I don't even know what town this is!

Myriah and I had spent a few hours on Friday getting our game plan ready for today so with our map, bus times, and packed lunch we set out into Canberra. We were planning to catch a bus into the city and then get on another one to get off at Parliament house, which was our first stop. Things were going as planned until we realized we didn’t know which stop to get off at and hit the button too late since the bus then zoomed into the next little town without any bus stops in between. We had absolutely no idea where we were, but we had at least three maps of Canberra with us so we were determined to figure it out! The hotel across the street got the best of us since we figured it'd be best to just ask for help since we were already behind schedule. The lady informed us that we were closer to the Mint Museum, which was going to be our second stop of the day, so it might be best to go ahead and go to that one first. She printed off another two maps for us highlighting the route we would have to take, but she was unaware of the bus number to catch. She advised that we head a few streets over to the bus exchange and figure it out there or give this one number a call. We thanked her profusely and walked out the door but immediately forgot which way to go out of the hotel driveway, since hotels are just confusing anyways with lots of exits and entrances. We saw a bus stop on the other side of the road from where we got dropped off and figured that would be a good place to stop and ask a bus driver. As we were walking down the street a bus started coming our way, and our first instinct was to try and out run it. We think the bus driver felt bad for us, but unfortunately didn’t know the exact bus number to catch and also advised that we go to the bus exchange in the city. We were fiddling with our maps and figuring out what to do next when an Australian walking by asked if we were alright. That’s their way of saying do you need help? We explained our situation and said he would take us there if he had a four seater car, but I was thankful he didn’t so we could avoid the awkward situation of saying no. He told us the way to take to get to the bus exchange and we were on our way. Walking through Canberra has been really nice since the leaves are just  starting to chang and fall leaving the streets all lined with beautiful colors! The wind was a little bitterer than we liked, especially since we hadn’t expected this type of weather in Australia, but it definitely gave us the feeling of Fall and I kept waiting to make plans to carve pumpkins or go to a corn maze. We made it to the bus exchange, talked with an officer to figure out the right bus number and even picked up a weekend bus book which listed all the buses that ran, their timetables and a map of the route. Myriah really wished she would have had this all semester since she would have felt more comfortable going out and exploring on her own. We had about a fifteen minute layover but when the bus came the officer came over to tell the bus driver our situation. He asked the driver to let us know where to get off since he didn’t want us to get lost again. We were thankful that he stepped in since the bus driver didn’t seem too thrilled about having to let us know. Within minutes we were right in front of the Mint Museum and so thankful that things had finally gone right. We were running late for the tour, but we figured we could just wander around on our own anyways.

We seriously wanted to kiss that sign!

They immediately put us to work. 

A staircase made of money! Who wouldn't want that?

 We ran into the tour about halfway through, but it didn’t seem like much was going on especially since there weren’t even workers working in the factory. This was actually a place where they did make money so it was cool to see the machinery and a nice conveyor belt system with a pot of gold at the end, literally, but it would have been even cooler to see the machines in action.

People say our penny is pointless, but Great Britain's was seriously smaller than my fingernail. 

I found this to be particularly interesting!

 With our handy dandy weekend bus book we were able to figure out that getting on the bus right outside the museum would take us all the way to the netball centre where Myriah’s friend would be playing netball in about an hour. I had ridden past the netball centre on Friday when I came into Canberra and had hoped that I’d somehow be able to watch a game. Never thought that would come true, but I was so excited to see an Australian game in action. We got there before Tayla, which made us very proud that we had conquered the bus system. We had known that the game would be outside and hadn’t really dressed accordingly, but we sympathized for the players since their uniforms were skirts and a tank top. That is the official uniform for netball since it is an all-girl sport, which I have mixed feelings about, especially since the skirts aren't exactly long and many times we saw more of the players than we wanted to - even though they’re supposed to wear black shorts underneath. The rules were a little confusing, but basically once a person catches the ball they can only lift up one leg to turn in circles and then throw the ball to another player. If the ball is caught in the semi circle around the hoop then they get to have a shot at goal. If a goal is scored then the game restarts itself. Players are not allowed to touch each other at all and also have certain positions on their jerseys that only allow them to go in certain sections of the court.

This is Tayla as a center throwing the ball to her teammate.

A girl having a shot at the goal - notice there's no backboard!

It was a fun game to watch especially since we had someone to root for, but Tayla’s team did not come out on top unfortunately. She had a game to ref afterwards so that meant extra netball time for us, but we were almost frozen at this point meaning our interest in netball had quickly decreased. Plus, the girls on the next teams weren’t as friendly and tried giving Tayla a hard time about every call she made! This really got to Tayla since she doesn’t like confrontation, but those girls were truly mean and annoying. I guess that’s what you get from an all-girls sport. We were happy to be heading back to campus and get warm but that wasn’t going to happen too quickly since they don’t have central heating in their dorms. We had to head up to Myriah’s room and turn on her wall heater, then wait about twenty minutes for it to start to feel even remotely warm. We had planned on going out to dinner that night in Civic, but I don’t think any of us were looking forward to going back out in the cold; especially since you have to dress up if you want to get into the pubs. Us girls decided that a skirt and tights would be the best option and we were heading out the door a little past 7 o’clock after their friend, Chuck from New York, came over. We all chowed down on burgers at Hogs Breath which were absolutely delicious since they were soaked in barbeque sauce. This is one of the raved about restaurants in Australia and I can definitely see why, except for their decorations since the borders were surrounded with US license plates. This reminded me more of a Logan’s or Texas Roadhouse, so it felt more like we were at home. They caught me up on a few of their traveling stories and what they had planned to do throughout the rest of their time here. Once the food came though, we all feel silent to gobble up our burgers. We had been starving by the time we left the dorms so dinner was long overdue. Next we walked to one of the more popular pubs called the Uni Pub. We were a little out of place since it was more of an older crowd that night, considering it was only 9 o’clock and the others weren’t used to being out that early. We still had a good time talking and listening to the awesome 80’s and 90’s music that the DJ was playing. We also ran into some of their Australian friends, so I got to meet them as well. We had thought about going to another popular pub so I could see what that one was like as well, but they wouldn’t let us in with their students cards since the numbers had been rubbed off. I think we were fine with heading back home though since it was cold and we were exhausted from all our travels throughout the day!