Don't You Get All Parliamentary with Me!

Greetings, Right Honourable Members!

Today we spent most of our morning (in bed then) ringing Japan to try and sort out accommodation and how we're getting about. We've decided that, despite flying into Osaka-Kansai airport at around 8pm local time, we're going to stay our first night in Kyoto (over an hour away by train), because it's supposed to be a much nicer, more backpacker-friendly town than the hustly-bustly city of Osaka. We'll be spending Tuesday there exploring the temples, eating sushi and singing on karaoke probably! Then we'll get the train back to Osaka in the late afternoon/early evening and stay there Tuesday night - simply because it's close to the airport for our flight in the morning. We've managed to book a backpackers in Kyoto for Monday night but have yet to sort out Osaka, and I'll be fretting until it's done - I don't want to be sleeping on the airport's doorstep!

Anyway, today we got the bus around 2pm to the Parliament House, where parliament sits and all the decisions and laws are made. We walked around, looking at the House of Representatives' Chamber (like our House of Commons) and the Senate's Chamber (modelled on the US's Senate). I was really hoping to be there while parliament was in session, as some of the ministers have been known to turn sessions into slanging matches, coming out with unusual yet inventive insults and what not. Unfortunately, we'd come on an off day.

We also got the lift up to the infamous roof, which you used to be able to walk up from ground level, until they went all crazy about terrorism and such and put a fence across it. Most of it is covered in grass, and there's a pyramid-shaped flag pole on top. We got a really good view of Canberra from up here, and we were directly facing Anzac Parade. Unfortunately, there was loads of building work being done around the front, which made the scene slightly ugly, yet we got some good photos.

Next we walked down to the Old Parliament House, which is situated straight down from the new one, before you get to Lake Burley Griffin. It's absolutely impossible to get lost in Canberra, as everything is at an angle to something else, there is not a building out of line or place. I'm still not quite sure why this building came into disuse at the end of the 1980s and the new one was built. Claire thinks it's because it was too small. Anyway, this one was far more old fashioned, laden with wood rather than marble, yet they still had the House of Representatives in the same green colour and the Senates Chamber in red. They also had the private members' wings open so you could have a look at all the different board and cabinet committee rooms and minister's offices. They also had short histories of poignant members of parliament such as Neville Bonner, the first indigenous MP, and Dorothy Tangney, the first woman MP.

Most striking was the house's foyer, which beared huge portraits of past Prime Ministers and other key figures in Australia's political history. Most colourful was the one of John Howard (the current Prime Minister) and his wife Jeanette at their Sydney residence. On the far wall hung a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II residing as president in the second session of the 48th Senate in 1954. There was also a painting of one (quite festively named) Sir Earle Christmas Grafton Page. Despite him only being a caretaker Prime Minister for 19 days in 1949, I was still greatly impressed and touched!

We had a wander into the National Portrait Gallery next door, which owned lots of well-painted portraits of other people who illustrate Australia's history. Out of the dozens of portraits I only recognised two - Nick Cave and Captain Cook! I felt immensely ashamed to be so ignorant.

We didn't manage to get round to any museums or galleries or whatever due to being quite hindered with the issue of Japan being only next week, but I still think today has been a great way to explore Canberra. After all, with it being Aussie's capital city we've seen what we came here to see - the government buildings. I also think that, despite everyone we've met saying that it's boring and not worth bothering with, I actually think Canberra is a lovely place. The first thing that struck me about it when we got off the bus was how quiet it was! It's very spacious and green, and there's not a substantial amount of ugly, high-rise buildings like there is in Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney. In this way it's more like Darwin or Cairns. I don't like I'd like to live here cos there's not much going on, but I wouldn't like to have missed out on it.

Well then. Tomorrow is a key date in this globetrotter's diary, as it is that fateful day that we arrive back in Sydney, marking a full circle in our trip around Australia. Before we leave Canberra we hope to have enough time in the morning to visit Blundell's Cottage - a 'historic' house built in the 1890s, and then we leave Canberra for Opera-House-City around 1pm. I'm so sad that it's coming to an end. In some ways it does feel like we've been here 3 months, and in others it feels like it's just whizzed by. We're definitely going to make the most of our last days in Sydney (probably by sitting in Side Bar every night!) cos I know I'm really gonna miss being here. *Sob!*