Nostalgia

Some more of the trip... By the way, I never once heard "crikey," and we had to explain what a "bloom'n onion" was to some Australian friends while they looked at us in horror.

Day 5
Yesterday Larry had meetings with the Australians all afternoon. I had previously picked up a brochure for a walking tour in Canberra and decided that would be a good way to see the area. Around 9:30 I left the hotel and headed towards the Parliament buildings. It was a few miles away, but I got to walk through some residential neighborhoods in getting there. They are in a middle of a drought here, so the yards are rather dry and unkempt. I first stopped off at the Rose Garden at the old Parliament House. The lawn around the garden was covered with Cockatoos. Australia has some amazing birds. It is not uncommon to see a red parrot bird flying overhead. I toured the old Parliament House, the lawns, and the new Parliament house. I stopped off at a cafe in the Rose Garden for some water, a yogurt with fruit and a flat white (latte). The new Parliament House was a beautiful building, designed by American architects. They used Australia’s history as the theme for the materials used in the design (green marble columns for the eucalyptus trees).
At 1:30 I decided to head back towards the hotel to try and get some studying in. I decided to take the route back on the lake (Lake Burley Griffen) that separates the city. The lake is a quiet, peaceful place with Black Swans swimming around. They were coupled up and cooing each other. A few even made that photograph favorite heart shape with their necks.
I continued walking, walking and walking. I had wanted to stop by a glass blowing shop, but when I got there I found it closed. One thing I have noticed is how active Australians are. Wherever I am walking there are others walking, running, and bike riding.

At 6:30 we had a dinner with the Australians. It was just for the working groups, but I managed to get an invite. I have never really enjoyed these “formal” social gatherings, but it is all part of diplomatic relations. I was the “American” in my fashionable jeans, nice black shirt with a waist belt and Asian styled flats. I was under dressed for the occasion, but made it work. As we went to grab our chairs, an Australian asked me if I would take the seat next to the Australian General. I looked at him, “would you like me to?” “Yes, Please,” he smiled. The food was amazing, and wine overflowed. I only spoke to the General occasionally as he was in a pow wow with the American General. I did, however, enjoy the company of the Australian next to me. He is a Captain in the Australian Navy (one rank senior to Larry), but is British. I could pick up his thick English accent right away. He spoke softly and more eloquently. His humor was subtle, but I fell easily for it. We hit it off and had a great chat, discussing English humor and movies. Afterwards the diplomacy continued with Larry’s Australian counterpart at a local English Pub. We chatted until the wee hours covering Rugby, Cricket, American Sports, Politics, our accents, and our country’s characters. It is strange to have someone come up to me and say “I just love the American accent.” What? We have an accent? Obviously it make sense, but I just never thought about it that way. Overall, it was a great day......a long day, but a great one. We crashed when we got back to the room. Some time in the middle of the night I woke Larry and asked if he had pack any antacids (had a little heartburn from the Ottoman food), he responded by picking up the TV remote and pushing buttons. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was looking for the antacid. Hummm, I think I’ll look for myself.

Day 6
Today I had to get caught up on some studying and doing a little laundry. One thing I have not adjusted to is the cost of things here. The laundry room was actually the same laundry used by the hotel staff. It cost $5 to wash a load and $1 each 5 minutes to dry. I went across the street to a little market to by laundry soap since they wanted to charge $2 for a single use of soap. Overall it cost me about $20 to do 4 loads of laundry, half of which was air dried. It also ate up most of my morning and early afternoon, competing with the staff for washers and dryers. I spent the remaining part of the afternoon in a small rose garden here at the hotel reading my book. Around 3 Larry returned from dropping the General off at the airport. Unfortunately, most of the Americans that were part of this conference, flew in on Sunday and left on Wednesday. To me, it seems odd to go all this distance and not to enjoy some time visiting and getting to see some sights. In addition, the fact that I am the only spouse that came out is also strange. I know most of Larry’s peer have kids, but I think if I a child, I would still have to come out and bring them with. What better education than to expose kids to the world? As I told one of the guys that was heading back yesterday, I am an opportunist. When opportunity comes, you can take or leave it. I take it. He, of course, told me how lucky I am to be able to do it. I do feel lucky, but it is also choice. I choose to make seeing the world a priority over things like career, household obligations, money, etc... . I have turned down opportunity in the past for such things, and to this day those opportunities are some of the biggest regrets in my life.
Every afternoon at around 4, Larry and I walk to a small cafe for an afternoon coffee and a small pastry. Every day we have something new. I have had the flour-less chocolate cake, a lemon tart, and yesterday an apple crisp with fresh blueberries. They have amazing produce here and make some of the best salads and sandwiches I have ever had. I have also fallen in love with their yogurt. It is so creamy, like a custard. I have found that much of the food here is local, not imported in from other countries. With Australia’s tyranny of distance, they are very much dependent on themselves for their needs. All the food is grown in Australia, and you can tell. It is wonderful.

Afterward our afternoon “cuppa,” we walked down to the lakefront and visited with the ducks and swans. Around 7 we headed out to a local pizza place and shared a medium pizza (about 8 slices) and salad and a bottle of Australian wine. We were able to take out time and just enjoy being outside enjoying the city. There is no pressure to hurry up and eat so the wait staff can make tips. You don’t tip here, so the table is yours as long as you want it. We sat out there for 2 hours and then walked to a grocery store to pick up some Cadbury chocolate bars for dessert. A great night.
Day 7
It was my last day in Canberra and I still had museums to see. Larry left for his final meetings in the morning, and I went out shortly after to head off on my final self-guided walking tour. The morning was cool and I started out by a walk around the lake and a visit with the swans and duckies....again. As I walked under the bridge I could hear the chimes coming from the Carillon playing Westminster chimes. The music lasted for about a half hour. I came across some benches in a grove of Eucalyptus trees, and decided to take a sit and look out over the lake and listen to the chimes. After a bit, I headed off to the sculpture garden outside the National Gallery, and then walked towards Commonwealth place. I took lots of pictures and moved on to the National Library. I stopped inside after enjoying the sculptures outside. There was an event going on inside the atrium and two elementary age children were playing a type of music I have never heard before. It had a folk-like flavor to it, and at the end of every song the young girl would coo-coo like a bird. I enjoyed it.
I perused the bookstore and found and purchased a book on Birds of Australia, some illustrations, and a picture book of Australia. After a little shopping, I realized I was running out of time and still had not been to the National Gallery. They were having an exhibit of landscapes from Turner to Monet. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to see the exhibit in its entirety, but picked up a book with all the works listed inside.
Around 1:30 I met up with Larry for a lunch at the museum cafe and afterwards we headed up to the Parliament house. It was the second time for me, but Larry really wanted to see it. We were actually able to sit in on a session of Parliament for a bit. I enjoyed the debate and vocal ribbing. I like the emotion displayed in the arguments both for and against. There is a lot of honesty and candor displayed, something that is often missing in our American debates.

I feel that I spent my time rather well while in Canberra. Talking to the locals, I have probably seen more in Canberra than most folks in Canberra, not to mention most Australians.

Day 8&9
Packed up and hit the road today. As it is Good Friday, just about everything is closed. The one place that was open was Starbucks. I had to access my email and try to contact my Anatomy professor regarding a proctor issue in taking my 3rd exam. Trying to set it up while in Australia when my professor is on Spring Break is a bit of a challenge.
We also spent some time trying to search around for “Accommodation.” When we travel, we don’t often make too many plans on what we will do, where we will stay, or how we spend our time. We like to leave ourselves open to opportunities when they present themselves. This has, for the most part, worked out quite well. However, we both forgot this weekend was Easter, and we were unaware of the Australian 4 day national holiday weekend. We had made no reservations, but had hoped to head up to the Hunter Wine Valley. Since we were unwilling to shell out $500+ a night for a hotel room, we decided to go another route and just hope a room would be available. We headed towards the back country and drove out to a small town called Yass. We stopped off at a Visitor’s center and asked about lodgings. She gave us directions to a small town called Binalong that had a B&B. We drove the extra 15 km only to drive up and see the place for sale. Hummm, don’t think this will work. We decided to continue on to the next town crossing our fingers that something would come up.
The hills in the back country are beautiful. From what we understand most tourists, let alone Americans, don’t venture past the beach communities. We like seeing different parts of an area, not just the tourist towns. The roads are narrow and sparse. Most of the time we seemed to be the only car on the road. The hills are covered in sheep and cattle. I believe most of the of this land is range land. Some of it is now being converted into wine vineyards.

As the sun began to descend in the sky, Larry looked over and saw 3 Roo’s sitting amongst some trees. I leaped from the car while it was still rolling. I jumped out and in my excitement, scared them off. In my stumbling way, I managed to get a shot of a Roo out in the distance. After I downloaded the photo, the photo revealed that he was looking right at me.
Around 7 p.m. we ended up in a town called Cowra in Cowrashire. As we drove down the main street, we saw nothing but No Vacancy signs. We turned down a side road and saw a Budget Motor Inn that still had a vacancy. We decided to just go with it. We pulled into the driveway and as I opened the car door I was met with a retriever named Toby. I figured it couldn't’t be a bad place with such a welcoming dog. The room had a certain charm in its old sofa, sagging mattress, and antique toilet kind of way. We asked the host where we could grab a bite to eat on Good Friday. He rambled on about this Bistro and that Bistro. Hummm....I do not think that word means what you think it means.
We ended up at “Vinnie’s Thai Mandarin Chinese Restaurant.” Sounds interesting, yes? It was, but it was open.

In the night, the room became hot and stuffy. They had taken out the windows in the room that would have allowed for a nice cross breeze and installed a loud, rackety AC unit. In addition, Larry and I kept rolling into the divot in the center of the mattress. The night was a series of naps rather than any real sleep.

When we checked in, we had signed up for the continental breakfast. As it was presented to us, “Muesli and cereals, fresh fruit, breads and jellies, with fresh coffee and tea.” Sounded nice, and having stayed in many B&B’s and Guesthouses in the world, I felt fairly confident that it would be hearty and tasty. The Muesli was there, but the coffee was burned and probably had been on the burner since 6:00 am. The “fresh fruit” was a can of mixed peaches and pears sitting in a Tupperware bowl. The breads was a bag of standard white bread. I had some cereal and tea, Larry had a the same and we left to go to a bakery for a real breakfast. Afterward, we headed out and ended up at a Japanese Garden. Apparently Japanese POW’s were kept in Cowra during WWII. This garden was a way of marking the end of the war.

We got back on the road and made our way to Conowindra (Co-noun-dra). We stopped at a Wine trading post and did some wine tasting. I should have had a little lunch before the tasting. By the 3rd taste I was starting to feel a little too good. We bought a few bottles and took one of them into the restaurant for some much needed food. We had some fresh bread and Tapas with a little goofy wife : ). Everything was amazingly good.

I was still a bit loopy, but decided to visit a little antique shop next door. I managed to convince Larry to buy me some Rose scented lotion.

We drove on to a town called Orange. Orange was a bigger town than any of the other towns we had stayed in. We figured there must be a decent place to stay for the night. Stopping off at the visitors center we found that once again, most places were full. The lady at the center took pity on us and called around to some different guesthouses. We were both afraid that we might end up again in a Budget Motel. The last call we made was to Clifton Gardens, a small B&B just outside of town. We were reluctant as it was the owner’s home, but decided that we had no other options. It ended up being the best decision we could have possibly made. The home was out in horse country, with their home on top of a hill overlooking the valley. Each end of their house was a suite with living room. The owners came out to meet us in the drive as did their chubby dog, Saffy. It was a wonderfully relaxing place to just take a breath. We went out to dinner in town. Larry had a HUGE steak and I had a salad with Tiger Prawns. It was tasty and fresh. For dessert we shared a Apple Cinnamon, Liquor Cheesecake.