Mexican Food and Sangria

This is a shot of the river from the bus: 

As it was boiling we were in the mood for a cocktail so we stepped into this fun (empty) looking place:

We had sangria which was awesome

Then we decided to order tacos, because it was taco Tuesday which means that they were only $3 (£1.50) each! Food is expensive in Australia, but this was pretty reasonable. 

I had a lime prawn one it was awesome. 

National Portrait Gallery

We went into the National Portrait Gallery, my favourite type of art is art which is of faces, I'm not sure why I didn't register that portrait gallery meant there would be a lot of faces, but when I saw that there were I was very excited. 

However, it was very confusing as to which way it was into the gallery, so after we'd gone into the toilet, cafe and gift shop we finally made it into the gallery. After all the confusion I didn't notice the 'no photos' sign.

So after I took all of these photos a guard waved at me. I waved back at him and he shook his head at me and gestured some more. After a few seconds I realised he was trying to ask me politely not to take photos. I'm not sure why he didn't just ask me politely.. 

Anyway there were lots of great portraits in there, Australia does have a lot of art that I like 

Parliament House

Today we took the bus into Canberra from Harrison. We were pretty shocked with the bus price being $8.60 each (That's about £4.30). It is only a ten minute drive! 

However, we then found out we could use the ticket all day on all of the buses, which was necessary. We were planning on doing the half an hour walk from the bus station to Parliament house, but it was 34 degrees. 

So we caught another bus to Parliament House: 

Parliament House is basically the 10 Downing Street of Australia. It's also apparently the most expensive building in Australia. 

We didn't know what to expect inside the house, but it was so hot we decided to have a look. 

We had to go through a metal scanner, which I set off with my bracelets.

We were invited to sit in on the political talks which I was interested in, but Tanbay said it would send him to sleep and the Parliament people said that I wouldn't be allowed to take my camera in. So it seemed pointless.

What we did do was go on top of the Parliament House, which gave us a fantastic view of Canberra.

There was nobody on top of the roof apart from us, I don't think many people know you can go up there.


We also got a closer look at the ridiculously large flag

This is the Australian version of the Louvre

They have neat little gardens around the Parliament House

It was worth visiting for the view from the roof 

Welcome to Canberra

Today we flew from Brisbane (Queensland) to Canberra (Australian Capital Territory). We had to get up at five so the flight involved lots of sleeping. It was only 1 hour and 20 minutes. I woke up in time to see the descent, from the air the ACT looked so brown! Ridiculously brown, but they did have a massive heat wave last month.

The decent was extremely bumpy and scary, only comparable to the flight we took home from Dublin (where the pilot was drunk). I'd also had a really bad feeling before I got on the plane that I was going to die. But I don't believe in bad feelings and I was proved right when we landed safely, with that 'omg I survived' feeling you get from roller coasters.

Anyway the new lady we are house sitting for (Ang), picked us up from the airport (thanks :) ), and then took us on a mini tour of Canberra in the car. The Parliament house has the biggest Australian flag on the top, the pole is huge and definitely compensating for something..

Then we met the new house and pets:

Chief is the German Shepherd and Max is a Boxer. 

I already love them so so much! I liked them before I met them because they have great names, and as Tanbay is German and I am a boxer they are basically us in dog form. I love them in person because they are such sweet dogs. Especially Max, just look at his little face! They are so happy and gorgeous. Also I love his tiny tail. 

He thinks he's a lap dog. 

Ang is really great too, she's lived everywhere! She wrote us the best list of things to know around the house, which is important for house sitters. We had pizza and wine and watched About Time which was really fantastic. 

Australian Capital Territory

We arrived in Canberra on the 20th February 2014 and will be leaving on the 4th March 2014.



Mexican Food and Sangria

Yum and yum [...]


















National Portrait Gallery

Lots of excellent portraits which you're not allowed to take photos of [...]














Parliament House

The 10 Downing Street of Australia [...]














Welcome to Canberra

We are house sitting for the dog versions of ourselves [...]

Brisbane Botanical Gardens

Today was our last day in Brisbane, at least for a while, it was a gorgeous day and we went to the Botanical Gardens: 

Behind me is the Brisbane river were we kayaked , we just found out there are loads of bull sharks in there! 

Anyway this is the Garden:

and this is a chair with a platypus on:

We found this tree which looks like a crazy voodoo tree

it had nice flowers

Next was the bamboo bit, which looked amazing but spelt like pee

by this point we were starving and luckily stumbled upon a university fair where we got lunch for $2 each! (that's about £1) it was great to be a student again.

We walked back into town along the river

Then we had to sit down because it was very sunny (33 degrees)

So we had frozen yoghurt:

apple crumble and watermelon

In the evening Brian and Kerry got us a lovely goodbye meal. Brian knows my favourite food is pie and so he got us the best pies in the world from Yatala Pies. 

For dessert we had a passionfruit pie

We really love Kerry and Brian, they have been like our Australian relatives. They are coming to Europe in November so we will definitely be seeing them again!