Wim's Australian Trip: Canberra and the EUG's

On my first night in Canberra I stayed at the YHA and was quite exhausted after only sleeping about 2 hours at the airport the night before due to the cancelled flights. The hostel there was actually really nice and the rooms were massive! Didn't feel like a 10 share room at all. While there I met a German girl who was also backpacking (not so many backpackers in Canberra) and we made our way to the Australian Parliment House and the Australian Mint. The new parliment building is quite impressive sitting at the top of a hill with some great architecture. We did a tour of the building and then made our way to the mint. Since it was a good long walk we actually ended up hitchhiking on a city bus. At the mint we saw some of the process involved in making the coins. It would have been another long walk back to the hostel so we asked around and there were some very friendly people from Queensland there that actually gave us a ride back to the hostel. From there I got picked up by a friend so that we could get accreditated for the Eastern Uni Games (EUG's) and stay at our accommodation there.

Australia's Parliament Buildings

Great Hall in the Parliament Buildings

Looking out over the old Parliament Buildings and the War Memorial way in the distance from the top of the new Parliament Buildings

Inside the mint, was not operating due to it being the weekend

I was on the CSU Falcons Ultimate Frisbee team at the EUG's which was good fun. We also actually managed to do fairly well, coming in 7th out of 16. It was quite a challenge as it was very windy and cold while we were there except for maybe the last day which was windy, but not quite as cold. We played at the University of Canberra and usually had theme nights either there or at ANU. On one of the nights there was an ultimate frisbee gathering at the Uni Pub at the Civic which was good fun. And that is one of the reasons I love ultimate frisbee is that it is more of a game where people are in it for the fun, rather than for the win so much. After the last game, we went and watched the CSU basketball team get second place, and then most people from our team left to go back home. I was able to snatch up a last minute overnight bus ticket to Melbourne which left at 11:55pm so I had some time to burn. I had some friends on the Hockey team (field hockey) who were staying that night, so I met up with them at their accomadation before heading out the the Uni Pub. After a good time there I made my way back to the bus stop for another long bus ride. As usual I did not get any sleep on the bus, and as soon as I got a bed in Melbourne I slept for a good while.