Canberra

Canberra is the capital of Australia. It is part of the ACT or Australian Capital Territory. This is very much like the District of Columbia in the US. I won't get into AUstralian politics or state structure, but the part about Canberra being the capital is important. Here's why:

January 26th is Australia Day. It is the birth date of Australia, and it is celebrated throughout the country. Fortunately, we were in the capital for this celebration, and we got to be part of some awesome festivities.

On the 25th, there was a huge concert (broadcast live) at the Parliament building. It included a lot of local talent, and artists we had been hearing on the radio quite frequently. Because it was broadcast live, there were some seriously funny moments as the host tried to fill time in between breaks, so that the crowd would remain loud and excited when they came back from commercials. Some of my favorites were when the host would say "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" and the crowd would scream back "Oy! Oy! Oy!" It was brilliant.

On the 26th, there was a fireworks display (if you don't know this already, Aussie LOVE fireworks and brag lots about how long thier fireworks displays last - this one was close to 20 minutes). They also had some parachute jumpers who came down in formation as the Southern Cross (this is the constellation of stars which appears on the Aussie flag) as well as some other airial stunts. There was also a wicked jet fighter which passed over and turned on its afterburners (or whatever they are called) and the fire from the back of the jet was stunning. We also happened to be near a group from the Royal Australian Air Force, who had hot air balloon baskets; they released their burners in time with the fireworks. Being close to the blast of fire was scary and exciting.

The following day, we went for a tour of the old and new Parliament buildings. The old one was in use from around 1901-ish to 1980-something (Erin is much better at remembering dates than I). The old Parliament has an English garden with many varieties of roses, and it was a very nice place to have a pre-packed lunch. We then walked over to the new Parliament and took a tour. We got to enter the Senate and the House of Representatives, and we learned quite a bit about Aussie politics. Erin loves political info, and it was very interesting to learn about a different form of government. We even got to take a picture with the queen! (OK - it was just a statue of the queen)

The Parliament building itself was stunning. The designers planned for it to be in use for 200 years, and a lot of thought was put into its layout and architecture. My personal favorite was the flag display at the top of the building. The flag in the picture is about the size of a double-decker bus, and it is so large that it can tear itself to pieces if there is too much wind.