Long Labour Day Weekend In Canberra (Yes, Canberra)

Whenever I told someone that for the long Labour Day Weekend (Oct. 1-4) I was going to Canberra inevitably their first response was "why, it's so boring".

I was surprised at this response as the only other time I went to Canberra for work to attend the Network Centric Warfare Conference (April 2010), I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Australian War Museum and was impressed and knew then that I wanted to see more of Canberra. And with a recommendation from Peter Blasina that the Floriade is Canberra at it's best I decided to go on the Labour Day Long Weekend (next to last weekend of the Floriade).

Now that I've spent the long weekend there, I can say that Canberra's like a city with a split personality. There are tons of museums to visit and explore (this is something Canberra shares with Washington, DC) during the day yet after-hours when you goto the highly recommended towns of Manuka (pronounced Monica) and Kingston known for their shopping and restaurants - it's like a ghost town.

I was thrilled that my friend Lisa could join me as it made the trip all the more fun and it was great to have the company!

We left on Friday, Oct. 1 and what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive ended up being closer to 2.5 hours due to the holiday traffic. Which meant that we arrived too late to see the Bowral Tulip Time Festival so we had to appreciate it from outside.

Side-note: I have a hard time pronouncing the names of Australian towns (remember the Kogarah Mayoral Ball which I kept pronouncing "cougar-ah"). Bowral is not "bow-ral" (like the bow of a boat) it's actually pronounced "barrel" (like pork barrel).



On Sat. Oct. 2 we first headed to the National Portrait Gallery and candidly we weren't all that impressed with the standing exhibit. We were more impressed with the "Young Talent" exhibit where young Australian middle and high school students' artwork was presented.



Then we headed to the Canberra Glassworks where made our own piece of glasswork - a paperweight.



A week later we actually received our finished glasswork.

Here's mine - I used a technique called "Fireworks" where I pinched (3x) into the glass to create this "firework" effect:



And here's Lisa's paperweight - she pinched 10-12 times into the glass to create many beautiful translucent bubbles. With the deep blue, it's like water bubbles in an ocean.



Then we headed to The Floriade which is a flower festival combined with a state fair (although Canberra's not technically a "state" but a territory). While there - as you'll see in the Flip Video - we participated in a "hanging flower basket" contest and we both better keep our day jobs as they were not spectacular.



The next day, Sunday, we headed to Kingston Markets where I did a bit of local artisan shopping:



Then onwards to the Royal Australian Mint where they make coinage not just for Australia but Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Indonesia. I was really keen to visit the mint as I had many questions about Australia's coinage that I was looking for answers to...

* Australia is a commonwealth country so initially used the British coin system of pence/shilling/pound. And I learned that in early 1960 Australia moved to its own "decimal" money system.
* The Australian $.50 coin has 12 sides (docedadon) and started out as a rounded edge coin until the coin's silver contents exceeded its face value so they changed it (now why they changed it to a docededon which is quite a large heavy coin, wasn't answered).
* Originally the $1 started out as a paper note but as it was wearing out too quickly they replaced it with a $1 coin (has 5 kangaroos).
* In 1988 the $2 coin was introduced (what's odd is that while both the $1 and the $2 coins are both gold in color, the $2 coin is smaller than the $1 - go figure).
* In 1991, Australia did away with the $.01 and $.02 because they were more expensive to make than their face value. So believe it or not, no pennies in Australia. Their smallest value coin is $.05.



And in the Royal Australian Mint's gift shop I made my own $1 coin and give a shout out to my nephew Kai and niece Kalea (I also purchased each of them a $1 coin from their birth year):



While at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, we were encouraged to check out James Turrell's Sky Scape which when you go into this pyramid you see a small slice of the sky. Imagine my surprise when I actually saw it that it was just like another James Turrell Sky Scape I've been to near the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Tetsuya, you'll recognise this!



Having just seen Australia elect its first female Prime Minister by a very, very small margin between the Labour, Liberal/Coalition and Independent Parties it was very educational to visit the Old Parliament House which had great explanations of the basics of Australian Federal Government.



Then of course, I had to go and visit the current or "new" Australian Parliament House where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet. And this was one of the highlights of my trip to Canberra.



I was so impressed and amazed with how "open" Parliament House was - I could actually go to the roof of the Parliament House where it's covered with grass and you can enjoy a 360 degree panoramic view of the city. Conceptually the architects built it this way to represent that the people are always "on top" guiding the politicians on the direction of the country. Also, before driving back home I enjoyed a coffee in the cafe at Parliament House that was quite literally right "front and center" of the building and again enjoy a great view of Old Parliament House and the Australian War Museum in the distance.