OzBlog: December 2008

"The rest of you should just be grateful you're allowed on board."

David here. I've been flying a lot on Qantas the last few weeks, Nhulunbuy, Brisbane, and most recently Canberra. Qantas is a really nice airline, but I've noticed that only their Club and Frequent flyer member get that special welcome, and the rest of us just get a welcome. Seems unfair.

Regardless, this entry isn't about Qantas, but about my recent trip to Canberra. I went their for a conference. The day after the conference I was able to walk around Canberra. Canberra is a completely designed city. It looks beautiful, and it's sort of like if Washington D.C. was relocated to the Foothills of Colorado. Unfortunately, it is a very confusing city to walk around. I decided that since I had only a few hours to kill, I would go to a book store. I think I've, inadvertently, made it my goal to visit a book store in every place we visit, even more so since Darwin doesn't have any good book stores. Perhaps book lovers will sympathize... I found one that was located a few kilometres away from the hotel, and to get there I had to go through most of city which allowed me to see some of the sites. With the walking directions from Google Maps written down, I set out with the confidence that only Google Maps can provide. Two and half hours later I reached my destination, thanks to a handful of errors in the directions. It wasn't till I headed back that I threw out the directions completely and made it back in half the time. What makes it confusing is that Canberra is a round-about. It's one big circle. Here is my "mental map" of the journey, inspired by the family circus. If you couldn't tell, as the day went on I got a little more loopy. Hope you enjoy. Click on the map to make it bigger.

It sort of trails off at the end where I just took the same route back. On the way, I looked up and a Kangaroo came jumping out into the middle of the street, got in the left hand turn lane, and turned left. Without using indicators! I actually haven't seen a kangaroo in full sprint before, and they are very impressive. I guess they are a bit of pest in Canberra though (as well as elsewhere in Australia).

Crossing this to get on the footpath was not fun at 8:30 am.