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!