Packed & still tired, Roman & I checked out of the Brisbane YHA in the early morning and walked to the Transit Centre to catch a train to the airport. Before getting on the train, I bought a copy of Time Magazine that had a portrait of Barack Obama on the cover. The city passed us by as the train smoothly made its way to the airport. After getting through the long line, a VirginBlue clerk informed us that our flight had been cancelled due to an unspecified mechanical problem meaning we would have to fly to Melbourne (past our final destination) then onto Canberra. Our seats were the front row but at least there weren’t any crying babies to deal with. Unfortunately, VB didn’t approve of my alternative: parachuting from the Melbourne flight as it passes over Canberra.
Being diverted to a city that isn’t on the original vacation plan sounds nice, but because of timing constraints, Roman & I could only stay at Melbourne’s airport and watch arriving & departing planes via large glass windows. Lunch & 2 hours later, we were on our way to the nation’s capital. Upon arrival, I picked up my suitcase and we hailed a cab (surprisingly equipped with a camera & microphone) to my brother’s campus residence. The apartment complex is located in the Braddon neighbourhood and is more secure than Fort Knox and Windows Vista. It’s possible to get locked in & out, there are cameras everywhere, and all the refrigerators are secured with heavy-duty locks!
It was already late afternoon so after we dropped off our excess baggage, we walked over to a Pizza Hut for dinner. Roman explained that Canberra is a city of 300,000 where it’s too far to walk anywhere but too close to drive. I suppose that makes it a bicycle city? On the way, Roman showed me one of his off-campus occupations – working as a clerk at a horse/dog-betting place called ACTTAB. Surrounding the many high school desks are digital screens displaying statistics & predictions for upcoming races.
The evening was spent watching episodes of The Boondocks (an American animated TV series), and planning on what to see in the coming days. Unfortunately, Roman wouldn’t be able to play tour guide because of working obligations (ran out of vacation days), thus meaning I would be exploring the city on my own. Should boredom surface, I could exploit the immense collection of movies on my brother’s external hard drive - Wall E, Rambo 4, Hitman, Napoleon Dynamite, A Clockwork Orange, Eurotrip, Hot Fuzz, March Of The Penguins, and Battlefield Earth, just to name a few.
Canberra is a planned city or as I like to call it, a bureaucratic city. Unlike the standard metropolis that emphasizes economic power via skyscraping corporate towers, a planned city focuses on nationalism & government. Monuments of all sizes, flags, museums, grand terraces, and boulevards lined with tall evergreen trees, fountains, man-made lakes, and large parks; it’s all here. It feels like the 2nd World to me, minus the propaganda posters & the harsh secret police. Images of other planned cities such as Moscow, Washington D.C., & Pyongyang all surface in my mind (even though I’ve only been to DC). Ancient Greek/Roman architecture built with stone, marble, and concrete are used in all planned cities because of long lasting reliability (i.e. Coliseum, Parthenon, & Circus Maximus).
Despite the world economic recession, I was surprised to see Nortel Networks occupying an office building on this side of the world. On a green hill overlooking the city sits the Telstra Tower (like a mini-CN Tower), a communications structure broadcasting media in all directions. The City Walk is an extensive downtown pedestrian street mall where citizens flock to shop, drink, eat, and party. Nearby is a large park where one can watch water being shot up into the air from the middle of a man-made lake.
The Parliament Zone would be explored the next day because it contained many large government offices as well as being prepared for Australia Day celebrations.
To Be Continued . . .
Packed & still tired, Roman & I checked out of the Brisbane YHA in the early morning and walked to the Transit Centre to catch a train to the airport. Before getting on the train, I bought a copy of Time Magazine that had a portrait of Barack Obama on the cover. The city passed us by as the train smoothly made its way to the airport. After getting through the long line, a VirginBlue clerk informed us that our flight had been cancelled due to an unspecified mechanical problem meaning we would have to fly to 
Being diverted to a city that isn’t on the original vacation plan sounds nice, but because of timing constraints, Roman & I could only stay at 
It was already late afternoon so after we dropped off our excess baggage, we walked over to a Pizza Hut for dinner. Roman explained that 
Despite the world economic recession, I was surprised to see Nortel Networks occupying an office building on this side of the world. On a green hill overlooking the city sits the 
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