AntipodaLondon

The whole city is planned from scratch, and that is certainly easy to believe when you walk around in it. There are nice-looking trees everywhere, the streets are totally straight, forming a grid, but you never have the feeling of being inside a city. It was more a tidy, no-nonsense village-feeling I got when I walked around in the city that morning.

The walk took me over the artificially formed lake, where I found the Australian National Library even before they turned on the fountains outside, and I received no prize for being visitor number one that day. The only section open for visitors this early was the Internet room, which was perfect for me. I logged onto my mail account in Trondheim only to be overwhelmed by a few hundred new e-mails since my last Internet session, so I quickly logged off again. I finally had the time and opportunity to catch up with the news from back home, so I spent a few hours reading about what had happened in Scandinavia since I left it. It is true that traveling can be such an escape from reality. So many things had happened at home, of which I happily knew nothing. It can be quite a shock to discover that one's world actually goes on with it's business, even though you leave it for a while... A long-lasting, low-budget trip like the one I was on can act as a travel through time, and when you come back, you need to take some time to adjust to reality again. It's a strange feeling. Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad, but I had this constant urge to know what was going on at home, so given the opportunity, I spent a Sunday morning in Canberra reading Scandinavian Internet newspapers.

Anyway, on this side of the bridge there are many things to be seen. There is the Questacon, which is a very nice science museum, though there are better ones elsewhere in Australia. More unique is the Parliament building, which isn't exactly beautiful, but it certainly is very functional and cleverly built (as well as VERY expensively built). There is a pleasant fountain in the hall, making just enough noise so that the politicians can speak informally to each other without risking others listening to what they say. I learnt that the kangaroo and the emu are the national animals of Australia, chosen as symbols because they are the only two native Australian animals that simply are not able to walk backwards. There's some trivia for you!

Capital Hill in Canberra is pretty unique. The parliament building is actually built into the hill, so that you can take your dog for a walk (and possibly quietly protest against the politicians by letting it take a leak) on top of the building. It seemed like people really took advantage of this possibility, there were many people and dogs to be seen.

By late afternoon I had worked up an incredible hunger, and to my joy, I found my first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant which actually serves the food on an eat-as-much-as-you-like basis. The day quickly turned into a one-meal day. And in spite of this, the next day I found a weight and discovered I was weighing in at only 70kgs, for the first time in many years! This meant I had lost about 6kgs since Bangkok, so I decided I would have to eat fast food more often from then on.

At the ANU university campus I found the National Film Archives, which has an interesting exhibit concerning movies in general, and I found out that Australian movies have more to them than Hogan, Gibson and fat transvestites. The special effects section is really funny. I normally can not enjoy more than one museum per day, so after having seen this, I went back to the hostel to do something about my laundry. I read somewhere that swimming in the artificial lake was not allowed/recommended, because of a very high concentration of phosphates in the water. Thanks to my education, I happened to know that phosphates a few years ago used to be more or less the main ingredient in washing powder, so I put my intelligence to work, and soon decided to take my clothes to the lake, and do my laundry by hand there.

I had to add some washing powder on my own, but my idea worked out great. I washed everything I had, except my last piece of clean underwear. It was a very nice way to do my laundry. I had gotten used to doing it by hand in Asia anyway, and with the view towards the enormous water fountain in the middle of the lake, Captain Cook Memorial Water Jet, with water spurting 110-140m straight into the air, it was a particularly nice day in the park. Just as I was about to finish, I heard many clicking noises behind me, and turned around just to find a busload of Japanese tourists getting their pictures of this "local maniac" doing his laundry the old fashioned way, while being practically naked. Oh well. I had to laugh, as it was such a bizarre experience. It got even funnier when they all lined up to get a nice group shot with the giant fountain in the background, and just as they were about ready to get the picture taken, the whole fountain was turned off. Five o'clock sharp, the janitor obviously treasures his afternoon tea!

For AU$3 you get to swim in the Olympic Pool quite near the city centre. It was my first thorough water surroundings since Katherine, and a lovely thing to do on a hot day in Cæn-brah. I also called home to congratulate my mother on her birthday, and by some miracle, my gift from Bali had arrived just in time!

There really is not a lot to do in Canberra, so it felt just right to leave the city after two days. My next stop was Sydney, which we reached after just about four hours by bus through cattle-land. I tried finding a bed in the enormous YHA Hostel near the bus and train station, but all beds there were taken for the coming week, so I had to go elsewhere. There are many hostels in Sydney, but there are also many backpackers, so I was happy to eventually find an available bed at The Original Backpackers in Kings Cross. The area is pretty dubious, but given the difficulties with finding a place to stay at all, I put up with paying AU$16 for a bed in a 9-bed room. As a not-so-discrete indication of its location, the hostel seemed to have a porn magazine exchange instead of a book exchange. The bookshops in the area have a pretty limited selection of books too, but there are many very polite women in the streets, saying things like "Hi hunk!", "How do you do, sweetie?" and "Fifty dollars!" to people, even strangers, walking past them.

I spent my first day in Sydney as I often do in big cities, just walking around with no aim or purpose, just to grasp the size and atmosphere of it. I quickly decided that this definitely would have to be more than the usual 3-day stay, especially since January 26, Australia Day, the national day of Australia, was coming in just a few days, and Sydney seemed like the place to be for the event.