So Long Hobart, It Has Been Great

Check out time is 10:00 am. This seems to be fairly standard practice here, but it seems way too early to me. We had everything ready, went for breakfast and checked out. The shuttle was arranged to take us to the airport at 2:40 for our 4:15 flight to Adelaide. We had time to kill. These were the best four nights sleep I have had in years. The coffee shop in Salamanca Square had free WiFi Internet with a purchase. This was the first time I had an opportunity to download mail so it took some time sorting through the spam and the good stuff. We were there for close to an hour, before Ron started getting antsy, so I knew I could not take the time to upload blog entries then. The day was gusty, really windy, making it feel colder than it was since the sun was trying to penetrate the clouds. We had not explored the wharf, so we did that, but the wind was blowing the water off of the bay making it feel like a cold rain. There is much history down at the docks if one is interested in Australian history, but we gave it a quick going over. We walked into the downtown area, where the wind was still whipping around. People walking around in shorts and short sleeve shirts were huddling themselves against the gusts of cold air, but looking accepting as this is a fact of life for them. It seemed like we were never going to get close to the time for the shuttle, so we headed back to the 24 Hour Salamanca Bakery to share a sandwich for lunch. Yet, we still had over an hour to kill. After picking up our things at the hotel, we went to the meeting point and waited. The shuttle was late, so Ron ventured back to the hotel to have them call again. As soon as he disappeared from sight, the shuttle showed and I had to run to get him. Hobart is by no means a large city, so the ride to the airport was not a long one. The whole of Tasmania has 500,000 inhabitants on the island. There was something healing about Hobart and Tasmania. I never used my sinus medication nor did I ever have to use a tissue. I felt better than I have in years, breathing like a teenager again. The dark circles under my eyes disappeared completely, and I am actually feeling good about the way I look facially, at least. With all of the eating out and the coffee stops, my body doesn't look as good as my face. At the moment, if I was floured down, I could be a fill-in for the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Much of it is water weight, since I am accustomed to drinking a couple of liters of water a day. It is impossible to do on a vacation when you wind up spending half of the day looking for a men's room. Tasmania is really a beautiful state and well worth the trip. Checking in to Virgin Blue, we found our plane was going to be fifteen minutes late. This after e-mailing me that our flight was moved up by five minutes. The plane was unusual as it only had a 2-2 configuration, but very long. The safety card showed it as being an E190. I had never flown on one before. The flight was less than two hours and Adelaide has a half hour time difference, so we gained one half hour. The shuttle was the best way of getting into the city; for $5.00 each it is a bargain. We were dropped off right around the corner from our hostel. This is the same hostel we stayed at when we first started the trip and we are just one room away from our previous room. The hostel room for both of us is $88.00 a night, a bit pricey for a hostel, but this one is worth it. After dumping our things, we went to find food. We bought some things at the Chinese supermarket since it was the only one open. We have breakfast covered anyway. Then we went to the Hog's Breathe Café for dinner. Funny, we did not do much today, but we are both worn out. There is something about the stressors of getting to and from the airport and the poor circulation of air on planes that knocks you out. Ron is already talking about what tour he wants to take while here.

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Good bye Cairns, Hello Hobart

Andrew our personable weather forecaster told us this morning that some areas around us had twenty-four inches of rain in the last twelve hours. Two feet of rain in twelve hours. How amazing is that? Because of this, he thought it wise to bring us to the airport earlier than he anticipated last night, which was fine by me. I thought he was cutting it close as it was. As we were driving past these green fields, they were littered with dozens of wallabies grazing. It was so funny to see so many of them in one place. I also kept seeing signs stating “Do not transport electric ants. Make sure you do not have any with you.” I meant to ask Andrew what that was about, but got sidetracked and didn't. I will have to Google them. Again, we were checked in within ten minutes with our boarding passes for both flights. We have to connect in Melbourne to continue on to Hobart. The Melbourne flight first hand to fly in from Melbourne to do a turn-around and it arrived late, so we were late taking off. We only had thirty minutes to make our connection for the Hobart flight, so we were slightly concerned about missing our connection. As it turned out, it was not a concern at all. It was the same plane at the same gate, but not the same crew. For the first segment, the entire crew was male. For this segment, it is mostly male. Virgin Blue is so efficient, but our departure from Melbourne is as we are landing. Will we make it? Sure we will, it is the same plane we just got off of taking us to Hobart. Not an all male crew this time, but still friendly and efficient. Hobart airport is small. On the baggage carousels, there are options listed for getting into the city. The best bet was the shuttle at $25.00 per person with a return. It was sitting outside the door, there were only 8 others and Hobart is supposed to be small, so did not take too long for us to be dropped off at Customs House Hotel. Coincidentally, it is also a pub hotel, which we did not have a clue about. We had to check in at the pub, reception was closed by our arrival at 7:30 pm. The bar staff was pleasant and quickly got us settled. As we drove into the city, I noticed there was not much open. This looks like a sleepy little city. Our room is extravagantly large with a sizable bathroom. We went downstairs to question the bar staff about restaurants and other than suggesting their own, told us to the left and right on the street out the door there are plenty of choices. We are directly across the street from the harbor and across the street in the other direction is a lovely Parliament park. We walked in one direction and found nothing open, turned around and went the other way. A few blocks away is the Salamanca Square, where there are a number of restaurants and pubs. Checking out menus, we found that prices here are even higher than Sydney. All of the little shops in between the eateries, drinking stations were closed, but looked worth investigating further. I needed to buy cigarettes and could not find anywhere that they were sold other than one pub. I had to get a token from the bar staff that needed to be used before I could insert my money. This is how they keep under 18 year olds from buying cigarettes. Anyone under that age who can afford them is doing something else illegal. Finally deciding on a place to eat, we ordered while sitting outside, but it became a little too chilly to stay there. Inside was a strangely cut up large room with triangled sections separating tables. The food was delectable, but the portion was minuscule. For the prices, they should have given a double portion. Still being hungry after we finished, we refused the offer to see the dessert menu and order a coffee, but went across the square where there is a 24 hour bakery. Their selections are sinful, there are so many of them. Apple cake with dates and almonds screamed out my name so loudly, I was embarrassed at the attention I was getting in a public place. Ron decided that brownies are the true test of a good bakery. The scores are in, each judge held up a 10 on the their scorecards. Back at the hotel, our room is totally quiet, the bed is comfortable, and the television works. All of the American television shows seem to be a half year behind. They are just previewing the new season of Desperate Housewives. Off to sleep.

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Sydney to Cairns

The shuttle was promptly there to get us at 7:50 am, but like at home, there were others to collect before heading to the airport. We were flying Virgin Blue, a subdivision of Virgin Airlines from England, owned and operated by Richard Branson. They were most efficient in checking us in, surprisingly, with the exceptionally long lines, we had our boarding passes in fifteen minutes. They board by having the front rows board in the front of the plane and the rest from the back. By 10:00 am, we were on the runway. Food and drinks are available for purchase at slightly inflated prices, but not much more than in the shops. The flight was three hours, but Cairns is one hour earlier, so we gained an hour.

As soon as we collected our luggage, we called Boyz on the Beach, where we are booked. Bob was there within five minutes to transport us to the place. A bit of a diversion here. Think about the name of the place we are staying and picture it in your mind. Boyz on the Beach...Now, I knew it was a gay place. We looked at their website http://www.boyzonthebeach.com.au/home.htm. Boys Beach, ready now. Andrew and Bob, the two owners are my age (Bob) and older (Andrew) if they are day. It has been decades before now that they could call themselves boys. The beach is fifteen minutes away and is only a small beach where you have to be concerned about jellyfish, the nasty kind that was in the video of the 12 Most Dangerous Animals of the World. The beach is netted for protection from the nasties, but still is no guarantee. None of this information is on their site. I wonder why?

Okay, their place is lovely, the pool is exactly like the photo. All around the pool are lush plants of the tropical kind, both naturally planted and landscaped. They are more than hospitable and generous with their time. One major point for them is that they have free WiFi connections.

We booked a day trip to the reef, but not the Great Barrier, to an island. They told us that the problem with the great barrier reef was that due to recent storms and other storms threatening, the reef was so covered in whirling sand that it would be difficult to see anything. However, the other three guests here are booked for that trip already, since they booked before the storms came in. They will also be snorkeling from a boat, which is not the best. Once you are tired out, you are done. Snorkeling from land is much better to pace your energy.

So now here is the problem with the location. We decided to go to dinner, so we walked to the end of the street to catch the bus, which only runs once an hour. Just as we started walking out, the bus flew by, so back to the house we went to wait an hour. We left early, but again, a bus passed us by. We decided to wait it out in case there was more than one bus. We waited an hour, but the only bus we flagged down was going in the wrong direction. After moving to the other side of the street, we waited another half hour when a bus arrived. The female driver told us she does not go to where we wanted, but she would drop us off. There was no one else on the bus anyway.

The place Andrew and Bob sent us to was a strip mall. There was only one restaurant open, the mall attached was closed with the exception of the grocery store. We had to settle for Roberto's pizza with beers bought at the bottle store next door. There does not seem to be anything local here, which confirmed our impressions when they told us they were ordering out from a take-away restaurant for the other guests if we wanted to order. It is not like we can walk a few blocks and have choices, let alone a Starbucks or Gloria Jeans. I am not going to like it here, I can tell.

After dinner, we had to wait for the bus due at 9:50, because I saw the 8:50 whizzing on by. Everything closes at 9:00 in this strip mall, so we had to stand on the highway where we thought the bus would stop. After waiting in the pitch dark, no stars, no moon, no lighting, we had real concerns that when the bus came flying by, it would not see us anyway. By luck a taxi drove by and we flagged it down. It cost us $13.00 for the ride, but since he did not know the street we were on and it was not on his GPS, we gave him general directions. It was the wrong end of Bondi Street. In the black of night, we walked all of Bondi, hoping our street intersected at some point. It did. At the very end, we found our street, but I was a little panicked at the time thinking we were going to wander for hours before we found it. I had my phone with me, so as a last ditch effort, I could have called them for directions, but did not want to seem like helpless Americans, regardless of feeling like one.

This is definitely the tropics of Australia. It is hot and humid with monsoon and cyclone warnings all of the time. It is so hellish hot, getting out of the shower, you never get dry with sweat replacing shower water.

I am not going to like it here, I can tell.

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My Birthday - Sydney

The best thing about my birthdays is that we are always away on vacation when it comes around, so it makes getting older a little less distracting. Today is my day and I am supposed to decide what we do, but it is also our last full day in Sydney, so there are a few things we have not done yet to fit in.

Our first agenda item was to go to Bronte Beach. We had heard it is lovely and should not miss it. We found the correct bus to get there, but when the bus pulled into the bus station after a number of stops, we thought it was the end of the line. We also mistook what we though was a pedestrian street for a corso, or street leading to the beach. Being wrong on both counts, after walking a bit, we wandered into a Borders bookstore. So very similar to the States, this gigantic bookseller has shelf after shelf of tomes I would like to own, but the thought of lugging them holds me at bay. One difference here is the selection features a number of Australian writers, as well as American and British. So many books, so little luggage capacity on the airlines.

Ripping ourselves away from the store, we went back to the bus station to catch the bus to complete our journey to the beach. It actually was the same bus we were on, we just did not stay on it long enough. Bronte Beach in reality is like a picture postcard that you see and dream about visiting. A small piece of paradise, the water ranges from cloudy sky blue to rich hues of greens married to blues. The swimming area is small, but manageable with it roped off for safety. There are little coves with ocean water for the little ones and further along the rock line is a larger cove for the other children to swim safely without parental worries about sea creatures dragging their offspring off into the depths. After an hour, we tore ourselves away and took the bus back to a district where we found some used bookstores.

The bookstores were really a touch of Bohemia with little restaurants inside. Both sold new and used books. Ron found another book of his latest favorite Australian author. Everything I found was new and in hardcover, so it stayed on the shelf.

After returning to the hotel to drop off the books we purchased, we went to the State library, which had an exhibit by George Caddy and his photos of the Jitterbug. http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2008/jitterbug/index.html What was more incredible were his photos in the same exhibit on Bondi Beach. They were unbelievable what those people did. This was called Beacharobics. We spent a good two hours looking at each photo and then Ron ran into a man who happened to be on our New Years cruise and remembered him. This gentleman was the curator of this exhibit, so gave him more background information.

Our hotel is also a micro-brewery. We stopped there for a beer brew, arranged for the airport shuttle $12.00 per person, and then out to dinner. We wanted to return to a restaurant we had eaten at a couple of nights ago, but it was closed. They had 300 gram steaks for $5.00. Delicious!

We made it an early evening since we fly to Cairns tomorrow morning on Virgin Blue Airlines, one of the budget airlines in Australia. We were told that until they started up three years ago, Qantas has a monopoly allowing them to charge exorbitant fees. Now they can no longer gouge the public; they have a choice.

Surprisingly, Sydney has a void of free WiFi connections just as the other cities so far. Budapest is so far ahead in this arena when you can find a couple on each block. Each time I went into Gloria Jeans to check my e-mail using the connection I had paid for, I felt a little obligated to buy something since I was sitting there. Disappointing!

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