Canberra, first impressions

It's been one week and a half since I arrived to Canberra, and I think it's about time I speak about the city. I know these ideas might change once I got used to the city, but I think it is worth writing them... I know how my brain works and it could be funny reading these thoughts again in a few months, once I had changed my mind ;)

When I first step on this city (literally, when I jumped off the bus), I thought it was a normal city roads, pavements, high buildings... but soon after that I realised how wrong I was ;) The administrative centre of the city is as you might think, i.e. a normal city. However, as you move towards the part of the city where everybody live, that ''organization'' changes drastically. Every building is a house, with a garden around it, generally no fences, shoes at the doors, plenty of space to park, not a lot of traffic (just one car every now and then)... So, in general, Canberra is a very quiet city, a city to enjoy life and especially to enjoy nature, you can breath fresh air wherever you go, trees are always around you and the mountain at a walking distance (a quite pleasant walk, BTW).

A typical house in Canberra

But what really impresses me are the noises, weird noises everywhere coming from strange birds and colourful parrots. Last Saturday I thought a sheep was coming flying towards me!! It turned out to be a (I think it was a pied currawong, it was black, so either number 3, 6, 8 or 10 in the image). I am not so sure which noise corresponds to which bird, but here you have some of the birds that (I think) I have seen so far and that have caught my attention.

These are the kind of birds that you can easily find in Canberra gardens, amazing, isn't it??

Imagine, you are walking in the street, surrounded by all these crazy sounds, you look towards where the sound comes from... and you find parrots (number 7 and 9), cockatoos (number 1and 2)... These are the kind of birds I am used to seeing in zoos, pet shops... It is great admiring them in their natural habitat!!

Of course driving on the left (especially to me that I am not a very skilled driver) and working in the mountain in an observatory is another interesting point to discuss... but I will let that for another entry ;)

I hope you are all well,

Cheers from 'down under' ;)