November 9, 2008

Canberra was whack. Because it was centrally-designed as the nation's capital, it's got all the idealized circles and monuments and city planning that you associate with a place like Brasilia (the arbitrary capital of Brazil.) Completely inorganic land use patterns -- endless Soviet-style brick apartment buildings with empty grass yards, and "commerce" limited to limited blocks blocks with all the stores and restaurants crowded onto one city block. Monuments and museums and palatial buildings devoted to the administration of Australia........and not a soul on the street. Granted, it was Sunday. But I got the fuck out of Dodge.
The countryside was so reminiscent of California, I was really surprised...Lots of savannah type landscapes with clumps of trees here and there.
The other thing you notice: they haven't built a continuous string of development along the freeway. There are cities and townships, but between them, there is just countryside. Granted, there are only 21 million people in the whole country. But it was nice to see, regardless.
Got back to Sydney where I drove through some of the longest tunnels under the Sydney Harbor -- a couple of these things must have been five miles long!
I'm now in Manly, which is basically the La Jolla of Sydney. Sadly, b/c of my recovery, I cannot swim or surf....At least the girls are cuter here. These 2 bubbly Norwegian chicks at my hostel invited me to go out and party with them...Sorry, ladies. Tomorrow morning, I'll probably be walking out the door at 5:30 for my morning walk when they stumble back into the hostel trashed to the gills.