Canberra

Pronounced Can-ber, not "Can-berra" as most Americans say. Canberra is the capital of Australia,  located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which is about 280 km (170 miles) south-west of Sydney.  It is where all the politics and government happenings take place and where our "brilliant" Prime Minister Julia Gillard lives.  Honestly there is not a whole lot to do in Canberra. Its unique in that it's an entirely planned city.

With that said, my friends and I wanted to tick it off the list.  We rented a car on Friday around 8PM and drove for about 4 hours and checked into our hotel.

The next morning we have breakfast then set off on a tour of Canberra. Luke is from there so he filled us in on all the history and fun facts.   We first headed to the Parliament House where the House of Reps and Senate meet.

We got to see the chambers, one in green and an identical one in pink.   It was a pretty rainy day but still good.

After the Parliament House, we headed to the War Memorial, which was pretty awesome. They have a World War I & II section, but we didn't have time to see everything. We did get to see the aircraft exhibit, which had some really cool old planes.

After the war museum, we went out for cocktails at this cool pub called Hippo and went dancing.   There were some interesting kiddies at the pub, either Canberra people are really different or we're all just getting old.

The next day was actually nice and sunny, so after breakfast we went to Mt. Ainsle, which had an awesome view of the city.

Overall a great trip! Canberra is a pretty cool city, different from Sydney but still fun.  Don't think I could ever live there, but was a great weekend trip.