people (just kidding). Sean and I woke up to a miserable rainy day so we scrapped plans to take pics of the countryside and to go to the Australia War Memorial instead. At first I thought it would be a wall of names and maybe a shrine of remembrance, but it housed an extensive museum that takes you through the history of the Australian armed services from their first landing on Gallipoli (where the national identity of Australia was said to have been born) to their current involvement in the war on terror. It was very interesting to see how wars unfolded from a different country's point of view as most people only learn about war from their own country's point of view unless you take a specialized history class in college. After we went through the
museum, we entered another exhibit featuring aircraft from WWII, mostly used in the fighting in the Pacific. My dad would have gone crazy here, since he loves old warplanes. They had several restored planes on display along with the stories of notable Aussie pilots, the training of pilots, missions, Japanese kamikaze, and loads more. The pics I have a re a bit dark, so if anyone out there has tricks or cameras settings for taking pics indoors in low light, please leave them in the comments :) Later in the week when the weather was nicer, we visited the Black Mountain Tower, a communications tower on top of Black Mountain (duh). It had an observation desk for 360
degree views of Canberra and the surrounding areas. The views were stellar, needless to say. Almost every observation deck I've visited has been smack in the middle of a city so this was a change from the cityscape pics I have of several other places. This vantage point was on top of a hill as well, so the view had even more of a birds eye view to it and the view stretched for miles (or kilometers if you will). From being in Canberra for a week I kinda recognized some of the areas - almost a local! Apart from lovely views of the city and country, you could also see where terrible bush fires burned hundreds of acres of bush and quite a few homes. This was in 2003, but the evidence was still apparent. It will be awhile until it fully restores itself :Later that week we headed to a quiet park overlooking Lake Burley Griffin for a picnic lunch of salami, cheese, bread fruit and wine! Sean was going to surprise me, but he told me when
we woke up - he is terrible at keeping secrets, but this was OK! We had a leisurely lunch, fed the ducks, and headed home full and happy. I'm note sure if there is anything better than a picnic lunch in a park, agreed? That night Sean took me to the opening match of the Canberra Raiders, a rugby league team. Some of you may be wondering why Canberra has two rugby teams and it's simple, the Brumbies play rugby union and the Raiders play 
rugby league. The rules aren't too different, but different enough to have separate leagues. I like union better, probably its what I have played for the past 12 years, but surprisingly a majority of Aussies prefer league. The match was really good and the Raiders pulled a lot more fans than the Brumbies and it was every bit as loud and rowdy, even more so. I heard some choice phrases that would rival any rants heard at an Eagles/Flyers game! The Raiders won, maybe I'm good luck?So, what else did we do all week? Mostly we hung out with Sean's friends, some of whom I met in Ireland at Janet and Potso's wedding and some who I just met. His friend Goughy threw him a 30th birthday party one night, we had dinner with CAstro & Alice on another (thanks Raiders!), Watched footy on TV at Tim & Luara's place and drank copiuos amopunts of beer, and some nights his mum cooked dinner and we just relaxed. Ahhhh. It hardly felt like backpacking for the last two weeks in Sydney and Canberra. It kinda felt like I was living there, except I didn't have to get up for work the next day. As always, it came time to leave, just as I was getting settled. The last stop on the Australian leg of my tour? Melbourne!
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