Canberra, the Capital City of Australia

Canberra isn't just the capital city of Australia, is also the cultural city of Australia. It has more than 25 attractions to see without any fee charged and it is all art galleries and museum. 

Two days aren't long enough to sightseeing the city and most of these free attractions. It would be good to go there and spend some times in museum with history books and have a general knowledge of the history of the country. 

I found every single museum that I visited so interesting and full of information, from the war memorial to the portrait gallery. The war memorial is a very masterpiece as far as I'm concerned: all the exhibitions and information given are done simple and are easy to follow, sometimes the representations seem to be true and alive. I went there close to closure and unfortunately I didn't have time enough to get totally involved i every explanation of the battles and wars that all the australian soldiers had to struggle in, because I wanted to see most of it, but I had the chance to assist to a memorial ceremony after I finished my tour (will attach a short video).

Another interesting place I visited is the National Museum of Australia, again I didn't spend enough time, because I was speeding up, but it is an incredible architectural structure that delight you from the outside and the inside. The museum has different exhibitions and it follows the first history of the country to the most important landmarks and recent years. It is a great place to visit to have a general idea of the country and of the different uses of the australian land.

Being the capital city of Australia, Canberra is important for the old parliament house and the new parliament house, for the high court and the national archives. 

I found it one of the first cities in the south that I visited in Australia to give enough importance to the Aborignals, to their history and their rights. Adelaide has a big aboriginal section in its museum but it represents mostly the ancient time before the white invasion occurred; Melbourne was really sad in terms of telling how Aboriginals took part to the history of the nation: for example, the only representation that aboriginals have in the shrine of resemblance is a small iPad in a corner compare to the big walls full of information about the white soldiers; Hobart has a nice exhibition about the history that the Aboriginals had to face when white people invaded the island. All this cities try in their own way to give some importance to the aboriginal community, but personally I felt the white society and the history of its invasion were more important than anything else, while I felt Canberra has more to tell and to share about them, almost like the top end does, where the aboriginal community is still strong and present nowadays.

I found Canberra more australian than other cities, but it is not considered to be that important and special by australians. It appears to be a big paradox, eheh.. it's just subjective impression though. I liked it so far and wish I had more time to spend there.

The lifestyle is pretty relaxed and easy going; some of the residents aren't too happy, you can read that in their faces, probably because they live in a city, but other are really friendly and happy to have a chat or share a smile.

Now, I'm travelling on a bus in Sydney direction wondering how the huge city will appear to me ?!?!?

I'll tell you next time ;)