Trip Report Contents
Arrival Day
(Hello, Hobart, nice to meet you)
Quick Summary: Our arrival
day into Tasmania, from the city market to a special birthday dinner.
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Arriving Into Hobart
The landing into Hobart was smooth
and we used up all of the short runway at Hobart International. There was work being done to the taxiway, so
we made a U-turn at the end of the runway and taxied halfway back up the runway
and turned to pull up near the tiny terminal.
We deplaned down a set of stairs at the forward part of the cabin, while
another set was used at the rear of the aircraft.
We filed into the terminal building,
past a dog stationed to sniff for fruit and vegetables, which are not allowed
to be brought onto the island. Soon
enough our bags popped out and we headed out of the building.
We originally planned to get the
car the day after we arrived, mainly because I didn’t know how we’d feel and
because driving on the left side of the road tired is not a good idea. As it turns out, we felt fine and wanted to
get the car then and there, but they had none available. The stop wasn’t totally wasted, though, as we
managed to change our booking from the airport to the office in the city
center, saving us another taxi fare and some time.
Back at the taxi queue, we loaded
our bags in, loaded ourselves in, and set out for the hotel.
The ride was across very rural
countryside on a nearly-deserted freeway.
Within about twenty minutes we were at the hotel. We checked in, dropped our stuff in the room,
and immediately headed out to the Salamanca Market, as we had only a couple of
hours before it would close.
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| Our hotel |
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| View from our room |
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| View from our room |
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| View from our room |
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| View from our room. Only day of sunshine in Hobart |
Visiting the Salamanca Market
Just as we got to the market the
cloudy skies that had greeted us at the airport began to drop a little
rain. It was by no means a downpour but
it was annoying enough that a relaxing visit to the market wasn’t really
possible.
We did our best to make it through
the market and did see most of it. It
reminded me lots of such markets I’d seen in other places, from Cape Town to
Bogotá to Vancouver to Saint John. There
were some local products, some crafts, some kitsch, some this, some that. There was a cruise ship in port, so the place
was really crowded with day-trippers.
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| At the market |
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| At the market |
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| At the market |
Getting Aquainted With Hobart
From the market we set out and
strolled around Hobart. The pace of the
rain picked up and we eventually ducked into a shop for an umbrella. We bought our roadmap for the trip. We walked into some shops, strolled through
some parks, and just tried to get a sense of the place. It reminded me a good bit of some of the
smaller Canadian cities I’ve been to, like Saint John or a much smaller version
of Halifax.
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| Saint David's Park |
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| Saint David's Park |
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| Saint David's Park |
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| Mt Wellington |
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Downtown Hobart
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Downtown Hobart
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Fountain
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Park
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Park
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Fountain
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| Fountain |
Our First Brush With Australia’s Prices
As the afternoon began to wane, we
decided we’d duck in somewhere for a beer to regroup before heading back to the
hotel to freshen up for dinner. It was
then that we got our first reality check of what the prices would be like: $18 for two draft beers at a hole-in-the-wall
pub. Wow.
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| Expensive--but delicious--beers |
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| One of the excellent Tasmanian beers |
The Birthday Dinner
Sunday was Philip’s birthday, but,
the restaurant we wanted to go to being closed Sunday and a suitable
replacement illusive, we decided to celebrate Saturday night. The restaurant was about a mile or so north
of the hotel, in North Hobart. We walked
there, almost regretting it partway through, but we made it in time for our
reservation.
We came to know about the
restaurant, called
Solicit, through a colleague I had at work. My colleague had met the owners on a vacation
and they’d kept in touch. She put me in
touch with them and we traded emails. I
would not have gone to eat there just because of that connection, but it
certainly led me to the idea; and, so glad it did! We had an excellent meal, one that was
certainly the best of our entire trip.
(Find the review here.)
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| Me poring over the menu |
We started out with a sort-of
appetizer sampler, including local oysters, and bites of different things. Delicious.
For the main course Philip had pork, which was done to perfection; I had
wallaby, which, I have to admit, I got just because there’s no other place I
could imagine getting such a dish except Australia. My curiosity was well-rewarded, as it was
delicious. The Tasmanian Pinot Noir
recommended was quite good. An excellent
meal and a wonderful experience.
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| Our shared starter, pretty much a sampling of several things, all of them excellent (except the oysters: I really don't like raw oysters, even though I keep trying to!) |
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Philip, looking forward to the main course
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| Philip's pork dish |
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| Wallaby, which tasted really good and was done to perfection, part of our best meal of our whole trip |
After dinner we got a taxi back to
the hotel, unwound a little, and turned in for the night.
