Bus trip: By the time we reached Sydney, it was already morning and we made it through customs without incident. Eastern Australia is three hours ahead of Vientiane, so the jet lag wasn't going to be too great. We then boarded the Greyhound for the drive to Canberra. Peep again did better than I sleeping on the trip. I only got about one hour of sleep, bringing my total to three hours. Peep got five. Finally, around mid-day, we arrived in Canberra and hailed a taxi to our hotel.
New Parliament House: After checking into our hotel, Peep and I headed out on foot to see some of the sights near where we were staying. Our first stop was the New Parliament House.
Canberra is the national capital and the center of Australia's national government. Although it was a small town at the time, it was chosen because it lies approximately midway between Sydney and Melbourne.
Old Parliament House: This is where the national assembly met after first moving to Canberra. It was built as a temporary house for parliament until the New Parliament House could be designed and built.
After visiting both parliament houses, Peep and I walked through the Old Parliament House Gardens before making our way to a school hosting the race expo. After some initial confusion we learned that the expo and packet pick-up would not be held until the following day, so we found an Italian Restaurant for a pasta dinner before retiring to our hotel.