Balloon Extravaganza

Because it's been so long (sorry!!), I forgot my awesome trick of uploading these photos backwards so they go in chronological order. So this one is going to be a bit messy, but the story remains the same!! On Monday morning I went with a friend from my program to see hot air balloons that were supposed to fly over the lake here in Canberra. It was supposed to start at 7am so we were up at 6 and out the door at 6:30. We walked over the bridge to the Parliament lawns which were about 30-40 minutes away, and checked out what was going on. There were lots of people out but sadly not too many balloons.

As it turns out the wind was a factor and they were afraid the balloons would head in the direction of the airport, which as you can imagine isn't a good thing, so most of them were inflated but anchored to the ground. A few of the balloon people headed out of town a bit and were going to try to drift into where we were, but about 10 minutes after we got there it was announced that it was too windy for even that. So we saw some balloons, but not as many as if it had been a nice day. That being said, it was still definitely worth it and I managed to get back home before Simon had even got out of bed! Here are the pictures, just sadly backwards :-(

To give you an idea of the type of day it was, here's the Telstra Tower engulfed by fog.

Some of the balloons were still being inflated as we were leaving, like this Air Force one.

This is the War Memorial, which I hope to get to at some point, I'm told it's definitely worth it. It was pretty far from where we were, this pic is taken with my mega-zoom lens.

This is a demonstration that has apparently been around since the 1970s. It's called tent city, and though I haven't investigated too much (I hope to soon), it looks like the struggles of the indigenous people in Australia is very similar to Canada.

This is a wider view of tent city with the 'Old Parliament' in the background. New Parliament is even further away. Again, a trip for another day!

These are a few of the balloons that were inflated when we arrived. There were supposed to be about 40 but because of the wind and the attempt to fly from another location, I think we saw 6-7.

Platypus!

This strawberry is apparently from the Netherlands. At least I think that's what they said. To be honest I was half asleep! We did get delicious Dutch Pancakes with maple syrup and ice cream. So good at 7:30am!

This was by far the coolest balloon, and made the trip worth it all on its own. It's a kookaburra balloon!! The thing was massive. We stared at it for a looong time :-)

Another angle.

Me in front of the balloon.

...and another angle.

This is the National Library of Australia. Somewhere I need to visit too!

This is the bridge we had to cross in order to get to Parliament. I think it's the main bridge in Canberra. The triangle-like structure you see in the background is New Parliament.

And this was me on the bridge at 7am in the morning. The circular thing you see in the background is the orange contraption I snapped pictures of on my run the day before, which you'll recognize from the previous post. Canberra, at least the center part, really isn't that big!

My next adventure, apart from essays, is hopefully to go to the National Gallery. There was talk of going on Sunday so hopefully that happens. And on the 23rd I'm going to a tea at the Canadian High Commission here, so I'll be sure to take pics and report back on that.

Til soon!