Canberra, the Very First Impression – Part 1 – Surprise-Surprise! and Canberra Airport

Surprise-Surprise!

A nice crispy morning. We are landing. Nice change in a landscape – now it is nicely “wavy” – hills, many hills, with trees, no “bold spots” of land. But the colour… all is light brown. Ground is brown, trees are brown.

It reminds something very well familiar to me… It gives a strange feeling that you “miss something”. It borns a desire to add something to the landscape straight away in order to get rid of that feeling.

Why is that? What is that? Previous experience whispers that everything around you is light brown usually in two cases (I’m talking about nature, not other cases! :-D): if it’s too hot and dry (but you don’t feel it is the case), or it is… cold!

It looks and feels absolutely the same like… Russia in autumn!

The same light brown colour is everywhere. No other colour than brown.
There are trees, but they are not green because they are without leaves.
Land looks brown because grass “dies” and therefore loses its green colour.
Ground itself is usually brown when it is frozen.

Ref: Russia in autumn, early winter:

Photo source: flickr.com/photos/gusevg/2132319089/sizes/m/in/photostream/

If you ever lived in Russia, especially in its middle part, and experienced autumn days there, you know that autumn leads to winter, to less daylight, to cold, to long waiting for warm days, and understanding that the next 6-8 months there will be nothing else than waiting for summer and desire to change warm heavy clothes to something much more lightweight and comfortable.

Struggling with a “de ja vu”, you pinch you trying to get rid of that not a pleasant feeling:
“You are in Australia, relax, it’s just Canberra in front of you.”

Oh, and what is that? Something white between hills? Snow? No way!
It could not be snow… or could it? Hopefully it’s not. You end up thinking and trying to convince yourself that it must be fog. It must be fog! At least you hope for that! :)

Canberra Airport

Canberra domestic airport terminal, arrivals building, is small and… strange…
If you go to the second flour, and then want to get some coffee or to get to I-need-that-room-NOW, you need to go through the screening as if you are departing. I’m not saying that’s not right, I’m saying it’s strange for me. Any airport I visited before had some “basic facilities” right at your hand.
Ok, never mind, may be there is a reason for that.

Let’s go outside! May be there is something interesting there.

Automatic doors open letting you out to the street. Chilly wind hugs you immediately making you willing to run back into the building straight away,
Once you outside you expect to see something… at least something around you that can catch an eye. It usually worked well in other airports – there was always something interesting or unusual or … something. But here… nothing.

You turn your head left, turn right: N o t h i n g that hooks you :-D
Just a concrete wall and a circle road for arriving taxies.

Never mind, it’s only an airport! May be something interesting waits you in the city?

This story is a part of series of stories. See other parts:
Canberra, the Very First Impression – Links to all stories

Author: Natalie

Discussion: http://goforfun.com.au/groups/travels-places-activities/forum/topic/canberra-the-very-first-impression-part-1/