Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween. It’s not a very big deal in Australia yet, but it seems that people are slowly starting to adopt it. (Although they’re a little confused on the details of what you’re supposed to do) I got asked a lot of questions:

Do you give the kids candy when they come to your door, or let them reach in and take it?

How late are they supposed to stay out?

How do you carve a pumpkin? The pumpkins over here are more like squash, so... you can’t really.

So far they’re treating it like a holiday for kids, with a big emphasis on trick-or-treating, no costume parties for grown ups the Saturday before, no gory movies, etc. I stole a few of my favorite brands out of the basket intended for the trick or treaters: Boost, Aero, Dream, and Cherry Ripe. Sadly no Reeses or Twix to be found!

Imported from the USA

Ben and Jerry's. Only $11.95 at the local IGA.

Canberra

This past weekend I decided to make a trip down to Canberra, the capital of Australia. Canberra was selected as the capital as a compromise between Melbourne and Sydney, who were both competing for the honour. I left straight after work on Friday, and couldn’t see much during the three hour drive down there since it was already dark by the time we got past the suburbs of Sydney. I woke up nice and early on Saturday morning to take a hop-on-hop-off bus tour that allowed me to select four attractions that I wanted to see.  I started off with the war memorial, which was incredible! There were different sections for each conflict involving Australia. I only had a little over an hour to look at the exhibits, and the amount of artefacts and information to absorb could easily have taken me twice that long. The outside of the memorial is incredibly peaceful, with a reflecting pool and eternal flame leading up to the domed building containing the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Wall adorned with poppies to commemorate people who have lost their lives:

The next stop was Floriade, which I thought would be an arboretum/botanical garden but turned out to be a carnival with a couple of sad, wilting flowerbeds. I basically just killed an hour here before I got picked up again to go see Parliament House. Here is a view from the front:

There were an impressive amount of portraits of various politicians and prime ministers on display. I think my favourite part was seeing the chambers where the House and Senate meet to pass bills. Unfortunately they weren’t in session since it was a Saturday:

The last stop on my trip was the Australian Museum. I was pretty tired by this point, so I did a quick walk through and sat in the cafe looking out over Lake Burley Griffin, an artificial lake in the middle of Canberra. It was named after Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion, two Americans who designed the city in the early 1900s. I could see the many similarities between Canberra and Washington D.C., and I’m sure that’s what the Burley Griffins had in mind during the design process. Overall, it was a very educational (and cheap) trip, but I could never see myself living there!