Transcending Borders With Seeds in Our Hands

I arrived in Canberra, the capital. The city was built with freaky geometric precision. The city itself is divided in two by Lake Burely Griffin with one side being the Civic center and the other being Capital Hill. I had to do a major hike to get to my hostel, which from the bus stop in Civic, was on the complete opposite side of the lake over in a suburb of Capital Hill. I noticed as I was walking down the street that it was shockingly quiet, recalling memories of the strangely vacant streets of Townsville. For a capital city, it certainly lacked the grandeur and palpable history of Washington DC or some of the other capitals around the world. The city was designed by an American architect, Walter Burley Griffin, who was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. I found the design of the city both impressive and annoying. Everything lined up, from parliament to the house of representatives to the Australian War Memorial across the lake. But what got me was that both the Civic center and Capital Hill had all the roads radiating out in concentric circles, so I had to walk all the way around the circles, cross several circles (which ran opposite of one another–I can’t even explain it because it was so confusing) and try to find the correct back street where my hostel was located.

At last I found my hostel which was in the very nice, quiet suburb of Kingston. I went upstairs and met my only roomate, a french guy, who said, “I’m looking forward to leaving Canberra; it’s a strange city.” Took the words right out of my mouth.

The next day, I walked around the parliament building which was sort of interesting as it was built right into a big hill and people could walk up on the roof which was nicely mowed grass. I crossed the big lawn and made my way over to the art gallery where I took a guided tour. I saw lots of interesting eastern and indiginous art. I wandered across the lake to the place where the Floriade festival was happening and I was quite impressed by the displays. They had planted flowers so that they formed designs that brought to memory famous Australian films. I guess most could make out what was in the designs but I just saw a bunch of beautiful flowers! Plus I was distracted by my stupid camera which, at that time, I thought had lost all of my pictures. I headed over to the Civic center in the late afternoon to do a little bit of window shopping and then wait for my bus. I browsed for a few hours through a couple of the bookstores and then headed over to a pancake parlour that was suggested by my guidebook. I was seated immediately but waited at least 15 minutes to order. Once I ordered it was at least another 30 minutes until I got the food and there was hardly anyone in there! I ate the pancakes, which were okay…and then I waited…and waited…and waited for my bill to come. It was strange but they had free wireless internet access so I was not totally bored the whole time. It got to be about 10:00 pm and I headed over to the bus depot to wait for my 11:55 bus. I sat down and not five minutes later did a guy come over and say, “sorry, we’re closing the station.” I told him that I was waiting for a 11:55 bus and all he said was, “I know–we have strange rules.” I grumbled an “I guess so” and then wandered around the streets, freeezing, until I found a cafe. That too closed soon after I arrived and then I went back over to the bus station to wait for the bus. The bus came and I was glad to be able to thaw and relax. I sat down though and went to recline my seat in preparation for my overnight bus ride and, of course, it wouldn’t recline. And all the seats were pretty much full of people including the one next to me. The bathroom door in the back would not click shut, so the whole ride it kept banging around in the back after every bump in the road.

I awoke and we were just outside of Melbourne; I could see it in the distance. I arrived and perused the streets to find some breakfast. I was feeling pretty good considering what I had endured overnight but I kept telling myself that things could have been worse. Just then it hit me–I left my hat in a bookstore in Canberra.

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