a little bit about canberra too.

on our last day in canberra, the group took a tour of the city. we learned a lot about its history and the men and women who fought for it. our tour guide was this nice older gentlemen named john. he was full of little tid bits about the city! he first informed us that the city was designed by two chicagoans by the name of walter burley griffin and marion mahony griffin. they mimicked the design from dc's capital format, which can easily be seen from the front steps of the parliament. we also learned that brothels were not only legal but they were government runner establishments! look at these aussies go. 
our first stop was at mount ainslie lookout point. it is about 850 meter above sea level. unfortunately for us it was really cloudy and rainy that day, so you couldn't really see past about five feet in front of go. after that we made our way to the australian war memorial. there was so much history and memorabilia here. after some self-obtained knowledge about the australian involvement in world war I, world war II, and other wars, we caught some footage on the big screen from the eyes of the australian air force.iI feel that australians often go under appreciated for their war efforts. they give so much and help so much, yet still get little recognition from the rest of the world. next we made our way to the australian parliament house. 

one thing i've definitely noticed is how much australians like their symbolism. right as we walked into the foyer, john informed us that numerous green pillars we saw represented that trees that were cleared out for the construction of canberra. as we visited the house and senate, similar symbol isms were seen. john told us that the house was a green color because the builder wanted the room to represent the color of the eucalyptus tree. this contrasted the red color if the senate, but the meaning behind it was similar. the red hue was to represent the eucalyptus tree in full bloom. this added a little bit of australian flair to the seemingly plain layout. the parliament also has one of the four remaining copier of the magna carta that is present for all to see. that was also something interesting. it seems that australians are very open and friendly because all the places we visited were free of charge!

we soon left the parliament to go to where all the coins are made. did you know that a long long time ago australia had a currency of half a penny? beats me for what it was used for, but i am in australia of course and a lot of the things they do don't make much sense, haha. our last stop on our little city tour was the australian museum. we were all exhausted at this point, but there was a lot of interesting history to learn between the australians now and this aboriginals that still inhabit the land. we learned about the wars, the treaties, and finally the beginning of what will hopefully finally be peace between the two groups. 

i'm not much of a history person, but I definitely gained more respect for the people who inhabit this land today <3