Day 6 – My 1 week trip to Australia

If you just landed up here somehow, checkout my older posts here:

1. My 7 day Solo Trip to Sydney from Bengaluru! – Part 1
2. My 7 day Solo Trip to Sydney from Bengaluru! – Part 2
   –  Day 0 and 1 – My 1 week trip to Australia
   –  Day 2 – My 1 week trip to Australia
   – Day 3 – My 1 week trip to Australia
   – Day 4 – My 1 week Trip to Australia
   – Day 5 – My 1 week trip to Australia

DAY 6:  16th November 2019, Saturday

If you have read my earlier posts, today was the day, I planned to visit Canberra, Australia’s capital.
I got up at 4 AM. Nope, my alarms woke me up at 3:55 AM. 3:57 AM, 3:59 AM and then at 4 AM.

I quickly refreshed myself and left my hostel at 4:20 AM. Reporting time at Murray’s bus was 4:30 AM. If you arrive early, you can pick any seat you like. I wanted to catch a night bus from my hostel to Central Station. But it was running late, so I started walking. It was cold and Sydney Central was 1.2 km away.

This was the day where I underestimated how much time one can spend time at a place.

Tips for Canberra at the end!

In the end I will tell how you can plan your day or two at Canberra from Sydney.

Murray’s bus from Sydney will drop you at Jolimont Centre at 8:30 AM. There’s free wifi and the speed of bus does not go beyond 100 even in empty roads. Sleep on the bus.

Since I needed to return back Jolimont Centre at 5:30 PM. That gave me almost 9 hours to explore Canberra.
From Jolimont Centre you need to walk to City Bus Station which is around 500 metres from there.

About Canberra’s transportation: Sydney’s OPAL card won’t work here. You can get MyWay Card for 5 AUD and then top it up with any amount you want or you can get a day pass in the bus for 9.60 AUD. You need to have change for this. I had it.

Tip!

I reached City Bus station at 8:36 AM. I met a guy here who was a Canadian and was waiting for the same bus. He told me there is a free tour (always free) of Parliament House at 9:30 AM which runs for about 40 minutes.

Bus came at 8:47 AM. I purchased 9.60 AUD day pass in the bus itself. Parliament House is 3.5 km away and the bus will drop you very near to it.

Buses here run at 30 minute interval. Canberra is also not densely populated as Sydney. I arrived at Parliament House at 9:07 AM.

Since I reached very early and no one was there, I had time to take some good snaps:

I then reversed the selfie stick tripod. From the same location as this, you can see Old Parliament House and Australian National War Museum:

The white building is Old Parliament House and if I zoom in a bit more, you will able to see Australian National War Museum.

I then went inside new Parliament House. You will have to get through security and people at reception will give you tags and directions.

This is after security check:

The tour started at 9:30 AM sharp.

Me: “Am I allowed to film this area”?
Tour Guide: “Definitely”
Me: “There must be some places where I might not be allowed to film, right?”
Tour Guide: “Sir, I won’t take you to those places.”

He was funny too!

He went on to explain the importance of Senates and showed us places where they sit and debate, how proceedings happen etc. This is the Green Room:

The Red room:

There’s a hall where photos of Prime Ministers are displayed along with some old artefacts:

The tour was over by 10:20 AM. I got out of the building by 10:25 AM after apply sunscreen lotion. Once you reach Parliament House, there are 4-5 attractions which are at walkable distances:

I thought I will quickly cover these places (1,2,3,4 and 5) by 1:30 or 2 PM maximum, have lunch and then move on to other attractions.

This was a mistake. More about this at the end!

I reached Old Parliament House at 10:40 AM.

I will try to give you an idea of breadth in this snap:

I started walking again. I reached National Gallery of Australia at 10:55 AM.

You are not allowed to carry selfie stick inside and in most of the places here, you need to submit your bags at the counter and they will give you a token. Hold on to it till you exit.

This place is collection of modern/old/mixed art related stuff:

One thing intrigued me was Yayoi Kusama, meaning the spirit of the pumpkins descend into heavens:

Following pic is Mewar’s kingdom:

They have a very good collection. I was on clock. Time was 11:53 PM.  I moved to National Portrait Gallery:

Here you will find portraits of people who are achieved something in the past (not necessarily dead people):

Something to cheer for Cricket Fans:

There was a food court at National Portrait Gallery and I thought let’s call it lunch. I ordered a dish for 18 AUD thinking it would at-least fill me up properly. But when the dish came, it looked like this:

This is where I realized, more money does not equal more food. When I was not sure that how much quantity the dish would contain, I should have asked it before ordering. I knew that my peanuts would come for rescuing me, again.

The dish was tasty but it did not fill me up. So advice for people, please ask before you order.

Another tip if you are unsure of the food

At 12:42 PM, I walked to Questacon National Science and Technology Museum:

I would say this is place which I really liked exploring.

This has around 4 floors and each floor is like a spiral. You explore one floor starting at the top and move downwards. Each floor specialized in Science activities. This is an excellent place for kids.

Robotic Face:

Hand detection:

Zoomed In Moon is at the very centre:

I left Questacon at 1:50 PM and moved to next: National Library of Australia.

Infront of National Library:

There was Australian Children Storytime Museum internally till February 2020.

There are huge spaces for study and huge collection of books:

I also went to 2nd floor and some volunteer showed me very old manuscripts which needed to be specifically requested.
Something related to Olympic Games:

The National Library security was very helpful. They guided me to basement where self opening lockers are there to put in your stuff temporarily. You can fill bottle and there are ATM and restaurant inside.

I was running low on cash, so I decided to use my International Debit Card [Not the Forex Card] to get 100 AUD cash. After purchasing Murray’s Bus ticket, my Forex Card Balance was 77 AUD. I wanted to use Forex Card at Duty Free and for the next two days I wanted some more cash.

The ATM inside library charged me 4.5 AUD extra and my bank charged me 3.5 % + GST. This is approximately 8 AUD extra for 100 AUD, which obviously is very high.

When you try to take out cash using International Debit Card!

Time was now 3 PM and I realized I would not able to cover both National Museum of Australia and Australian War Memorial. So, I went up to security and asked him where I should visit. He advised to go to Australian War Memorial. He told me he worked there.

So I go to bus stand near to National Library. I had to go back to City Bus station and change the bus. I reached Australian War Memorial at 3:47 PM. Bus stop is around 300 metres from this place.

Can you spot the Parliament House which I visited this morning?

When I went to reception at 4 PM, this is where I realized what a big mistake I have committed.

This place had remainings from World War – I and II and also from Afghanistan and Iran War. The person at reception tells me this place will close at 4:40 PM. I had only 40 minutes to explore three major wars.

By this time I knew, that I would be only able to click photos and will not be able to see much. So, for the next 40 minutes I sprinted across 3 sections clicking over 160 photos. This place is excellent for history lovers and is a must visit place for general people as well.

At 4:40 PM, security people started clearing out people from all the memorial section.

I left the place at 4:52 PM and started walking to the bus stop. When you walk back to the bus stop, you can see some more spots.

Bus’s time was 5:11 PM and bus stop was around 1.1 km away from War Memorial. This time the bus came on time.

By 5:30 PM, I reached back to City Bus Station and from there I walked back to Jolimont Centre. Our bus to Sydney left at 5:49 PM instead of 6 PM since everyone who bought tickets had arrived.

I reached Sydney Central, where bus started, at 9:10 PM. I went to Lord of the Fries to have a vegetarian burger which cost me 11 AUD. This is just next to Hungry Jacks at Central. So, I bought burger from Lord of the Fries and sat down inside Hungry Jacks seating area(it’s an open area) as no one was there.

I asked for dessert recommendation from the people standing at Lord of the Fries and they suggested me go to Koi Dessert Bar(near to Sydney Central). After finishing my burger, I started walking again to Koi Dessert Bar. At 9:33 PM I reached there and again there was a queue (all good places have queues here?):

I had a dessert named “Coconut kalamansi”:

This was around 10-12 AUD but I do not remember exact as I paid in cash. I liked it. Tip: If you are 2-3 people, order all different types of desserts just for taste.

At 9:50 AM I started walking back to my hostel and I reached by 10:04 PM. I then retire for the day.

Expense sheet for the day:

1. Bus adult pass for the day – 9.60 AUD – 480 INR.
2. Lunch at National Portrait Gallery food court – 18 AUD – 900 INR.
3. Dinner: Vegetarian Burger at “Lord of the Fries” – 11 AUD – 550 INR.
4. Dessert at Koi Bar – Coconut Calamansi – 12 AUD – 600 INR.

Total cost for the day: Rs 2530.

Now, let me talk about my mistakes while exploring Canberra:

The 7 places after visiting new Parliament House, which I have mentioned in maps above, cannot be covered in a day.

First mistake!

The reason is each of these places has their own unique thing about them and each will take at-least 2-3 hours to explore if you do it properly. This mistake I realized only when I completed National Library of Australia and after seeing Australian War Memorial. All the places are free to explore. Let me list down the major attractions in Canberra:

1. Parliament House
2. Old Parliament House
3. National Gallery of Australia
4. National Portrait Gallery
5. Questacon Science Museum
6. National Library of Australia
7. National Museum of Australia
8. Lake Burlen View
9. Australian War Memorial
10. Australian Botanical Garden
11. Mount Ailne Lookout

If you are on a 2-day schedule, there are very high chances that you will be visiting these places only.

Few tips from my side:

1. If you really want to explore Canberra, it would take two full days. So, you have to plan accordingly with respect to stay, food and transportation but most people would visit Sydney and then come here if time permits.
2. However, if you have only one day and arriving via bus like me, then from Jolimont Centre, go directly to Australian War Memorial first because it’s closer to bus stop. Then go to Parliament House. This would cover two major places. Now after this, it depends on you whether you are art lover or science lover and based on that you can visit the attractions closer to Old Parliament House.
3. Best would be complete Australian War Memorial and New Parliament first and then based on the time left, decide then and there itself. I would say all the buildings are photogenic and you should take a picture from outside if you are not planning to go inside.
4. A good trick if you are not able to decide that which places to visit in a particular city in a day or two, then list down the attractions you want to see and sort them from top to bottom by number of reviews on Google (at-least 4 stars and 1000+ ratings would be good indicator).
5. If you are planning to take train from Sydney, you need to purchase the tickets online.
6. If you are here for more than 2 days, buy Myway transport card from local shops. Enquire about daily limit for the day. If you are here for 1 day, buy 1 day adult pass.
7. There are tourist buses from Sydney to Canberra but they too will reach by 11 PM only and will cover only 3 or 4 major attractions. You can do much better on your own.
8. Another option could be to find 4 people in Sydney who are willing to visit Canberra and take a rented car to this place and visit at your own pace.
9. If you are travelling solo here, take Murray’s morning 5 AM bus and evening 6PM return bus. Follow my routine and learn from my mistakes.

Read about Day 7 and 8 here…

Surprise awaited for me the very last day!