Tassie 18.-23.3.2010

From Melbourne we flew over to Tasmania, the island just below continental Australia. Our destination was the island's capital and third-biggest city Hobart. We didn't know that bringing fruits to Tasmania is forbidden, so got a bit anxious when a beagle came to snuff up our stuff and Inka's backpack was taken aside. Luckily, her dried plums were allowed, so she didn't end up with a hefty fine.

Hobart had a nice small town atmosphere. It felt like going back 40 years in time, looking at all the old retro style store signs. Outside the city centre all houses had only one storey - apparently this is the common style in Australia. The people in the city were clearly of the down-to-earth type: everybody seemed to dress for comfort and weather instead of style, so you would rather see people in fleece jumpers than high heels. You could also tell from their face that they enjoy the outdoorsy lifestyle, as the sun damage was clearly visible on their skin. Hobart also boasts the deepest harbour in the Southern hemisphere, but frankly, there's not so much more to see.

On Friday we participated in a tour to Freycinet national park up the East Cost. We got to do some hiking in the forest and climb on the lookout to see the famous Wineglass Bay. We were still excited to be out in the nature, and see the rock formation and plants that all look very foreign to us. We also spotted a wallaby (related to kangaroos), our first Aussie local animal.
Even more than the national park I loved looking through the van window at the countryside on the way there. Golden meadows, lonely trees and rugged coast lines were breathtakingly beautiful - I would have wanted to stop the car every two minutes to take pictures of everything around us.

In addition to the food for the eyes, we stopped at Kate's Berry Farm near Swansea for some fuel for our bellies. Oh my god, I've never tasted anything as tasty as the mingleberry pie with ice cream here. Still now two weeks later when I'm writing this, I get an urge to jump on the plane and fly there just to taste that pie again. Mom, please bake some from me when I come home!
On Saturday we went to the infamous Salamanca Market in Hobart. It was a huge, outdoor market place selling all kinds of stuff from food to tools to clothing. Can't believe how cheap we are, but we had a very nice mid-morning snack trying all the free tasters there: home-baked chocolate cookies, ten different types of fudge, jams, berries, bread... they all were SO good. I had some lovely English-style beef&bacon filled pie for lunch. If there was a market like this in my town (wherever that is) I would go there every weekend.

We've also discovered other money-saving ideas, such as how to get to use free internet. The backpacker magazine TNT has coupons for all kinds on freebies and discounts, including at 15-minute internet coupon for our Hobart hostel. They're supposed to allow only one use per customer per stay. Well, what do you think we do when there's a stash of these magazines in the hostel lounge, and different people working at the reception every day? Let's say we got to go online as much as we wanted to.

We did another tour on Monday, visiting the former penal colony in Port Arthur, where the English shipped their prisoners to in the 19th century. The former prison complex was actually a small village for the prisoners, soldiers and other civilians who worked there. They had fantastic exhibitions about how life was like back then and how people lived. We got to go inside the prisons and also the homes of the people who lived there, and heard interesting stories about the convicts who tried to escape. The place still had a bit creepy atmosphere, and I was sad to hear how the people were treated, whether they had done something to deserve it or not. All of it was really interesting though. It's hard to imagine that the whole of Tasmania used to be a prison (nowadays there's just one on the island), and that every Tasmanian is related to at least one convict.

On this very informative tour we also got to know stuff about the history of the aborigines. There have been aborigines in Australia for 40 000 to 60 000 years (depends on the source). The scientists still haven't found out how they got there. If they sailed here 60 000 years ago from Indonesia or East Timor and started a colony, that would have been tens of thousands of years before any other humans on Earth were developed enough to build any boats for seafaring. It's not possible that their race could've developed independently from the humans in Africa, because there were no monkeys on the island to develop from. And on top of that, they also had the skills to survive in this harsh country, in deserts and everything. (Yes, I have been reading Bill Bryson's Down Under, a super interesting and funny book that I'd recommend to anyone interested in Australia.)

The aborigines walked to the Tasmania from Australia when the island still had a land connection to the mainland. After that, they have been alone for 12 000 years. I can't even understand how long that is. It is the longest time a group of people have been isolated in human history. When the white people came to Tasmania in the early 19th century, it took only 70 years for the local aborigines to become extinct, being killed by English people or dying of the foreign diseases they brought with them. Can you imagine having a place for yourself for thousands of years, and then losing everything in just a few decades?

On Tuesday it was time to fly back to Melbourne. We thought we would be fine taking a later airport shuttle bus, but after all only got to the airport less than an hour before hour flight, quite stressed wondering whether we would make it to the flight or not. It would've been fine, as our flight was 2,5 hours late (Jetstar's whole schedule was messed up because of a broken plane). Thanks to this, we only got to Melbourne just before midnight...