Pink Sunglasses Spy on Embassy Drive

I don't think I've ever paid much attention to embassies. I can't actually remember ever consciously noticing one. So when our non-double-decker-red-tour van drove by a smattering of them, I knew that was something I was going to take a walk to check out.

Turns out, walking to see the embassies is not on the Canberra tourist list of things to do and that's probably intentional. Though they do mention an Embassy Drive, key word being DRIVE. There weren't any sidewalks leading directly there. And once I found the little embassy haven, there were a)still no side walks b) a total of three people, including me and c)random police cars parked in driveways in front of the security cameras. Clearly, we live in a cautious world, with everyone on high alert. But I wasn't going to let that stop me from my around the world photo snapping tour. They were all so cute displaying their national character. Besides, how intimidating does a tall, white girl with a camera, pink sunglasses, and a back pack look?

The green and yellow of the Brazilian Embassy

Sharp, clean lines of the Finnish Embassy

A little quaint French Embassy

The Chinese Embassy was quite unmistakable. Apparently when they had built it, the Australians tried to bug it, so they build a whole new section where they built it using only laborers hand-picked direct from China.

The Embassy of Egypt even had a sphinx statue (obviously not in this picture)

The Embassy of Indonesian had a tiki feel

Turns out they weren't even all embassies. The representation from other countries in the British Commonwealth actually are High Commissions.

Of course there was the British High Commission.

My old neighbors the Canadians, who even put maple leaves in their cement.

The plantation-esque South African High Commission

The New Zealand Commission with tin cows in front

And don't forget the High Commissions from Papua New Guinea and Singapore

And in front of Parliament was the Aboriginal Embassy, representing the fight for land rights for the orinigal owners of the land.

There are over 80 embassies and commissions, and they're even building more. Here is the future site of the Russian Embassy.

And yes, there was an United States of America Embassy. The biggest, and best of them all in its white trimmed colonial brick, opened in 1943.

Look real close and you may even be able to see the American flag

I thought about stopping in for tea with my American Passport, but the police car, security cameras and gate persuaded me that I'd rather get gelato back in the city. After all, it was a warm day and I had done a lot of walking.