For this story we have to go back to Barcelona. January 23rd, welcome dinner of the language course. By pure coincidence I am seated next to a girl from Australia. I started smiling as my thoughts took me back to the wonderful backpacking trip I did in Australia around the millennium. Visited great places along the east coast all the way down to Melbourne, and talking about it was making me very excited! She explained she was from Canberra.

Canberra. Even though I didn’t visit that place, my first thought and words about that place let no room for discussion: “Canberra? That’s a hole!”. Ok, have to explain something here, as even though I had not personally been there, I met many other people during my trip that explained Canberra was not the most fun place to be. So in the backpacker “scene” Canberra was in my opinion regarded to be a hole. Someplace you pass, or maybe have a small look, but leave quickly again onwards to better places. She clearly didn’t agree and wondered how I could judge the place without even having been there myself!

Well, I clearly was very wrong. After having stayed in Canberra for 5 weeks, I must admit it’s quite a nice place. The bush capital is very spacious, quiet (apart form some screaming cockatoos), great for biking, bush walking nearby and a number of lovely places to visit. For example the Australian War Memorial is very impressive. And very special for me to see was the “Allies in adversity“-exhibition there, focusing on the Dutch–Australian experience of the war in the Pacific, 1941–45.

Other nice things are going for a bike-ride along the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. It’s fun seeing the Old Parliament House and especially the National Portrait Gallery. Great views from Mount Ainslie (and great ride up on the bike). Brilliant bush walking close by at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and Namadgi National Park. And the wine-tasting we did on the edge of the city was great fun!

You will need a car though to get around easily, as public transportation ain’t superb (and full of freaks!) and won’t take you very far out of the city. And as it’s a very spacious city, distances between things can be big. Although the centre of town is still quite compact and most tourist attractions are in walk able distance (if you don’t mind a good walk that is). So in general it’s quite a nice place. Definitely not a hole. Sorry Sal! :-)

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