Day 10: Canberra

Canberra is a very different city from Sydney. It was built as Australia's capital at almost exactly the mid-point between Sydney and Melbourne because the cities were such vicious rivals. Since it's fairly new and completely man-made, it comes across as being very manufactured, fake, and is much colder than Sydney.

We spent our time in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport, learning various sports from Olympians, many of whom were leaving for Beijing just days from our visit...

We actually got to see out Volleyball coaches get on the bus to the airport on the way to the Olympics 2 days later...

We also took a cultural break to visit the Australian War Memorial. The red poppey is the official flower of remembrance in Australia. Those walls hold the names of every Australian who has died in a war up to the most recent conflict in Afghanistan, and people put red poppies by the names of their loved ones as a sign of remembrance.
In the background you can see the Australian house of Parliament. They say they build the war memorial in direct opposition to the house of Parliament to remind politicians of the dangers of declaring war. All down the central boulevard are memorials for the various wars in which Australia has been involved.