Dostoyevsky, after all, wrote The Gambler in 26 days. Liz Truss' tenure took 49. Only 74 and the Falklands War was over.

Fifty-five is my number. Fifty-five days - that's how long it's taken me, a latte-sipping Melburnian, to discover that Canberra is a bizarre gem whose value few know.

When I moved here from Melbourne, coming up to study law at the ANU, I knew only little bits and pieces about our capital. Just the usual stuff, really - Questacon, Parliament, Barnaby Joyce's favoured patch of pavement.

I didn't expect much. In truth, my friends denigrated the place and I was ready for disappointment.

Yet strangely, as a very new Canberran, I already feel qualified to tell you that if Paris is the city of light, and Rome the city of love, then Canberra is the city of surprise.

Hear me out.

A month or two of living here has yielded the understanding that this is a capital of contradictions - urban, but not without the privileges of regional living; small, but not without constant attractions and events; young, but not without history.

Sure, the public transport is lacking and the roundabouts are endless - but, to a boy from Melbourne, the view from the city centre of untouched bushland is unexpected and beautiful.

You can stand in Civic and see, rather close, the Black Mountain Nature Reserve. Driving onto the Commonwealth Avenue bridge, there is the sudden view of mountain ranges skirting the city.

And, 20 minutes from Acton, the Casuarina Sands reserve seems as if it's hours from civilisation. The co-existence of natural and urban living is bizarre - and brilliant.

There might be no beach and fewer sporting events than other cities, but the simultaneous youth and old age of Canberra is another contradiction so endearing to the outsider's eye.

Officially founded in 1913, this is undoubtedly a young place. The vibrancy of Lonsdale Street, the famed progressiveness of local politics, the architectural playfulness of bus shelters - this all reflects youth.

Yet, at the same time, there is an ancient feeling here. After all, "Canberra" is derived from the Aboriginal term "meeting-place", and First Nations people have congregated around the area for tens of thousands of years. This sense of history, of spiritual permanence, is reflected in the Indigenous art that populates the city from Parliament's forecourt to the National Gallery's walls.

Canberra's mix of oldness and newness, then, combines to create a feeling of both majesty and possibility, gravitas and approachability. It means the high risk of an e-scooter injury might be worth it.

Even more exciting to me is the variety of people. Offering the unique opportunities that a capital city does, Canberra seems to draw in interesting and intelligent types.

The ANU is packed with luminaries and everyone here has a story about brushes with ASIO agents, political kingmakers and foreign dignitaries. Indeed, I'm fast developing my own tales - last week I met a man on the light rail who showed Queen Elizabeth around the High Court in 1980.

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With the interesting come the overbearing, of course. I've been asked to join the Communist Party and to attend the warehouse sale of a popular shop in Fyshwick.

But that's par for the course in any city, right?

Yes, it's not all perfect. Pop stars don't come here to sing and it will be a long time until there is a Canberra Olympics. But, if you ask one newly arrived, the uniqueness of this place makes up for it.

The arboretum, the man-made lake, the pantheon of memorials and sculptures and oddities - two months in, Canberra is still surprising me at each turn with new and wonderful sights.

And, to those friends of mind who still disparage our capital city: look no further than the Mooseheads Thursday night three-dollar drinks. You'll be a Canberra convert too.