Tasmania - June 22, 2012

Our hotel in Hobart had a kitchen, so we made delicious omelettes and sausages for breakfast before we started our long drive north.  If we had a theme for the trip, it would have to be dams.  It turns out that Tasmania is full of them, and geologists love them.  The first one we came across looked neat from the road, so we pulled up to the barricaded entrance and contemplated walking through the bush to see the dam.  At the same time, a truck from Hydro Tasmania  pulled up, opened the gate, and went in.  Justin jumped out of the car and asked if we could take a look, and they told us it was fine as long as we didn't go near the plant.  So off we went, through the woods, to see the dam. 

As we continued our windy drive, I needed a few stops to get over the motion sickness.  The first was just a nice lookout, and the second was a beautiful but gusty beach covered in seashells.

After a few hours, we finally made it to Freycinet National Park.  Our plan was to do a 2 hour hike to see a lookout of Wineglass Bay - supposedly one of the top 10 beaches in the world.  Of course, first the geologists needed to look at their new map.

We all decided that the hike wasn't especially hard (even for Kelsey who is pregnant, though I think I was the slowest of the bunch), and the view wasn't great.  We were surprised that the beach was rated so high, considering the beach we live next to is almost as beautiful.  Maybe it would have helped if it was warmer.

What really made the hike fun was our random photo shoots.  First, Justin played the evil troll under the bridge as the two billy goats gruff tried to cross.

Next, we were cavemen.

Then I tried to be a cavewoman, but I looked more like a monkey.

The hike had all sorts of beautiful trees and massive rocks, so the scenery getting to the lookout was the real gem.  Oh, and the random lounge chair was pretty cool too.

To end off the hike we had a gourmet lunch out of the back of the car, consisting of smoked salmon, cheese, crackers, chutney, veggies, and fruit.

By early evening we reached Launceston (or as we called it, L-Town, since Launceston is a weird word to say), and checked into Fiona's Bed and Breakfast.  We didn't have high expectations, but it turned out to be awesome!  The rooms were spacious with massive walk-in showers and living rooms.  We had read in our borrowed guide book that our B&B was right next to some Roman Baths, so after a cold day we decided that would be perfect.  Of course we didn't realize that our guide book was 4 years old, so the baths had actually been closed for almost 2 years.  We were majorly disappointed.

Next, we found out that the restaurant in the guide book had also closed down, so we walked to Hallam's Waterfront Seafood and gave it a try.  It also exceeded our expectations, and was very cosy and nice.  Of course we had some wine before we arrived, so Ryan decided to speak to the host in French...Kelsey and I cracked right up, but Justin was highly embarrassed, which just made us laugh even harder.  The host was a bit off put by it, but later he came back to our table to chat, so we kind of made up once he realized how much money we were spending.

Dinner was divine.  Upon Justin's suggestion, we all tried Abalone for the first time as an entre (kind of like a big scallop, but very fancy).  Sticking with the theme of fresh, Tasmanian fish, I had Trevalla with vegetables, and chocolate mousse for dessert.  All of it was amazing, and in my opinion it was probably the best meal of the trip.  When we finished eating, the boys were bugging us to take a taxi back to the B&B, but since it was only a 10-15 minute walk Kelsey and I refused.  We bet we would beat them home, so off we went.  As it turned out, the boys couldn't get a cab and ended up stopping at a pub for a pint on the way home.  Despite that, we were all still exhausted so we were in bed by 10:30pm.

Tasmania - June 21, 2012

Our latest adventure was to Tasmania with our Canadian geologist friends, Kelsey and Justin.  In my opinion it was our best trip so far, and I wouldn't change anything except my carsickness on the 1500 kilometres of  windy roads.

Our trip began when we woke up at 3:50am for our 6:10 am flight.  The four of us fly all of the time, but somehow we managed to cause all sorts of airport problems.  Kelsey and I both got selected for bomb screening, and Ryan somehow managed to smuggle a pocket knife disguised as a camera lens  through 2 security checks, but not the third.  Even after he unpacked his bag they didn't find the knife the first time, and he didn't know he had one.  Despite all of the attention we had on ourselves, I managed to get knitting needles through every security check.

We tried to sleep on the first flight to Melbourne, but gave up for the second flight to Hobart, so we were all pretty exhausted.  We arrived at 10:30 am and got a crazy taxi bus driver to the car rental place.   Then our trip could begin!  

We drove over this awesome bridge many times during the trip.

Our first stop was the harbour for a short walk on the docks and through the shops.

As soon as it opened, we went to Mures for lunch and ate delicious fresh, local fish overlooking the harbour. 

Of course the three geos wanted a geological map of Tasmania, so we found a map store before heading to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).  The MONA was surprisingly awesome because there weren't any plaques, so you could just enjoy the art for what it was.  Some highlights were the random white hands everywhere outside, the euthanasia machine (with a countdown on the computer until it said "you are dead"), and a really cool waterfall that wrote words.

Of course, I think the other three enjoyed the neat rock walls the most.  This is the first of many pictures like this.

A lot of the art was meant to be shocking, but I didn't think anything of it when a guide pointed us to the "art deco toilet".  The bathrooms were all really neat, with videos and audio playing in most of them.  Except for the special one that I used.  (Warning:  please forgive me if this is too much information.)  I sat down and noticed there were a pair of binoculars next to the toilet, so I used them to look around.  Sure enough, when I looked straight ahead, there was a mirror  on the wall that must have been connected to a bunch of other ones, because it was showing me peeing from the bottom of the toilet!  REALLY unexpected! Needless to say, many jokes were made at my expense for the rest of the trip because I was quite scarred from the experience.

The museum was also connected to  a cellar door, so we did a few wine tastings and bought some wine for dinner before heading to our hotel.  We stayed at the Somerset apartments in Salamanca, which is a pretty trendy area full of neat shops and restaurants. 

The view from our hotel was awesome, with the old buildings of Salamanca and the mountains in the background.

While wandering around the square and the alley ways of shops, randomly a lady was closing down her shop for the night and gave us free muffins.  Just what we needed to tide us over before dinner!

After picking up some groceries and treats, we went back to our apartment for some pre-dinner wine and snacks.  A short while later, the building fire alarm started going off.  We peeked out in the hall and saw that the people across from us were cooking and causing the alarm, so we didn't evacuate until the alarm got much more insistent.  Sure enough the fire trucks showed up, so we just went to dinner instead of waiting to get back in.

We settled on a place called "Barcelona" for dinner, and everything on the menu looked amazing.  Randomly they had an extra pizza, so we got a free pizza before we even ordered.  We were going to order that same one anyways, so it was an awesome score.  To end off the night, as we were walking back to our hotel some guys drove by us in a car and yelled "Go back to the mines!"  We were shocked that it was so obvious where we all came from!  

Footy: Crows Vs. Richmond - June 30, 2012

To celebrate Canada Day weekend here in Australia, we did one of the most Australian things we could do: go see a footy game.  We went with Ryan's old boss Andy and his daughter Gabby, and we had an awesome time.  In all the time Ryan and I have been together we have never seen a professional sporting event together, so it was another new experience for us.

Footy is primarily an Australian sport, though it does have international teams.  It is not the same as American football, or soccer, or rugby, but has some aspects of all three.  I won't bore you with the rules, but they were pretty simple and we had the hang of it after the first 20 minutes or so.  The weirdest part, though, was how small all of the players were!  They don't wear padding, so it was really weird to watch compared to hockey or American football.

This guy has the most beautiful hair I've ever seen.  I think his name is Sloan.  This was during warm-up, so that's why the stands aren't full.

The stadium was only a few kilometres from our house, so the traffic was quite bad in our area.  We took the bus, but it probably would have been faster to walk.  As we approached the stadium, like in Toronto, there were people everywhere dressed in team colours, some people were having barbeques, and lots were kicking around footballs. 

Once we got comfortable with the rules, my Wasylyk personality eventually emerged into a loud, cheering fan.  Andy and Gabby were amused by my enthusiasm, but Ryan wasn't surprised at all.  We had an extremely rowdy, drunk guy next to us cheering for the other team, so naturally I had to use some of my famous smack-talk on him.  After he yelled "That's a disgrace!", I screamed back "You're mom's a disgrace!" and later, "Take that, ya hoser!"  Even after that, the old lady behind us still thought we were American…  I felt a little bad, but it was all in good fun.

The first quarter was bad because the Adelaide Crows were losing pretty bad, but we made a massive comeback and won respectably.  Overall it was a pretty exciting game of footy, and I'm so glad we went.

After the game we were allowed on the field for awhile, and out of nowhere appeared hundreds of footballs.  While posing for a picture, Ryan somehow managed to trip me and I ended up sprawling on the ground.  No pictures of that though, since the camera wasn't on (thank goodness).

We ended up walking home, and I'm pretty sure we beat most of the traffic.  Really, though, we needed some way to wear off the beer and chiko rolls!

(I swear posts about Tasmania are coming soon, but they're much harder to write since there are so many pictures to go through!  Be patient.)