ADELAIDE PICS!

I've been here almost three weeks, so I guess its about time you got a couple photos.

Love,
Emma


1. Busker juggling fire at the Fringe Opening Night




2. The Garden of Unearthly Delights




3. Black Swans, just as evil as the regular white kind.




4. The Giant Rocking Horse.




5. Me and Anke, aren't we cute!

Dolphins and Friends

It's been a while since my last post, but with good reason because I've actually been hanging out with friends! Yes it seems that my requirement for making friends with people is about two weeks- I've become part of the hostel clique to an extent, and it is just a wonderful feeling. Now for the past few days:

Tuesday I went to the theater workshop as planned. It was fairly interesting, although it turned out to be partly structured for artists interested in bringing their show to the fringe in the future. Still, a fine educational way to spend the afternoon. In the evening I went to volunteer and actually got to be on headset for an hour (the girl whose job it is to be on the headset wanted to watch the show and decided I was responsible enough to take over). So that was all good.

Wednesday I woke up before dawn to go on a swim with the dolphins trip. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as well as I had imagined. First of all, the boat was filled with couples- mostly from the Police and Fireman Games that are happening in Adelaide this week (its a big event where policemen and firemen from all over the world come and compete against each other in various sports). Because of this, I was the only one in the boat on my own, which is never very fun. But worse then that, we just had really bad luck with the dolphins. We saw lots of them, which was nice, but when we would get into the water for a "swim" they didn't come up and play with us like they usually do. The way that we could swim with them, to keep them and us safe, was that there would be long ropes dropped off the back on the boat, and we would hold onto the ropes and sorta float there in the water. We had snorkel gear on (and wet suits!) but the water was not very clear and the dolphins never got close enough to see underwater. It looked kinda silly, all of us hanging off the boat on these ropes, waiting for the dolphins to swim up to us. I got a better look at them in Monkey Mia and all I had to go was stand on the beach! At the end of the trip, the company gave us vouchers to come back again for free- but they're booked till Tuesday and I'm leaving Monday, so that won't be happening. Maybe next time...

Fortunately, the day got much better after I got back to the hostel. From about 3pm to midnight I really just sat around and talked to people- especially to Anke, who has become a good friend in just the past few days. There are also two British guys, Paul and Dennis, who have been living here for a few months and were chatting with us all evening. At one point we all started making our own little dinners- which is always slightly depressing to cook just for yourself I think- and we decided that we really should cook something together the next night (which was also going to be Anke's last night), and so we planned this Mexican feast. Its hard to describe in a blog how much fun it can be just to sit around and talk to people, but it really was great.

Yesterday was yet another friend filled day. It was also the hottest day I've had in Adelaide so far. We thought about going to the beach, but decided we were too lazy. Instead I went to the Botanic Gardens with Lot, and we just lay on the grass for a while. When we got back, I did laundry and then went grocery shopping with Paul and Anke. Paul did most of the cooking- we had beef and chicken fajitas, nachos, and very un-Mexican potato wedges just because Paul wanted to make them. We were also joined by a newly arrived Canadian girl, Moya, who seems very nice. After eating we went to the pub next door, but Anke and I left after one drink because she had to get up at 6am this morning. We were so sorry to leave each other though, and we stayed up drinking tea for a while longer.

As for today, I've been on my own most of the day now that Anke is gone. I did some errands and some shopping, and went to visit the Haigh's Chocolate Factory for the free tour and tasting. Fortunately I got back home before it started to pour! The first rain I've seen in Adelaide- good for everyone who lives here, but not so good for walking around. Ah well. I guess that's about it for now. Tonight I'm volunteering and tomorrow I may visit the Aborigional Cultural Center. I've got to hurry up and see everything in Adelaide before I leave on Monday- so soon!

Love,
Emma

Glenelg

Just got back from Glenelg, which is where the beach is outside of Adelaide. Its not a very nice beach, but I went with a bunch of people from the hostel- Dutch girls Meryl, Lot, and Anka, a German girl, an Austrian girl, and two other Dutch guys. While we were there we also met up with Anka's friend who she met on the airport shuttle bus into town, an American (amazing! only the 4th or 5th one I've met this whole time!) guy named Nathan. We mainly just sat on the beach and talked, went swimming briefly- the water is very shallow and flat more like the bay than the ocean- and I walked around the shopping strip and bought a new cell phone. Its alarming how much of a relief it is to just have a phone on you, just to feel somehow connected even though its mostly just an illusion or a state of mind. I think it is incredibly addictive.

When we got back from the beach I went and bought some groceries and now I'm planning to shower and read and relax for the rest of the evening. So yeah, not much of an update here, but it is my day off from the Fringe after all. Tomorrow I'm going to a workshop on how to organize theater festivals, which should be cool. Keep commenting- even if my posts are not very exciting!

Love,
Emma

Fringe Family Day

Whew. I just finished my volunteer shift at Fringe Family Day, a big festival for kids in a park right next to the city. I was supposed to be working the info desk, handing out free posters, stamping hands, giving directions, forcing sunscreen or rather "sun cream" on people- but after an hour of that I was asked to help out with a workshop that one of the buskers was doing. There were a couple of these arts and crafts workshops going on and the one I ended up helping with was a sidewalk mural. The woman in charge, Olga, is I guess a professional sidewalk artist and she had painted a snake down the park path in the morning, and divided it up into all these little squares for the kids to color in throughout the day. My job was to stand my the chalk and explain to the kids what to do, especially how important it was to rub the colors into the pavement so that it wasn't just dust that would blow away. We had these little sponges to rub in the chalk, with Olga insisted on called "rubbers" and she would shout from time to time, "make sure you're using your rubbers", which I thought was kinda funny. More of my job was to make sure people registered for a time slot to come and color, and then later in the day, to turn people away when there were no more slots left. Fortunately, I only saw one kid cry.

To back track a bit, last night was St Patrick's Day and I actually went out to bars with friends almost like I'm a real normal person. Before we went out we even played drinking games at the hostel and I had my first Guinness ever- not because I wanted to, but because I hadn't bought any alcohol and someone was offering it to me for free. Peer pressure is bad. But I didn't get drunk the whole night (parents and grandparents!). I'm much too afraid of getting sick again. I still had fun, mostly just from walking around the city with other people. It was a nice change. The only bad part was that I somehow managed to lose my cell phone, most likely at the hostel. I'm still hoping it will turn up.

That's about it for now. Tomorrow I have no plans at all. No volunteering, no shows to see, nothing. I think I might be going to the beach!

Love,
Emma

Fringe III

The past two days I've been occupying myself almost solely by seeing shows. On Friday I also went to Adelaide's art museum for a bit before going to a amateur-ish show called "Sin City" about the fall of vaudeville and the rise of Las Vegas. The best part about it was the 5 man xylophone band. I kept thinking, if CJ were here he'd be telling me that he wants to learn to play the xylophone. After that I wandered around the main Fringe center, where the Garden is and all the restaurants. I watched a couple of street performers (this weekend is the Buskers- aka Street Performers- Festival), two guys who stripped to their underwear and wrapped themselves up in saran wrap and tried to escape. It was more comedy than any kind of magic or acrobatics. They called the trick the Cling Wrap of Embarassment. After eating dinner and wandering I went to two late night shows at The Garden- and one of them turned out to be far and away the best thing I've seen so far. It was called Tom Tom Club and featured six pretty hunky guys doing beatboxing, drumming, and insane acrobatics, plus a real DJ mixing things live with all kinds of crazy equiptment. It was so fantastic- I don't think I've ever seen anyone beatbox live and to watch guys flying up in the air to it was even better. Very very cool. After that show I went to see what was sorta the female version of the same thing, called La La Parlour's "Tarnished". It was a burlesque/acrobatics show, with a little comedy and dancing. Also very good, but not anywhere near the Tom Tom Club.

Today I volunteered in the afternoon, helping put up decorations for the Fringe Family Day which is tomorrow. I also went to another show at The Garden, called "Men of Steel" which was also great. I'm starting to think that The Garden is the place to see shows- they seemed to be screened for a certain level of quality. So Men of Steel was a bizarre puppet show, three puppeteers using cookie cutters, kitchen utensils, and food products to tell crazy stories, while making Kung FU movie type sound effects and unintelligable dialogue. Sorta hard to describe, since I've never seen anything like it before- but very very funny and unique!

Tonight I'm actually going out with people at the hostel for St Patrick's Day! Yay!

Love,
Emma

Barossa Valley

Blast! I just tried to enter my first March Madness pool and my computer failed miserably and wouldn't load the page and now I'm left out again. Arrggg... that just happened and is on my mind which is why you are hearing about it. Now on to the events of the past few days.

Yesterday was my day trip to the Barossa Valley, SA's famous wine region, with Anja who I met at the hostel. In addition to four wineries, we also stopped at the Giant Rocking Horse and the Whispering Wall. The Giant Rocking Horse is my first giant thing, amazing since Australia is filled with them. There's a giant banana, prawn, pineapple, and much much more. I don't know how I coped without seeing any till now. The Whispering Wall was less picturesque, but much much cooler. Its actually a dam that was built in the early 1900s and just happened by chance to be a perfect acoustic arch. This means that if you stand on one side and your friend stands on the other, you can talk as if you are standing right next to each other just from the echoes bouncing off the wall. It doesn't sound like much, but it is very cool- even cooler since it was done by accident. I'm sure if they had tried to do it that way it would never have turned out right. After those two sights we went to the wineries, got to see wine sitting in big vats fermenting with yeast, which made it seem very unappealing I thought. The Barossa Valley is a very strange place because you look out and you see all these green vineyards, and then right next to them are completely barren stretchs of brown dirt and dust. There hasn't been enough rain in this area in 7 years- it just amazes me that anything is growing at all.

When I got home in the evening I was all set to go out and volunteer until I got a message from Tricia, the volunteer coordinator, that my shifts for the next few nights were being cancelled because they had overbooked volunteers. I was a little upset about that because now I had the whole evening with nothing to do- until 10:15 when I was planning to go to a show. I decided to try and not mope though, and walked into town without much of a plan. At the last minute, I decided to go into a movie, and ended up seeing The Good German, which was very good. It was upsetting to see Tobey Maguire play such a creep though. After the movie I went to wander around The Garden of Unearthly Delights, where my show was happening. The Garden is part of the Fringe, set up in a park next to the city, with some performance venues, side show type tents, food stalls, ferris wheel, trampolines, and other entertainments. I watched a couple magicians for a while- one did this crazy trick where he guessed a number that a guy in the crowd was thinking of, but he did it by drawing a 4x4 grid of squares and drew a number in each square and each row of 4 numbers added up to the guys' number, which was 69. It was so bizarre- CJ, do you know how to do that?? I also went into a side show tent where this weird mystic kind of guy was presenting a 10 year old girl who could move things with her mind. I thought the dynamic between these two people was so interesting that I wanted to see what their 10 minute show was like. What happened was that she seemed to move dirt around on a sheet of paper without touching it, and also she seemed to break a light bulb that the man was holding in his hands. It was just odd to see the pair of them doing these tricks- like something you wouldn't expect to see unless you were living before 1900.

Eventually I went to the show I had tickets for- it was called "Die Roten Punkte" and it was a music/comedy act of two people, posing as a brother and sister from Germany, who have a punk band and think they are very cool but are of course really bad and constantly disfunctional and fighting on stage, etc. It played a little like an SNL skit- but a really funny SNL skit! I talked to the woman afterwards and she said they were going to the Montreal Fringe this spring and then to NY, but not to perform, just to have fun. Too bad- I kept thinking that I would like to bring Lydia to it! Even better then the actual show though, was that right before I started chatting with the woman who was trying to coax people into the show. Her name was Tina and she seemed really cool. I talked to her after the show too, and she introduced me to another guy working in the Garden named Joel. I felt so like a desperate man in a bar- wishing that I could get their numbers! I'm hoping to go back to the Garden and chat with Tina some more, just so maybe we could hang out some time. I just felt too weird to ask them if they wanted to hang out when we just met- easier to do that with backpackers then with real people with lives! But they did seem like very cool people. Then after Joel gave me a tour around the Garden (definitely gay by the way, in case anyone was thinking otherwise), I ran into one of the girls I volunteered with. She was with her boyfriend and another girl and we all started talking. I felt so cool! Like I actually knew people!

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today I hardly did anything. I still have a bit of a cold, but it seems to be going away especially now that I've been taking drugs. I read in bed for a lot of the morning and then called CJ to plan for Hawaii. Then I got a call from my aunt Cathy's friend, Robyn and I got to meet her for coffee in the city. She was very nice and friendly- even offered me her room out in a suburb on the beach if I wanted a place to stay while she was traveling for the next week. Its much too far out for me to stay there, but it was such a nice offer! After seeing her I ate dinner, bought some books, and went to today's show- Animal Farm. Yes, I finally got to see it- went into the right theater this time. It was pretty good, although I never quite got past the weirdness of one man pretending to be various animals of various genders. It was suitably disturbing though- more disturbing then I even remember the book being when I read it a long time ago.

So that brings us up to date. Tomorrow I'm going back to see some shows in the Garden and try to build on the tenuous friendships with Tina and Joel. Could be a total failure, but I might as well try it! I've also got a busy weekend ahead- despite being asked by Tricia to give up some volunteer shifts, I was also asked by a different Fringe coordinator to volunteer at this weekend's Family Day. I'm not sure what Family Day entails, but I know that I'll be setting up for it on Saturday and manning an Info Desk during it on Sunday. I should find out more details tomorrow evening when I'm meeting some people for an info session. Yay for being busy!

Love,
Emma

Taking it Easy

I'm officially sick again! Arg! Its nothing like last time, just a bad cold, but I've decided to spend the day inside and just read and sleep. Last night I was supposed to be volunteering, but I called in sick. I did make it to the matinee I had tickets for- a children's musical called "The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom". It was pretty cute, but the music wasn't anything special and I felt out of place without my own 5 year old to bring along. But it is the first new musical I've seen at the Fringe, so I think it was worthwhile.

Other than that, I'm just trying to take it easy, as the title says. I'm just sick enough that I don't have the energy to go out, but not so sick that its not boring to sit at home... which I guess is why I'm posting without anything to say. I guess I'll go do my laundry and read my book and blow my nose some more. The fun never stops!

Love,
Emma

Fringe II

Not much new to report today, but wanted to keep updated so that I don't have to spend 2 hours writing another three day recap. Last night I played cards for a bit with various hostel people. This morning I unfortunately woke up with a scratchy throat and sinus headache. I finished my book over tea in the morning, only to realize that it was Sunday and book stores and "chemists" (for cold meds) would both be closed today. Bummer.

This afternoon I planned to go see a one man version of "Animal Farm", but I very very stupidly walked into the wrong theater (also stupidly the usher did not say anything to me), and ended up seeing a one man recitation of a Dylan Thomas poem called "Under Milk Wood" instead. It wasn't bad, just not what I had planned. Hopefully I'll get to Animal Farm eventually.

I got a little while ago and made plans with one of my roommates- a German girl named Anja- to go on a tour of Adelaide's famous wine region, the Barossa Valley. We're booked for Wednesday, and again I'm very excited about having someone to hang out with! Now I'm off to drink more tea and go volunteer.

Love,
Emma

Fringe Begins

Its been a while since I last wrote, mainly because I didn't think walking around the city alone warranted a blog post. But by now a lot has happened to write about, so here it goes.

Thursday 3/8:
During the day on Thursday I went to the Museum of South Australia and saw the large collection of aborigional artifacts, including a heartbreaking collection of "toys" like 5 leaves used as dolls- mom and dad leaf, two leaf children, and baby leaf. Its astounding what children will use to play when they basically have nothing. Another great thing in the museum was a series of illustrations of aborigional history since the European colonization. The drawings were done to go along with a series of poems- one of them was about this very famous painting of colonists that I actually saw in Melbourne. The painting has three panels, the first shows a man and his wife just arrived with a hut in the background of the forest, the second shows the couple with a baby, and a little town in the background, and the third shows the man kneeling by what looks like a grave, probably of the baby, with a city in the background. The idea is the sacrifice of the colonists to build the country, etc etc. So the poem and drawing I looked at was called, "The Missing Panel" or something like that- and the poem says that there is a scene missing in the original painting, but if you look very closely between panel two and three (town and city) you can see this missing panel- and the drawing is of an aboriginal couple holding their dying child, who has been given poisoned flour by the colonists (evidently a common practice). So it was I thought a very powerful and moving statement to make- and I was very glad that I saw the origional painting first because it is very beautiful and heroic and poetic looking, which makes this horribly depressing little drawing even more intense.
Anyway... after that little depressing rant... I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Botanic Gardens reading and napping. Then at 6pm the Opening Party for the Fringe was starting and so I went down to Rundle St, the main street where all the action was happening. The street had been closed off to traffic so it was all street performers and people talking up their shows and lots of excitement. Unfortunately, I left that for a bit to go see the WORST SHOW EVER! It was called "Bimbo" and it was so bad that when I realized I couldn't leave my seat without being really rude, I closed my eyes and tried to discretely cover my ears so that I wouldn't have to experience any more of it. The premise was a philandering president decides to admit that he loves to sleep around. I thought it would be funny, but no one was laughing at the lame jokes, and mostly it was just the president and his wife (who for some unknown reason was supposed to be a lesbian- did her husbands philandering turn her lesbian? did her lesbianism make him philander? could an 11 year old boy have more insight into human sexuality?) whining at each other, and occationally losing their lines and their characters. Fortunately, when it ended I went back out to the party, listened and danced to the live bands, saw fireworks, ate ice cream at "Cold Rock", the Aussie answer to Cold Stone complete with mix ins of Australian candy bars and cookies. I was a little depressed though because I'd been alone for so long- I tried calling a woman Anne who I met at the volunteer session, but she didn't answer. So eventually I went home.

Friday 3/9:
I woke up Friday and was feeling more depressed at the idea of spending another day alone. Fortunately, I called CJ who was able to make me feel better. I had another show to go to outside of the city that afternoon, so I left early to make sure I got the right bus. The show, "What I Heard About Iraq" was very good. It was five people basically reciting quotes from people about the war, going from before 9/11 to the present- everyone from Bush to random soldiers to Iraqis. It just shows the incredible range in quality at these festivals. After that I decided foolishly to walk back to the city through a series of parks. I was dead tired when I got home. But the good thing that happened was that Anne called me back! She just moved to Australia with her boyfriend, or as she says, "partner", and also seemed a little desperate for friends. I asked her what she was doing Saturday and she ended up inviting me to come with her and her bf, Neil, to a racecourse where Neil was going to be riding a race car around the track (this was a long planned bday present). That didn't sound like my kind of activity, but I was so eager to do something with another person that I agreed immediately. I think I would have agreed to just about anything! But anyway, Friday night I also had my first volunteer shifts. I talked to some nice people, handed out programs, helped patrons find their seats- and got to see a fantastic show called "Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer" about this forgotten man and his heroic journeys. I also saw a comic called Akmal who seemed popular but was very mediocre.

Today 3/10:
Anne and Neil picked me up this morning and we went off the the racecourse. I was still so overjoyed to be hanging out with other people, that I had a great time just watching Neil and chatting with Anne. She is an aspiring actress, and so when she asked me about what I studied, I actually told her a bit about my thesis (in more detail than usual) and I was so so thrilled when she told me this great story- it turns out she had seen an all female Shakespeare production at The Globe!!!! Not only that, but she had gone with her drama class and some ditzy girls in the class hadn't realized that it was all female before going in, and when they came out they were talking about how cute some of the actors were!!!! I could not believe what a fantastic story that was or how much I wished I had heard it last year and used it in my thesis!!! Not to mention how much I would love to see a really professional all female production at the GLOBE!!!! As you can tell, I was very excited. After the racing, we all went out for brunch nearby my hostel and then I came back here and napped and read. Its much too hot today to go out and after 4 days of lots of walking, I'm ready for a rest. I think I'm going to stay in tonight and try to talk to more people. One day of successful friend making has renewed my energy!

Love,
Emma

Adelaide Intro

I arrived in Adelaide yesterday safe and sound and as usual nervous about being in a new place. I explored the city, which wasn't too hard since it is not very big, and got a guide to the Fringe Festival, my reason for being here. I also bought myself a nice pillow, because I couldn't stop here for three weeks without a decent pillow. Today I even bought myself new socks and a couple new shirts (some of the ones I brought have basically worn out after 2 months of rotation). Besides shopping I looked through the Fringe program and bought tickets to a whole bunch of shows today. I think the guy at the box office thought I was a little nuts buying nearly a show a day (and two this evening!). But hey, that's the point right?

As far as meeting people goes, things have been pretty good. I had to go to a volunteer briefing today and I exhanged cell numbers with one woman, I also met a bunch of people from the hostel last night, including one Korean girl who speaks very poor English but is also volunteering at the Fringe and who shared her instant Korean noodles with me. Now that I'm going out to shows every evening, I don't know how much I'm going to see these hostel people- they seem mostly too budget conscious to go to a show every night. I figure if I'm not enjoying myself here after a week, I'll move somewhere more comfortable and slightly closer to the city center (its a 20-30 minute walk to the main streets/museums/etc, although just about 5 minutes to the theaters that I'm volunteering in). We'll see how it goes.

Love,
Emma

Tassie Pics!

I finally got to a computer that does things! Here are some highlights from my week in Tassie.

1. One of a million pictures I took on the Gordon River Cruise out of Strahan:



2. Me and the dog I made friends with:



3. WOMBAT!!



4. Inside the Port Arthur Church:



5. On the way down Mt Wellington:



6. Overlooking Wineglass Bay at Freycinet:

Toured Out

Just got back from dinner with two girls from the hostel. It is so nice to eat and talk with people!

I've been touring like mad since my last post. I spent the rest of Saturday biking down Mount Wellington. I got picked up by a bus that drove us to the top of the mountain, and we were very very lucky to have a nice clear view of Hobart and the surrounding area. According to Andrew, Darwin said that the view from Mt Wellington was one of the top two views in the world (the other being at Terra del Fuego- sp?). Of course, he didn't see all the views in the world, but it was a nice view. After some photo time we got on our bikes for the trip down. Now, I'm a bit afraid of heights, but I didn't think that biking down a road, even from the top of a mountain would be too difficult emotionally. I also didn't think it would be too difficult physically, because well, it is all downhill. I was soooo wrong! The first few kilometers were pretty scary, until we got back into the forested area where you couldn't see how high up you were. But I was still frightened of going too fast, and it was really really easy to go fast if you even let up on the brakes just a bit. So I'm gripping the brakes until my hands ache and my elbows are starting to hurt from all the force they're taking and I can't dare to relax at all because I'm too scared of picking up speed. Plus I was also afraid of getting hit by a car. I don't know what everyone else was thinking, because they were all pretty far ahead of me and must have been going incredibly fast without a care in the world. So the
first leg of the trip was a little difficult for me, but don't worry it got better.

After a while we stopped at the entrance to an off road trail. We were given an option of staying on the road or trying the trail. I was a little nervous about off roading, but everyone else (including the 70 year old couple) was up for it and it seemed like it might be a good change from watching out for the cars. It was a good decision- actually a lot less frightening than going down the top of the road. We got a little lesson from our guide- telling us to stand up on our pedals and keep them level, and also not to try and swerve around rocks because the bikes could handle going right over them. Then there was a ski lesson moment when he went down a bit of the trail and we had to follow him one by one so that he could see that we "got it". It actually reminded me of skiing in a lot of ways- first because if you were more confident and let yourself go a little then it was a lot easier, and going along with that, if you just let yourself go over the rough spots without trying to stop or avoid them, then you'd be safer. The whole off road part was a lot nicer for me than the on road part, although I can't imagine doing it at full speed like some other kids we saw on the way down. But overall a good experience.

After a little while we joined back up with the road- by this time it had started
raining- and headed back into town. When we got back to the city, I could not believe how sore I was. Who would have guessed that going down a mountain would be so stressful? To relax last night I went to see Music and Lyrics, which was bpth very dumb and very entertaining. I recommend it primarily for the opening credits which are absolutely hilarious. But maybe you can wait and see them on dvd...

So that was yesterday. Today I took a very unsatisfying tour to Freycinet National Park. The park itself was beautiful. We ate lunch on a beach and then hiked up a trail to look at Wineglass Bay, another famous beach. But it was too cold to swim and we didn't have a lot of time there. Most of the day was spent on the bus going there and back. The bus was very frustrating, because although it wasn't mentioned in the tour brochure, everyone going on the day tour had to take a regular commuter/Greyhound type bus up to the park- which meant that we had to keep stopping to let people on and off and all that junk. It was so ridiculous. At least the tour was free for me after I bought a week long bus pass (to get to Strahan and Cradle Mt). But it was really annoying.

I was supposed to do another day tour tomorrow but I have to confess that I am pretty much exhausted from the past few days of buses and bikes and sights. If there is space I might go in the afternoon to see some tassie devils, but otherwise I plan to chill out and sleep late. If anything happens tomorrow I'll let you know- if not next post from Adelaide!

Love,
Emma

Port Arthur

Yesterday I went out on my first day tour to Port Arthur, Tasmania's most famous convict settlement. It's a beautiful spot on the water- hard to imagine how hellish it must have been for the people sent there. It was a huge complex of buildings, and some have held up better than others. My favorites were the Commandant's House and the Church. The house is in near perfect condition, it was used as a hotel for a while in the mid 1900s. The church on the other hand had been mostly destroyed in a fire, and only the outer shell of it is still standing. It gives it a really amazing effect though, to have just the walls and archways still there- makes you appreciate how beautiful the architecture is.

When I got back to Hobart I went to this dinner/movie place I heard about. Its a restaurant where you go and eat dinner and then see an old movie. This week they were playing Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, which I had never seen. It was so good! I've seen so many movies that draw on it and make fun of it- it was nice to finally see the original. Unfortunately the dinner part of the experience was pretty bad, but the movie made up for it.

This morning I got up early to come down to the Salamanca Markets and do some shopping. It hasn't been as productive as the shopping I did in Melbourne, but I guess that is to be expected. I'm also annoyed because I finally found a computer with a USB port (the hostel has the towers of the computers locked up in a cabinet under the desk!)- but the stupid computer says that I need to install drivers or some junk, and clearly I did not bring an installation cd to Australia with me. Why is this so difficult?

Later today I'm going on a short trip up to the top of Mount Wellington- I take a bus up and then bike all the way down! It should be fun, especially since it finally stopped raining and has become a beautiful day.

That's all for now!

Love,
Emma

Cradle Mountain

I'm back in Hobart, it's the first of March, and as of tomorrow the Australia portion of my trip will be half over. Hard to believe isn't it?

I spent the past two nights at the Cradle Mountain Lodge, and really spoiled myself. I had a beautiful cabin all to myself, with a fireplace, hot breakfast included, and lots of tours run by the resort to choose from. There was even a spa, which I took advantage of, shamefully. I arrived there on Tuesday afternoon, showered and took a short guided walk on a trail close to the resort. I had a nice dinner at the less fancy restaurant and then walked around the resort for a bit looking for the "ropes course" that they advertised. I found it- its an area on a track just outside of the resort where the trees have low wires between them and ropes to swing on and other things that look like they could really hurt you. I took a picture just to be able to show everyone, and as I lowered the camera, I realized that two feet from me was a little wallabie staring back at me. Then I realized that there were two more wallabies on my right and left. It was pretty cool. Anyway, after that I went back to my cabin and knitted and finished my book.

Wednesday morning I went on a canoe trip with a bunch of over 50 couples (and one over 50 single woman, thankfully!). We went around Dove Lake which has the best views of Cradle Mountain- pictures are coming I swear. Just as we were coming back to shore, it started pouring rain and we all got absolutely soaked. I guess it is all part of the Tasmania experience. I was just glad I wasn't up on the mountain! So, I didn't do much else that day except bum around- went to the spa, ate dinner at the fancier restuarant, saw a tiny lizard as I walked back to my cabin. Then at 10pm I went out on the Spotlight Wildlife Tour. That was probably the best part of the resort. We just took one of their vans out, down the road through the national park, and we saw tons of wallabies, possums, and wombats (!). We even saw a baby Tasmanian Devil, which really just looks like a rat. It was so much fun!

Today I got the bus back to Hobart, which was fine until the last two hours when we picked up 20 hikers who had been doing a week long hike and smelled like you would imagine they would smell. But I survived and I'm now at my hostel which seems clean, friendly, and is definitely well located. I've got the next four days booked solid with tours, so I'll keep posting!

Love,
Emma