On Friday we went to the airport to fly to Canberra from Melbourne. Finally escaped the flooding!! On Saturday, we visited the Australian Sports Institute and was given a guided tour of the facility by one of Australia’s training Olympic athletes. We had a lot of fun in the game room which had virtual and physical games for us to try and test our skills with. We also visited the Canberra Glassworks facility and made cool glass tiles.
Sunday we went to the Open Weekend Market where we got to see the heart of Canberra. Many city natives as well as traveling artists came to display their work and share their talents. I have never had a better breakfast meal than I had there. Freshly squeezed juices, fresh fruit and yogurt, specialty breads were just a few of the things we found there. I even found a guy who grew all sorts of organic teas and bought some for my mom.
After the market we left for the National Museum of Australia. It wasn’t really what I expected it to be. It showcased the native indigenous people of Australia and a lot of aboriginal artwork as it migrated toward modern European Australia. What really bugged me about everything in Australia was that they were all apologizing for having taken the aborigines’ land and killing them off. To me it didn’t seem like they didn’t know what they had been doing but because the government had recently issued an apology to the aboriginals, it seemed like it was necessary for everyone to confess that what had happened was wrong. To me it just seemed like to little, too late.
Our day wasn’t over yet as we left to go visit Parliament. Australia is still under the Queen of England but operates on a mix of British and American government. They have a Prime Minister who is head of the country but have a semi-democratic parliament that has two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. We learned that voting is mandatory in Australia and that if you don’t you WILL get fined. The building was beautiful and we even got to tour the roof to see the gorgeous view from the center of Canberra. That night we bused up to Sydney.
Monday: we went on the Blue Mountains tour and visited Featherdale Wildlife Park. Both were very unique and interesting experiences and it was a chance to really get to see Sydney and Australia in its more natural state.
No comments:
Post a Comment