Canberra: Lonsdale Street Roasters

We were on our way to another café for breakfast when we passed by Lonsdale and saw how busy it was. I immediately decided to change course and follow the locals.

When I first walked through the door, there were no empty tables so it was a good thing we arrived just as people were starting to leave for work. Any earlier and parking would also have been a problem.

Eggs Benedict & Hot Chocolate

Malt bread, Pialligo bacon

AUD 17.50 & AUD 8

Breakfast Crumble

Apples, raspberries, Pepe Saya's Mascarpone

AUD 13.50

Sourdough Waffle

Pure maple, cultured butter

AUD 13.50

Iced Mocha

AUD 5

My Mom was still commenting on how much she enjoyed her meal two days after our visit, so following the crowd was definitely a good idea in this case!

Canberra: Aria Hotel

For this trip, we went with a two bedroom apartment as I was with my parents and sister. First off, the location is not convenient in the sense that there are no nearby shops or restaurants, so you will really need a car to get around.

In general, the rooms were clean except in some areas like the top of the mini-fridge which was thick with dust and placemats that clearly needed washing. But those were minor in the greater scheme of things.

The bathroom, as far I could tell, was mold free. My only complaint was that there were no toothbrush holders or anything tall enough to put toothbrushes in the entire apartment.

Dishwasher was not great at washing - had to do everything again by hand. Take note, we followed the instruction manual to the letter.

The dryer was not working at first, but was fixed the next day. Only problem was that we did our laundry the night before and had to hang everything on the dining room chairs.

If you're in a hurry, don't bother doing the laundry as the washing machine takes a minimum of two hours to do one cycle - and that's the quick wash option. Others take even longer.

There's also no free internet, but what really frustrated me was that there was no wifi signal in our room. I reported it to the front desk twice and the agent said they had it re-routed but to no avail. Quite inconvenient to have to go down to the lobby to get internet access. If you have a laptop, then no problem as you can just plug in the cable. Ipad users will be out of luck.

The hotel waived the AUD 4 fee for the 30 minute internet package I used while in the lobby. That was nice, but it did not make me feel any better as I use Skype to talk to my husband. Needless to say, I am dreading my next phone bill.

Breakfast is a separate charge and costs AUD 19 if you pre-book (AUD 23 regular rate). Good thing I decided to take a look first before making a decision. The buffet is quite small and looks as though not a lot of thought was put into it in terms of menu and presentation. There were two attendants at the time I entered the cafe and both were too busy talking.

In all, it's not bad but I would probably try some other property on my next visit to Canberra.

Canberra: A Sentimental Trip Down Memory Lane

In 1986, my father was sent to Canberra for further studies and fortunately for us, he was allowed to bring his family along. We arrived in February, left in December, and haven't been back until now.

I have so many fond memories of that year - first time I had ever seen snow (though technically flurries), learning how to play marbles and how to sing the Kookaburra song, classmates whose names I still remember (most of them anyway), and my third grade teacher Mrs. Tuckey reading stories to the class (I loved the Muddle-Headed Wombat).

Sadly, the school we attended, Rivett Primary School, was demolished a few years ago. I had always planned on going back and roaming the halls, but it was not meant to be. Well, at least the oval behind the school is still there.

I also thought that I'd remember more once I got back, but so much has changed (not surprising considering 27 years have gone by). Thankfully, it looked as though time had stood still in the old neighborhood, but the house where we lived has been covered up by trees. The current resident must be paranoid about privacy.

1986

2014

We spent a day driving around and visiting old haunts - Belconnen Mall is now five times bigger and totally unreconizable. At least Cooleman Court hasn't altered much and Woolworths is still occupying the same spot (I had to take a picture as it's one of the few places that seemed familiar to me).

We ended with a visit to Lake Burley Griffin where we used to ride our rented bicycles up and down the lake. It's just too bad we arrived late in the afternoon as the Captain Cook Memorial Jet was already off (normal operating sessions are 2 PM to 4 PM daily).

Is there a place you'd like to go back to?