frustrating on Thrusday, because I had to stand next to two scrubbed surgeons for almost 7hours to suture the skin.... Even though I was promised before that I would get to do a little more than just be Number three at the table..... But I took the time to make it look pretty and I am proud of it! I think it looks very even, I was even tempted to take a picture, but didn't have a camera.....
On Wednesday the surgeries were finished early and Charlie took the team out for lunch. That was a lot of fun, even though things were revealed that should have just stayed in the dark.... After lunch I went downtown and used my bridgeclimb certificate to visit the Pylon lookout. One of the four stone pylons of the bridge hosts a museum about the bridge and you can go up there and enjoy the really great view. It is exciting every single time, I have spent so much time now overlooking the city, just looking at the bridge, the opera house, the skyline.... and I still love it. I just can't get enough of it!

Today was another hospital off day and I had booked a day tour to go and visit Canberra. Canberra is about 280km south of Sydney, so I got to see a lot of country side today! That was pretty cool. I even saw a kangaroo, but since we passed by so quickly I couldn't tell if it was relaxing or dead.... We stopped a in a small town on the way down, which was supposed to become a tourist town when the railway was built, but then they took a different route and all the inns that had been opened there gradually closed again, but it still claims to have the oldest continuously running Inn! There was also a court and a jail and lots of really pretty small houses. It was meant to be a morning tea stop and many of the older folks walked right into the suggested restaurant, but I decided to look around the town.... Much better!
Around noon we got to Canberra. The town just doesn't feel right (even though that might sound weird). I think one can feel that it was designed on a map and didn't just develop like other big towns in the world or Sydney.... There is a hight restriction on Buildings and they also wanted to preserve a lot of the plant and therefore the town is extremely green, but I could barely see any houses.... It seemed to be empty and not filled with life.... The line from the War Memorial to the parliament house is a little bit like the Mall in DC, but there are hardly any people..... It was just really, really strange. We went to the National Museum, which was really interesting and very well equipped. I wish I'd had more time to look around.... Then we went to the Parliament House. That is a fun building. It was build on a hill - sort of. The actually took down the hill, then build the house and then put the soil on top of the house, so that the building is now part of the hill - very funny idea and very unique. The architects gave a lot of thought to the building. It is a very bright building, lot of light everywhere and many meaningful details that one would not recognize without a tourguide - really interesting. Today I found out that in Australia everybody has to vote once they turn 18 and if you don't show up without a good reason you have to pay a fine! I haver never heard of another country making their people show up for election (except for communist states maybe...). The next stop of the tour was the War Memorial. On our way there we drove through the embassy quater. I was impressed by the fact that some had hardly any fences and seemed to be on property that was very little secured. Especially the asian Embassys looked really great. The America Embassy was the largest one and bigger than the parliament building.... I was sitting on the wrong side of the bus, so I could not take a picture of it and for the same reason I couldn't take a picture of the German Embassy.... It wasn't all that spectacular anyway, but it would have been nice. The War Memorial was build to honor all the soldiers that had fought for their country. It is a big museum, but since I am not a history freak it didn't excit me all that much, even though the exhibits were really neat. There was also a remberence hall and thought it was quite impressive that they did not just have pictures of a navy, an army and an airforce soldier, but also of a woman!
The last stop in Canberra was on top of the highest Mountain. From there we had a pretty nice view over the city and there again I couldn't see much city.... Some of the buildings were really impressive, but very well thought through, but it just seems to be too perfect, too well planned, not spontanous - I just did not have the same feeling that I get when I am wandering around Sydney, especially downtown, Circular Quai, the rocks.....
On the way back to Sydney we stopped in another small town for dinner. It was another country town and because sheep are very important, this town has a huge and I mean HUGE sheep standing at the town entrance...... Very impressive.
The sunset was pretty spectacular, because there were some thunder storms, so some of the sky was really dark and other parts looked like they had cought on fire.... and we got to see a big, bright, full rainbow!