Tasmania! Or Tassie (Tazzy) as it is more affectionately known. We had another ridiculously early morning (for the record, 7am flights suck) and navigated Melbourne's crazy streets once again. This is another city that loves toll roads, which are all fine and good except here they don't have toll booths- you have to call or go online to pay for your pass, otherwise you get a fine, and the rental car company gives you an even heftier fine because they are the ones charged for you. Luckily you have 3 days to pay, but unluckily you are supposed to know your exact point of entry and exit on the toll road (even though there are no clearly marked entrances to even really let you know you are on a toll road at all!!) otherwise you have to pay for the whole entire thing... like we clearly ended up doing. Humph.
But anyways, on to Tasmania. We arrived in Hobart and took the airport shuttle into the city. We checked into our hostel which was right downtown in the heart of the action, and Mike the manager was very friendly and talked us through any number of different routes we could take in our week in Tassie while pointing to a giant map on the wall that was taller than me. Those that laugh at what a small island it is though should know- it might look small compared to the rest of Australia, but those driving distances are much longer than they look!
We had breakfast at a place called the Underground, presumably named so because it is underground. Tassie people are some of the friendliest I've ever met. Our first foray into the city we pulled out our little pocket map and the first guy to walk by asked if we needed any help, and after pointing out the appropriate direction, wished us a good stay. In the little cafe the girl working overheard our conversation about where to go and recommended heading north Freycinet Bay because it is so beautiful, but not to stay at the lodge there because it is way overpriced. I think in most cities locals would have looked at us and snorted, sometimes under their breath, "stupid tourists". I like friendly people.
After a wander around town, we hopped on a local bus that took us to the
Cascade Brewery right at the base of Mount Wellington. This is the oldest brewery in Australia, and we went on a VERY informative tour of the brewery, making sure to don our yellow vest and safety goggles beforehand. We saw all the different barley and roasts, smelled the hops, visited the vats and the bottling operation, and of course the best part- tasted the beers. The actual brewery is in the original stone structure built in 1824 and the tasting room is in a very modern stone and glass building with great views and beautiful gardens.
The logo for Cascade features the Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger. This animal is classified as extinct, but there have been hundreds of reported sightings since its demise. It is also an exciting creature because there has been much talk of trying to resurrect the species through cloning, if they have sufficient genes. This talk has been going on for a while, but is probably the most serious in the discussion of bringing extinct animals back to life (probably more practical than the wooly mammoths or even Neanderthals that have also been discussed). A woman on the tour with us grew up in Tasmania, and her mother remembered seeing the last Tasmanian tiger in the zoo when she was a child. It died in 1936.
On a less sobering note, Cascade has a (faux) Tassie Tiger on display named Trixie and they let us go behind the bar and take pictures with her.
After our tour and ample tastings we wandered back into town. I was pleasantly surprised by the weather, which I would describe as mild. We checked out Salamanca Place which apparently is very popular for its Saturday market and is full of little galleries and restaurants, and got a drink at a low key place- most people in Hobart do it up pretty classy in the evenings, even on Thursday. We inevitably met a friend, giant Jimmy (Jimmehhh) from Scotland, who reminded me very much of a walrus. A slightly inebriated walrus. He was very excited we were from the US, as he doesn't have a particularly high opinion of the States (and this was a view shared by a number of adult Australian's we met that day). They thought, on the whole, American's didn't pay enough attention to what was going on in the rest of the world and were too caught up thinking they were at the center of the universe. And this is coming from TASMANIA, a place even Aussie's joke about being inbred and backwards... some food for thought.
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