Canberra has turned 100 on her birthday, the 12th of March, last week. A year-long events are planned in 2013 for the  Centenary of Canberra celebration. You can check here for details. The Canberra Day long weekend was like a big party weekend here in Canberra. There were so many things happening, day and night, from Friday to Monday. I went to a few events, and I am sharing the photos of these events here, starting with the hot air balloon event. Photos of other events will be in separate posts.

The Hot Air Balloon Festival in Canberra is an annual events that is held in March for about a week. This year it was called 2013 Canberra Festival Balloon Spectacular, as a part of Canberra Centenary Celebrations. Even when you are not flying anywhere with a balloon, it is always nice to see them before they launch from the lawn of the Old Parliament House. They are all so big and colourful. Every year we see different shapes, sizes and designs. It’s always interesting to see the whole process of inflating those big flat thing with hot air, to see them become bigger than life and then afloat.

It’s always nice to be in this event. It’s early morning, the light is usually gorgeous. Colours are everywhere, and everything was reflected by the water in the pond nearby. It really is a spectacular sight when you look up and the sky is dotted with all the balloons.

However, we came so late this year that by the time we reached the lawn that morning, most of the balloons were already in the air, including the giant Darth Vader head. We only got the chance to see a big Lion King head being inflated and coincidentally saw the Darth Vader’s head about to land on our way for breakfast. Now, that’s a sentence you don’t say every day.

And here are the two sleepy heads who I had dragged out from beds and made me really late that morning.