The journey to Canberra involved an 8 hour bus journey through the very attractive-looking Australian countryside. It looked best during sunset, when the light changed and you could see the shadows of the trees through all of the forests that you passed through. I didn’t really have much to keep myself occupied, but in the end I didn’t need it.

The options for Canberra were a train and a bus ($53.80), a bus ($80) or the train ($91.20). The travelling times for these were 8h15m, 9h15m and 11h30m respectively, so naturally I got the cheapest, which also happened to be the fastest. The train had been changed for a bus, so all you had to do was change buses in Albury and the job was a good one. Eight hours and 15 minutes later I was in Canberra.

It was very cold in Canberra and I ended up having to wrap-up in order to go out and get something to eat. This meant digging my fleecy-top out of my bag and using my kagoul to try and keep the wind out. It worked and I ended up walking around like this for the next few days.

The time during my day in Canberra was spent running errands and going to look at the Parliament House, which is equivalent to the Houses of Parliament in the UK. Luckily, here, they had question time and this was televised, with the political leaders asking and answering questions, including the prime minister, Julia Gillard. I was very pleased to have stumbled across this and wandered back to the hostel, passing the lake and some scenic stuff.

I got back and tried to organise some cultural stuff, but nothing was on, so I ended up going to the supermarket and making my own dinner, which wasn’t particularly exciting, but was cheaper than eating out.

To see next time (possibly): The National Film and Sound Archive.