Discovering tassie, Part 1 - Hobart, Australia

Australia's Backdoor


Very little Indian queue
Family returns home after a diverse walk along the waterfront of Hobart.
boxed art
A street artist awaits his turn to perform at the Salamanca Square market.
Salamanca Square Market
It's Saturday morning, and a crowd scans the stalls at Hobart's most famous market, Salamanca.
Kodak moment
Classic buildings against more modern ones, on Elisabeth Street, a pedestrian street in Hobart.
improvised bench
Perched man holds a child.
Adjustable reflex
Hat seller at Salamanca Square market holds a mirror to a shopper.
Safe from the Tasman Sea
Vessels anchored in a Hobart dock.
Scotland in Oceania
Detail of the kilts worn by a group of pipers performing Saturday morning at the Salamanca Square market.
mako sea food
Sailboats moored next to one of the many seafood restaurants in Hobart harbor.
virtual mascot
Illusory painting on a Tony Haigh Street facade.
"Tassie" design
A woman passes in front of a stand of creative "tassie" products.
Infinite Breath
Piper plays during the Salamanca Square market.
improvised trio
Teenagers play on a street in the middle of Salamanca Square market for a few Australian dollars.
Horizontal Property
Villas occupy an entire hillside around Hobart.
Salamanca Style "Tassie"
Rare for a restaurant at the entrance of a peculiar alley that leaves Salamanca Place.
El Diabolero
A street artist performs his act, surrounded by visitors to the Salamanca Square market.
Double Decker Elegance
Friends contemplate a London double-decker bus adapted for Hobart city tours.
Apple Island Vegetables
Shoppers stock up at the Salamanca Square market.
Along with Kelly Steps
Passersby cross in front of the historic buildings that delimit Salamanca Square.
Hobart, the capital of Tasmania and the southernmost of Australia, was colonized by thousands of convicts from England. Unsurprisingly, its population maintains a strong admiration for marginal ways of life.

Sammy doesn't look like someone who enjoys much of the outdoors and sun.

Even so, it cautiously celebrates the already long period of good weather in the Tasmania and from Hobart, the capital.

“It's been fabulous, but don't think this is always the case, the teenager assures us, under the little round glasses, while we share a fish & chips oily. “Antarctica is already down there and, even from December to February, we have periods of rain and wind that lead us to despair”.

The esplanade we live on occupies part of one of the docks in the harbor of Hobart and holds us back with a view of hundreds of sailboats and other boats moored in their shelters.

Hobart Docks, Tasmania, Australia

Vessels anchored in a Hobart dock

Sydney-Hobart: A Deadly Regatta

The competition takes place every year on the 26th of December, on the Anglophone Boxing Day holiday.

As the name implies, its route of almost 630 nautical miles (almost 1200 km) starts in Sydney, continues south along the Tasman Sea, continues along the coast of the island and ends at its capital.

Classic buildings against more modern ones, on Elisabeth Street, a pedestrian street in Hobart

The competition is known for its toughness and the amount of dropouts and accidents.

In the 1998 edition, for example, the participating vessels encountered a storm brushing against hurricane status. The winds passed 70 knots and generated huge waves.

At the same time, even though it was midsummer, it was snowing in southern parts of the big island. Of the 115 sailboats that set sail from the Australian continent, only 44 managed to cross the Bass Strait and reach Hobart, five boats sank and six crew were killed.

This was just the worst case.

Sailboats moored next to one of several seafood restaurants in Hobart harbor

From Tasman Discovery to Exile

Also Abel Tasman, the first European to sight Tasmania, in 1642, must have faced adverse conditions. And with the same fury of those southern seas they would have aggravated the suffering of the thousands of convicts who, from 1803, were first exiled to Risdon Cove – the second British colony in the Australia – later to other parts of Tasmania.

In just a few years, Hobart replaced Risdon Cove and stood out from other pioneer towns. It became the second oldest city in the country (after Sydney) and the southern Australian state capital.

Horizontal Property

Villas occupy an entire hillside around Hobart.

Its houses are squeezed between the steep slopes of Mount Wellington (1210 m) and the wide estuary of the River Derwent where the maritime structures of Battery Point – the historic heart of the city – and Constitution Dock extend.

Salamanca Place: An Old Fashioned Market

As we walk through these riverside areas organized around Georgian warehouses built to support the trade that has developed in the meantime, we discover the architecture inherited from those old times when, until the announced extinction, the aborigines were forced to give up the land they held.

We also discovered a market faithful to the atmosphere lived there in the first decades of the colonial era. It's Saturday morning and the streets and garden of Salamanca Place come alive once again.

Salamanca Square Market, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Shoppers stock up at Salamanca Square market

Despite being a weekly event, the event makes Hobart hot and attracts people from all over Tasmania.

Hundreds of stalls succeed each other in a rectangular space where shoppers and visitors huddle together and wander over and over again.

Some display natural and homemade products, such as the most eye-catching fruits on the island and the sweets and jams they gave rise to. Others promote crafts, the typical and the creative, designed and executed in the homes of local artists. Others still suggest eccentric pieces of clothing and decoration or propose addictive skill games.

The atmosphere is mystical, with remnants of a XNUMXth century era that the distance from the big Australian cities continues to validate.

A woman passes in front of a stand of creative “tassie” products.

The yellowish sandstone walls of the old warehouses, once at the hub of Hobart's whaling and commercial activity, stand out from the crowd, now transformed into restaurants and bars that concentrate the city's nightlife.

There is more history in the name of the place and the market that honors the distant victory of the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Salamanca, fought in 1812, near the Castilian city.

It's Saturday morning and a crowd scans the stalls at Hobart's most famous market, Salamanca Square

A Band of Pipers in skirts. Hobart's Scottish Heritage

A group of formally dressed pipers play with determination in the garden.

Pipers. Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Piper plays during Salamanca Square market

Next to it, dozens of buskers vie for the time and attention of passersby.

While some act, others wait their turn and rehearse or mess with whoever passes by to disguise their anxiety.

Musicians and jugglers, poetry reciters and contortionists appear. The more versatile ones bring together a little of each art and, when reconciled with humor, are boasted by ecstatic audiences.

improvised trio

Teenagers play on a street in the middle of Salamanca Square market for a few Australian dollars.

We stop as long as necessary each time a new busker announces itself and shows off to the crowd. Using unicycles, diabolos, maces and even chainsaws, the talented beggars entertain the fair's customers without haste.

In return, they fill their hats and shoeboxes with Australian dollars.

One of them – El Diabolero – is still in a good mood to play with those who leave without contributing. "You guys down there who don't have change, don't worry. Just come here to the ATM!".

El Diabolero, Salamanca Square Market, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Street artist performs his act, surrounded by visitors to the Salamanca Square market

There is spontaneous generosity among the population of Hobart and Tasmania in general. And an unconditional admiration for alternative ways of life.

The British Condemned Who Condemned the Aborigines

Of the first 262 Europeans to inhabit the British penal colony, in 1863, 178 were convicted. For many, the adventure in the antipodes represented an extension of the violence, thanks to the permanent clashes with the semi-nomadic aboriginal tribe Mouheneener.

As in other parts of the Australia, the firepower of the settlers reinforced by the biological devastation perpetrated by the diseases they brought from the Old Continent quickly demobilized the indigenous people.

In addition to ceding their territories, between 1829 and 1834, they were moved to a reserve on the island of Flinders where they were to be converted to Christianity and civilized ways.

Almost the entire indigenous population died of disease and despair, and by the end of the XNUMXth century there were no longer any natives of fully Aboriginal blood in Tasmania.

improvised bench

Perched man holds a child.

Although their culture has almost completely ceded to the European, the genes are present in mixed communities generated since 1798, when some seal hunters formed families with aboriginal women and settled in Flinders and other islands of the Furneaux group.

Three hundred and sixty-eight years after the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman Having discovered the island to the West, several thousand of Tasmania's 500.000 inhabitants are descendants of these communities.

Perth to Albany, Australia

Across the Far West of Australia

Few people worship evasion like the aussies. With southern summer in full swing and the weekend just around the corner, Perthians are taking refuge from the urban routine in the nation's southwest corner. For our part, without compromise, we explore endless Western Australia to its southern limit.
Sydney, Australia

From the Exile of Criminals to an Exemplary City

The first of the Australian colonies was built by exiled inmates. Today, Sydney's Aussies boast former convicts of their family tree and pride themselves on the cosmopolitan prosperity of the megalopolis they inhabit.
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
Discovering tassie, Part 3, Tasmania, Australia

Tasmania from Top to Bottom

The favorite victim of Australian anecdotes has long been the Tasmania never lost the pride in the way aussie ruder to be. Tassie remains shrouded in mystery and mysticism in a kind of hindquarters of the antipodes. In this article, we narrate the peculiar route from Hobart, the capital located in the unlikely south of the island to the north coast, the turn to the Australian continent.
Great Ocean Road, Australia

Ocean Out, along the Great Australian South

One of the favorite escapes of the Australian state of Victoria, via B100 unveils a sublime coastline that the ocean has shaped. We only needed a few kilometers to understand why it was named The Great Ocean Road.
Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia

Stuart Road, on its way to Australia's Top End

Do Red Center to the tropical Top End, the Stuart Highway road travels more than 1.500km lonely through Australia. Along this route, the Northern Territory radically changes its look but remains faithful to its rugged soul.
Perth, Australia

the lonely city

More 2000km away from a worthy counterpart, Perth is considered the most remote city on the face of the Earth. Despite being isolated between the Indian Ocean and the vast Outback, few people complain.
Cairns to Cape Tribulation, Australia

Tropical Queensland: An Australia Too Wild

Cyclones and floods are just the meteorological expression of Queensland's tropical harshness. When it's not the weather, it's the deadly fauna of the region that keeps its inhabitants on their toes.
Perth, Australia

The Oceania Cowboys

Texas is on the other side of the world, but there is no shortage of cowboys in the country of koalas and kangaroos. Outback rodeos recreate the original version and 8 seconds lasts no less in the Australian Western.
Perth, Australia

Australia Day: In Honor of the Foundation, Mourning for Invasion

26/1 is a controversial date in Australia. While British settlers celebrate it with barbecues and lots of beer, Aborigines celebrate the fact that they haven't been completely wiped out.
Red Center, Australia

Australia's Broken Heart

The Red Center is home to some of Australia's must-see natural landmarks. We are impressed by the grandeur of the scenarios but also by the renewed incompatibility of its two civilizations.
Wycliffe Wells, Australia

Wycliffe Wells' Unsecret Files

Locals, UFO experts and visitors have been witnessing sightings around Wycliffe Wells for decades. Here, Roswell has never been an example and every new phenomenon is communicated to the world.
Rhinoceros, PN Kaziranga, Assam, India
Safari
PN Kaziranga, India

The Indian Monoceros Stronghold

Situated in the state of Assam, south of the great Brahmaputra river, PN Kaziranga occupies a vast area of ​​alluvial swamp. Two-thirds of the rhinocerus unicornis around the world, there are around 100 tigers, 1200 elephants and many other animals. Pressured by human proximity and the inevitable poaching, this precious park has not been able to protect itself from the hyperbolic floods of the monsoons and from some controversies.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 5th- Ngawal-BragaNepal

Towards the Nepalese Braga

We spent another morning of glorious weather discovering Ngawal. There is a short journey towards Manang, the main town on the way to the zenith of the Annapurna circuit. We stayed for Braga (Braka). The hamlet would soon prove to be one of its most unforgettable places.
The Little-Big Senglea II
Architecture & Design
Senglea, Malta

An Overcrowded Malta

At the turn of the 8.000th century, Senglea housed 0.2 inhabitants in 2 km3.000, a European record, today, it has “only” XNUMX neighborhood Christians. It is the smallest, most overcrowded and genuine of the Maltese cities.
Salto Angel, Rio that falls from the sky, Angel Falls, PN Canaima, Venezuela
Adventure
PN Canaima, Venezuela

Kerepakupai, Salto Angel: The River that Falls from Heaven

In 1937, Jimmy Angel landed a light aircraft on a plateau lost in the Venezuelan jungle. The American adventurer did not find gold but he conquered the baptism of the longest waterfall on the face of the Earth
Via Crucis de Boac, Festival de Moriones, Marinduque, Philippines
Ceremonies and Festivities
Marinduque, Philippines

When the Romans Invade the Philippines

Even the Eastern Empire didn't get that far. In Holy Week, thousands of centurions seize Marinduque. There, the last days of Longinus, a legionary converted to Christianity, are re-enacted.
Elephant statues by the Li River, Elephant Trunk Hill, Guilin, China
Cities
Guilin, China

The Gateway to the Chinese Stone Kingdom

The immensity of jagged limestone hills around it is so majestic that the authorities of Beijing they print it on the back of the 20-yuan notes. Those who explore it almost always pass through Guilin. And even if this city in the province of Guangxi clashes with the exuberant nature around it, we also found its charms.
Meal
World Food

Gastronomy Without Borders or Prejudice

Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Impressions Lijiang Show, Yangshuo, China, Red Enthusiasm
Culture
Lijiang e Yangshuo, China

An Impressive China

One of the most respected Asian filmmakers, Zhang Yimou dedicated himself to large outdoor productions and co-authored the media ceremonies of the Beijing OG. But Yimou is also responsible for “Impressions”, a series of no less controversial stagings with stages in emblematic places.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Sport
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Streymoy island, Faroe Islands, Tjornuvik, Giant and Witch
Traveling
Streymoy, Faroe Islands

Up Streymoy, drawn to the Island of Currents

We leave the capital Torshavn heading north. We crossed from Vestmanna to the east coast of Streymoy. Until we reach the northern end of Tjornuvík, we are dazzled again and again by the verdant eccentricity of the largest Faroese island.
Unusual bathing
Ethnic

south of Belize

The Strange Life in the Black Caribbean Sun

On the way to Guatemala, we see how the proscribed existence of the Garifuna people, descendants of African slaves and Arawak Indians, contrasts with that of several much more airy bathing areas.

Portfolio, Got2Globe, Best Images, Photography, Images, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, Delos, Greece
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

The Earthly and the Celestial

Blue Hole, Gozo Island, Malta
History
Gozo, Malta

Mediterranean Days of Utter Joy

The island of Gozo is a third the size of Malta but only thirty of the small nation's three hundred thousand inhabitants. In duo with Comino's beach recreation, it houses a more down-to-earth and serene version of the always peculiar Maltese life.
Saona Island, Dominican Republic, Playa Palmilla Pool
Islands
Saona Island, Dominican Republic

A Savona in the Antilles

During his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus landed on an enchanting exotic island. He named it Savona, in honor of Michele da Cuneo, a Savoyard sailor who saw it as an outstanding feature of the greater Hispaniola. Today called Saona, this island is one of the beloved tropical edens of the Dominican Republic.

St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Winter White
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

In the 4000th century, Orthodox religious took their inspiration from a hermitage that a monk had erected at an altitude of 5047 m and perched a church between the summit of Mount Kazbek (XNUMXm) and the village at the foot. More and more visitors flock to these mystical stops on the edge of Russia. Like them, to get there, we submit to the whims of the reckless Georgia Military Road.
Baie d'Oro, Île des Pins, New Caledonia
Literature
Île-des-Pins, New Caledonia

The Island that Leaned against Paradise

In 1964, Katsura Morimura delighted the Japan with a turquoise novel set in Ouvéa. But the neighboring Île-des-Pins has taken over the title "The Nearest Island to Paradise" and thrills its visitors.
Tinquilco Lake in PN Huerquehue, Pucón, La Araucania, Chile
Nature
Pucón, Chile

Among the Araucarias of La Araucania

At a certain latitude in longline Chile, we enter La Araucanía. This is a rugged Chile, full of volcanoes, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and the coniferous forests from which the region's name grew. And it is the heart of the pine nuts of the largest indigenous ethnic group in the country: the Mapuche.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Maria Jacarés, Pantanal Brazil
Natural Parks
Miranda, Brazil

Maria dos Jacarés: the Pantanal shelters such Creatures

Eurides Fátima de Barros was born in the interior of the Miranda region. 38 years ago, he settled in a small business on the side of BR262 that crosses the Pantanal and gained an affinity with the alligators that lived on his doorstep. Disgusted that once upon a time the creatures were being slaughtered there, she began to take care of them. Now known as Maria dos Jacarés, she named each of the animals after a soccer player or coach. It also makes sure they recognize your calls.
Kigurumi Satoko, Hachiman Temple, Ogimashi, Japan
UNESCO World Heritage
Ogimashi, Japan

An Historical-Virtual Japan

"Higurashi no Naku Koro never” was a highly successful Japanese animation and computer game series. In Ogimashi, Shirakawa-Go village, we live with a group of kigurumi of their characters.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Characters
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Montezuma and Malpais, Costa Rica's best beaches, Catarata
Beaches
Montezuma, Costa Rica

Back to the Tropical Arms of Montezuma

It's been 18 years since we were dazzled by this one of Costa Rica's blessed coastlines. Just two months ago, we found him again. As cozy as we had known it.
Bride gets in car, traditional wedding, Meiji temple, Tokyo, Japan
Religion
Tokyo, Japan

A Matchmaking Sanctuary

Tokyo's Meiji Temple was erected to honor the deified spirits of one of the most influential couples in Japanese history. Over time, it specialized in celebrating traditional weddings.
white pass yukon train, Skagway, Gold Route, Alaska, USA
On Rails
Skagway, Alaska

A Klondike's Gold Fever Variant

The last great American gold rush is long over. These days, hundreds of cruise ships each summer pour thousands of well-heeled visitors into the shop-lined streets of Skagway.
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Zapatismo, Mexico, San Nicolau Cathedral
Society
San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico

The Home Sweet Home of Mexican Social Conscience

Mayan, mestizo and Hispanic, Zapatista and tourist, country and cosmopolitan, San Cristobal has no hands to measure. In it, Mexican and expatriate backpacker visitors and political activists share a common ideological demand.
Coin return
Daily life
Dawki, India

Dawki, Dawki, Bangladesh on sight

We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
Fishing, Cano Negro, Costa Rica
Wildlife
Caño Negro, Costa Rica

A Life of Angling among the Wildlife

One of the most important wetlands in Costa Rica and the world, Caño Negro dazzles for its exuberant ecosystem. Not only. Remote, isolated by rivers, swamps and poor roads, its inhabitants have found in fishing a means on board to strengthen the bonds of their community.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.
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