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Published: March 19th 2011
Autumn along the trail
The leaves were just starting to turn yellow and some had already started russling along the path. Early on Thursday morning, I caught the shuttle bus back to the Melbourne airport. I have never spent so much time in airports when traveling. But, there I was again. For the second time, I did not have to show my ID. No passport at the bag drop counter, no passport or driver's license at the security check point...nothing. Very laxed here is seems...
My flight was good. I was happy to be flying during daylight. All of my flights in Fiji and here have been at night so I can never see anything. Finally, some from the air perspective! It was about an hour flight and since it was very cloudy, my sightseeing was cut very short. I didn't see anything again until we were on our approach near Hobart. Hobart sits on the southeast side of Tazmania - or Tassie as its locally called. The Aussies like to shorten everything. The airport was quite cool. You came into from over the ocean and then there is a single airstripe on what looks like a pennisula of sorts. I almost felt like I was landing in an island in the Carribbean. This flight I was on Jet Star. As
we landed, I saw that the airport was smaller than the one in Tallahassee, FL. They didn't have any actual gates. They just wheeled stairs up next to the plane and you walked on the tarmack. Now, I was on a big plane...Airbus 320 or something AND, you exited from the front and back of the plane! What fun!!! So I went out the back door (swingers style) and was able to walk the length of the plane. It was so fun to see the plane from the ground right next to it. I almost took out my camera to snap a photo and then thought that I might get tackled by security. After I walked into hte building, I realized, there was no security. Ah well...I'm such a nerd! I had to wait all of 3 mins for my checked luggage...awesome! And then I was on the bus into town. As we drove over the huge bridge over the river and came into town, I thought, this is what I'm looking for! This is the charm and character that I want to see in Australia! I love cities and exploring cities if fun, but when traveling like this, I
One of the old original buildings in Battery Park
And the cafe I had breakfast at on Satuday. So yummy! more often like to get off the beaten path and see parts of the locale that are more unique. I found this in Hobart. I checked into the Pickled Frog hostel and met the owner, Rod. He's hilarious! I told him about my plan and asked for a few tips. I had the Casade Brewery tour at 1 pm and with today being St Patricks Day, I wanted to hit up a couple of local pubs. He had just the plan for me. He gave me the insider tip to take a path along the creek up to the brewery, then highlighted a few places to see in Battery Point. I settled into my room and checked the time, it was 11 am. I had a bit of time to explore town before I headed off for the brewery. I had to be there at 12:45 and I was looking at a 45 min walk.
Hobart has around 200,000+ people and is the second oldest settlement in Australia. Many of the buildings in the city are still from the early 1800s. Its incredible! the streets are narrow and the people are really friendly. I pop in and out of
Looking down on Hobart
This is from the top of Mt Wellington. a few book stores, still on the hunt for Girl who Played with Fire. I was under 100 pages and knew I'd blow through the first one in a couple of days. After seeing some of town, I turned around and made my way to the creek path. It was a beautiful walk! The creek used to be a large river that flowed from the top of the mountain to the ocean. Now, most of it was under the city but the creek was still there and the city added a park/path that runs the length of it. Or, runs the length of it from town to the brewery. I stopped my walk there. It follows along neighborhoods as it snakes its way through/down the mountain. It was quite a tough walk. And I was going at quite a good pace. I had to stop and get some lunch before getting to the brewery. Note to those of you that have never done a brewery tour...never, never do one on an empty stomach. After about 20 mins on the trail, I headed to the left on a street over to the main road. There I found a fresh bakery and
Standing on top!
At the peak of Mt Wellington. The wind was blowing really hard and I was freezing cold! Shocking, I know :-) would you believe, they sold sausage rolls! I swear, at some point, I'll eat something different. Side note, after the days in Hobart, I'm happy to report that my pants fit much better again! From here, I did the rest of my walk on the main road. This walk was equally as pretty. The homes very from modern to old. You had everything from 1800s cottage to large homes from the 1900s and modern townhouses in a row. Many of the older homes had stone walls out in front and you had to wonder how many lives have walked past them. The landscape changed a bit as the rivine for the river grew steeper and the homes spotted the hillsides. It was a pleasure to walk up. But I have to admit, when I got to the brewery, I was thirsty. I wish they served beer at the start of the tour!
The brewery is the oldest one in Australia. They started making beer in the 1820s and have been at it ever since. Like all good things, they are no longer privately owned. They are now a part of the Fosters group, but it seems they have retained
their unique beer brews along the way. The tour was quite calm compared to most brewery tours I've been on. And, for the first time, I had to wear protective goggles. I'm thinking this means that we're going to get up close and personal to things, but no, that was not the case. We start in a small room and our guide talked for 20 min about the hops and barely and whatnot. The most intesting thing she says is that they have a brew that using the hops when its still green and whole. I note that I have to try this beer at the end of the tour! From here we head into the brewery. We climb some seriously old stairs. The poor old guy (like in his 80s) in front of me...even I was glad when we got to the top. Here we stood in front of a made for show area that talked about the fermenting process. Then we walked into the room that has the HUGE (three story high) vats that hold the beer as they mix it all up. This was cool. It looked more like a room at NASA than a beer factory.
Best glass of Pinot Noir ever!
I was relaxing on the lawn outside of MONA and this was just a fun pic to take. Great wine! Then we headed back down the stairs and into an area where they get the kegs ready. This garage type space was full of kegs. It was site to see! Then to the bottling viewing area. We got to watch the bottles move along the tracks and get prepped for 6 and 12 packs. It was interesting. From here, the tour was pretty much over. We hit up the museum room and the best part about that was seeing an original photo of the brewery and the cottage that the manager lived in. From there, it was drinking time. Now, I had thought there'd be some other young people on this tour since it was St Paddy's Day. But instead I got retirees and 3 girls from Taiwan that didn't speak English. Awesome! So, I picked out my 3 beers - Blonde, Pure (all natural and Green beer) and First Harvest (the green hops one). I enjoyed them all very much! The Blonde was by far my favorite. The pure tasted like any light beer and the First Harvest was unlike anything I've ever had. You can only get this one at the distillery. Good stuff! I would not do
The snake
My favorite installment at the MONA. This photo is only about a 1/4 of the whole thing and with that guy in the pic, you can see the scale. the tour again, but if I make it back to Hobart, I will go up for one of these beers!
With a bit of a buzz, I start my walk back down the hill. For a moment I think about trying to catch a local bus. But then I decide that I really don't need to get to the next bar quicker and that walking is probalby the best idea. I really enjoyed my walk. It was a bright sunny day now and i took my time on the decent. It was beautiful to see the city below and and harbor and water. This is a very peaceful city. I make it down the hill without any trouble and head into Battery Park. This is some of the oldest areas of town. As I walk thru the area, I'm amazed by the homes. The city did a big push in the 60s or something to retain as many old buildings as they could. Now you've got building after building after building that looks like a snapshot of the past. They are all so well taken care of. Its incredible! I finally make it to the first bar...Shipwreck. Its in the corner of a building in the middle of homes. I walk in and there is a great old wooden bar, and about 7 old men (all more than 50) sitting at it. I smile, hit the head and then settle in for my first beer. At first I get a couple of curious looks. I start to wonder if Rod has sent me into a boys bar only. After a few minutes, I realize that I'm more than welcome. This bar is all about celebrating the yacht race on NYE from Sydney to Hobart. They have photos and articles all over the wall talking about it. I quickly decide that I will be spending a NYE in my future in Hobart! I ask the locals if its fun, one responds with the thickest Aussie accent I've heard and can barely understand...Only if you like to get pissed. I immediately responded, well yes, on occasion I do. He laughed. Ah, ice broken! I then had to ask a question of the bartendar, Owen. What's a Stubby Holder? For all of my US friends, we have to stop using the word Koozie (not even sure if that's how you spell it). In Oz, a bottle beer is called a stubby and therefore the koozie is called a stubby holder. I love it! I tell all the guys how we call it a Koozie, this gets a huge laugh. I've now made several new friends in Hobart! They ask me what I'm up to and I tell them that since my friends are in Ireland for St Paddy's Day, I was trying to do them proud by pub crawling around Hobart. They all love this. Owen goes and gets a pen and comes back and says, let me tell you where else to go. The men laugh as they come up wtih more places and I finish my beer and head out. I shake several hands on the way out the door. I'm pretty sure Owen would have been going with my on my crawl had he not been working. The next bar was called Prince of Wales. I walk into this place and immediately ask for Murray. The bartendar and what I find out later, owner, says, who's asking. I said, my name is Courtney, I've just come from Shippies and Owen sent me. This gets a huge laugh from him and the two other customers, both men. Again, I've immediately made new friends. Here, I sit for a long time as the guys tease Owen, Murry finally shows up and one of the older gentlemen asks me all about my travels. Its another great time in a bar! Two bars down and I'm loving my crawl! From here I head out. They all wish me well on my crawl and say to enjoy HObart in general. The next bar is Knopwoods Retreat. This is the most notorious place in Hobart. Back when it was a prisoners city, this was the place where all the hudlums hung out. The bar is absolutely great! Its in a row of old warehouse buildings that are made completely of stone that was quarried on the area. The interior feels like the kind of place you can settle into for a long time. I sat at one end of the long bar and talked a bit with the bartendars. This place is more popular in general, so talking with locals did not go over quite as well. But that's ok too. I thoroughly enjoyed my beer here and at this point, have a nice buzz. After I finish up, I have one spot left, Irish Murphy's. This place is just down the street and also in one of hte really old warehouse. This place is packed! This is one of the best places to be for the St Paddy's Day celebration. They have a huge outside area set up, people wearing green and silly hats, the works. I go inside and have an Irish beer instead of a Cascade and soak up the music. Again, this place was a bit harder to mingle with the locals and I only stayed for one beer. From here, I decide to head back to the hostel. I get there just in time for the free dinner...again, sausage on the grill. I can't get away from it! I have one immediately and start chatting with some of the others staying at the hostel. I then make my way inside and find Rod. I tell him about my afternoon and he's cracking up. He can't believe how I've met so many people and how they all laughed when they knew where I was staying. Some of them even knew Rod. This is the great thing about traveling. Getting in with the good locals! Rod buys me a beer and we chat about nonsense for a bit. Then I make my way over to one of the couches. I chat with another fellow US traveler and some Canadians. Then a guy from England sat down. He was nice until he started on the political talk. It was funny, both me and the other US girl rolled our eyes. I was like, why does this always come up and she was like and why do they always think we have some answer to give or justify it all. This guy of course wanted to talk about G.W. Bush. I just don't want to talk politics in general. I throw it back at him and say, what the hell was Blairs problem. He had absolutely nothing to say to that and the other US girl laughed. I know very little about Blair but do knwo that he was in office the same time as bush and they seemed to have a united front. I then got up and left the conversation. I made my way over to the bar and sat down. I got another beer and then was joined by a nother guy...this one Italian and really nice. His name is Perino, I think. His accent was very thick and he didn't speak a lot of English, but overall, we had fun talking. He had just completely the 6 day hike across Cradle Mountain. I'm jealous as I listen to him talk. I want to come back to Hobart and Tassie in general to see all it has to offer. Its such a wild place with so much of it a preserved area. It begs to be explored further! We have several beers together. He has to reference his Italian to English dictionary several times, we laugh a lot and then eventually, I head to bed. All in all, it was a great way to spend St Paddy's Day! I can't wait to hear the update from the Dublin crew though!!!
I get up pretty early on Friday in hopes that I can do the Mt Wellington bike ride. After I'm up and walking around, I realize that I have a bit of a hangover. Regardless, I make my way to the information center and have them call the bike group one more time. I'm still the only person interested in doing the ride so they are not going. I accept this and immediately book the small shuttle bus up to the top and back. either way, I'm going to see this place. I had some time to kill before the shuttle left, so I went into a cafe and got a break egg sandwich and hot tea. It was quit cold this morning...like 19 celcius. Dude, that's cold when you think that I've spent the majority of my travels in Fiji!. The shuttle up to the mountain left with about 8 of us. It was a really nice ride. The mountain is about 1200+ meters, I think and the road snakes its way up the side. As it turns out, the Aboriginals adn then the early white settlers used to use the same path/track to walk up the mountain. With my hangover, walking this seems unrealistic! Either way, the drive was very pretty. There are more and more trees wtih leaves changing color and I'm loving it! The reds and oranges and yellows, I really miss the fall! We drive through a small town and learn that the church here is the only building that survived a massive forest fire in the 60s. Its a really cute little place and looks like it can hold about 30 people. Its all painted in cream with red trim and I wish we could have stopped to go inside. Oh well. We also go by the bus stop in town. This is a classic! Its a semi-circle shelter with a roof and the locals have decorated it with a chandeliear, cushions, blankets, ect. It looks like a hip place to hang out. The guide lady says that its gets really cold in the winter, so the locals like to keep the stop comfortable! From here, we're almost to the top fo the mountain. As we pull in, I'm looking back down the mountain and you can see all of Hobart, the surrounding areas, the harbor, the ocean and even some of the islands just off of shore. Its a cloudy day and we are literally just under the layer of clouds. At one point, we were almost engulfed in them when we were at the top. The winds were quite strong and according to the guide, its usually at least 10 degrees cooler at the top than it is in Hobart. I was layered up, but still cold! I put up the hood on my sweatshirt and my windbreaker. Yeah, didn't help much, but it was at least a little better. I walked the whole area for about 40 mins. The coolest part was that the rock on this mountain is a special kind of lava rock and only found in 3 places, here, Stewart Island NZ and Antartica. I was happy to find this out since I don't think I'll ever see the other 2 places :-) The rock looks like a bunch of big boulders on top of one another that could crumble at any time. There are great bushes and flowers and ground cover all over. Its magnificent! The views out over the water and the city below are just breathtaking. You can see how the river snakes up into the land, its great! The clouds did not allow for any views of the mountains behind us or of the west coast, which you can sometimes see. Either way, it was spectacular. I braved the wind and climbed up to the peak for a quick photo. The decent back down the mountain was pretty as well. We saw the area where locals come and bottle water. You can drink the water at the top. It supposedly some of the cleanest water in the world! On the drive you got to see the forest change from the low bushes to the think woods. I loved it! By the time we ended up back in the city it was lunch time. For a bit of a change, I settled on asian food. I got a lunch special which also became most of my dinner! I was a very happy girl to have something different for a change. I then walked around town more and explored some of the old buildings. It really feels like walking through a time warp of sorts. I then made my way down to the water front and explored the marinas and whatnot. It was fun to see all of the old buildings there as well. There were several sailboats and a few fishing boats. I can't imagine what its like to fish in the waters between here and Antartica!
I decided to catch the 2 pm ferry to MONA, a brand new modern art museum that is up the river. Before going though, I went into a cafe to get my afternoon flat white. Seriously, what is this habbit I've formed!?!?!? its got to stop, its not good for my wallet. But, happy as a clam, I boarded the ferry adn settled in for the 30 min ride. This was a great way to see the city from the water! I didn't think much about it before we started off, but it was really fun! I was taking in all the sites and really getting a chance to see the coast a bit. The city is not a bunch of high rises or anything, but still looks impressive from the water with the mountain hovering in the background. The river ride was great too. You got to see some of the surrounding burbs and some old factories. Its a very pictureque ride. The hills out to the east become rolling and lead you to the coast. its quite different then the views west of Hobart that take you into a vast forest area that is said to be wild. We pull up to the MONA and I'm not quite sure what to expect. I've heard it will mess wiht your mind...that's its beautiful...that's its strange. To summarize, I agree. The building itself is really cool. The museum is half owned by the bass player from the Violent Femmes (a music group) and currently its free to the public. Its built into the side of the rolling hills and from the inside you can see the stone. So, the building itself is like a work of art. On the outside, they have roofs with grass on them and whatnot...all very 'green' and I like it. The exhibits and art itself are strange and amazing. Many of them are really modern and I don't seem to understand them. Some of them are modern and really cool - words in water - the snake wall - and a few others. Most of them just feel really angry and disturbed. It seems as if this was a general focus of it all. Then you have ancient Egyptian pieces mixed in. So, it has a biazzare feel but overall, I'm really happy I went. I even got to see an mummy in the tomb. Very cool! After I finished with the museum, I headed out to the lawn area for a local wine. I tried the Pinot Noir, settled into a bean bag and pulled out my book. It was sunny and I was happy! This lawn area is a great event space, complete with small stage at one end. Part of me wonders if they need an event planner...the museum space has my mind working and then wtih the outdoor space...but then I realize, this is really far south...it will be far to cold int he winter for me :-)
When boarding the ferry to go back to Hobart, I ask the captain about oysters. I had heard that there are great ones in Hobart and that they need to be eaten. He's more than happy to help me out and tells me to see him when we get back to the harbor. I enjoy the ride home. The wind picked up considerably and the sailors have taken advantage of it! The river and harbor areas are filled wtih sailboats. What a way to take in a beautiful afternoon and sunset! The captain shows me where to go for dinner once we land at the harbor and I'm off. I make my way to Mures. Its supposedly a Hobart establishment for yrs and yrs. I end up getting 1/2 dozen oysters and a fishermans sample basket. The food is good! Although, the oysters do not beat the ones I've had in DC (thanks Ucle Joe and Vic!). But overall, the food is really good and its fun to try the local stuff. They use a french dressing of sorts on their oysters. It was ok, but I missed my horseradish. I then make my way back to the hostel and settle in for the night. I hang a bit with my Italian friend, I chat books with an older fellow from the US (what's up with all the US peeps in hobart?) and gave him my Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and then convince some of the girls that watching men play rugby on the TV is better than watching Save the Last Dance. I finally hit the bed around 11:30. I slept like a rock too!
I was up by 8 am on Satuday morning. This was my travel day, back to Melbourne, and I had one more Hobart staple to get in. The Salamanca Place Saturday Market! My Australia trip might need to be renamed, the Exploration of Markets! LOL I got a great breakfast (chocolate croissant and tea) and then made my way to the market. It represented Hobart and Tassie so well! I just loved it. Its all temporary tents set up and most tents have locals selling their handmade items. Wood works, wool hand knitted into things, fresh flowers, fresh fruits (I got the best blueberries I've ever had!). They had everything. I heard a singer and her guitarist do the most haunting rendition of Hallelujah I've ever heard. It gave me chills. I wondered for almost 2 hrs and really enjoyed my time. I talked to some locals again and learned even more about the area. It seems that those that live here are overall very happy and very laid back. They are outgoing adn friendly and like to meet others. The funny thing about my days here is that most of the tourists I met were other Aussies. They vacation in Tassie it seems. I thought that was quite fun. So now I'm armed with some tips as I continue on through the rest of the country.
My flight back to the mainland was great. It was more clear and I was able to see more. Tassie is a large island that is covered in green. Then, you can see these glowing beaches as you hit the coast. I can only imagine what it must look like from the ground! Back in Melbourne, and to the hostel I went. I had to head out immediately to find the next book - The Girl Who Played with Fire. Four bookstores later, I'm a happy girl. I'll be heading to bed early tonight. I set out for a 3 day trip tomorrow on the Great Ocean Road. I'll finish up in Adelaide and will write again when I get there. Happy St Joseph's day to all my Italian's!
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Elise
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Glad Hobart is too cold to entice you to stay ;)
I'm happy to hear that you Hobart has rough enough winters to keep you traveling and not settling ;) Your St. Patty's day sounded so fun!! Love and miss you tons!! Always love reading your updates!!!!!!!