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 buskers 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.
Amboseli National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, Normatior Hill
Safari
Amboseli National Park, Kenya

A Gift from the Kilimanjaro

The first European to venture into these Masai haunts was stunned by what he found. And even today, large herds of elephants and other herbivores roam the pastures irrigated by the snow of Africa's biggest mountain.
Prayer flags in Ghyaru, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 4th – Upper Banana to Ngawal, Nepal

From Nightmare to Dazzle

Unbeknownst to us, we are faced with an ascent that leads us to despair. We pulled our strength as far as possible and reached Ghyaru where we felt closer than ever to the Annapurnas. The rest of the way to Ngawal felt like a kind of extension of the reward.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Architecture & Design
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.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Adventure
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
Burning prayers, Ohitaki Festival, fushimi temple, kyoto, japan
Ceremonies and Festivities
Kyoto, Japan

A Combustible Faith

During the Shinto celebration of Ohitaki, prayers inscribed on tablets by the Japanese faithful are gathered at the Fushimi temple. There, while being consumed by huge bonfires, her belief is renewed.
Saint George, Grenada, Antilles, houses
Cities
Saint George, Granada

A Caribbean History Detonation

The peculiar Saint George spreads along the slope of an inactive volcano and around a U-shaped cove. Its abundant and undulating houses attest to the wealth generated over the centuries on the island of Grenada, of which it is the capital.
Singapore Asian Capital Food, Basmati Bismi
Meal
Singapore

The Asian Food Capital

There were 4 ethnic groups in Singapore, each with its own culinary tradition. Added to this was the influence of thousands of immigrants and expatriates on an island with half the area of ​​London. It was the nation with the greatest gastronomic diversity in the Orient.
Culture
Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

The Pueblos del Sur Locainas, Their Dances and Co.

From the beginning of the XNUMXth century, with Hispanic settlers and, more recently, with Portuguese emigrants, customs and traditions well known in the Iberian Peninsula and, in particular, in northern Portugal, were consolidated in the Pueblos del Sur.
Spectator, Melbourne Cricket Ground-Rules footbal, Melbourne, Australia
Sport
Melbourne, Australia

The Football the Australians Rule

Although played since 1841, Australian Football has only conquered part of the big island. Internationalization has never gone beyond paper, held back by competition from rugby and classical football.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Traveling
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica, Caribbean, Punta Cahuita aerial view
Ethnic
Cahuita, Costa Rica

Dreadlocked Costa Rica

Traveling through Central America, we explore a Costa Rican coastline as much as the Caribbean. In Cahuita, Pura Vida is inspired by an eccentric faith in Jah and a maddening devotion to cannabis.
ice tunnel, black gold route, Valdez, Alaska, USA
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Sensations vs Impressions

Nelson Dockyards, Antigua Docks,
History
English Harbor, Antigua (Antilles)

Nelson's Dockyard: The Former Naval Base and Abode of the Admiral

In the XNUMXth century, as the English disputed control of the Caribbean and the sugar trade with their colonial rivals, they took over the island of Antigua. There they came across a jagged cove they called English Harbour. They made it a strategic port that also housed the idolized naval officer.
Camiguin, Philippines, Katungan mangrove.
Islands
Camiguin, Philippines

An Island of Fire Surrended to Water

With more than twenty cones above 100 meters, the abrupt and lush, Camiguin has the highest concentration of volcanoes of any other of the 7641 islands in the Philippines or on the planet. But, in recent times, not even the fact that one of these volcanoes is active has disturbed the peace of its rural, fishing and, to the delight of outsiders, heavily bathed life.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Winter White
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
View from the top of Mount Vaea and the tomb, Vailima village, Robert Louis Stevenson, Upolu, Samoa
Literature
Upolu, Samoa

Stevenson's Treasure Island

At age 30, the Scottish writer began looking for a place to save him from his cursed body. In Upolu and the Samoans, he found a welcoming refuge to which he gave his heart and soul.
Motorcyclist in Sela Gorge, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Nature
Guwahati a Saddle Pass, India

A Worldly Journey to the Sacred Canyon of Sela

For 25 hours, we traveled the NH13, one of the highest and most dangerous roads in India. We traveled from the Brahmaputra river basin to the disputed Himalayas of the province of Arunachal Pradesh. In this article, we describe the stretch up to 4170 m of altitude of the Sela Pass that pointed us to the Tibetan Buddhist city of Tawang.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Dominican Republic, Bahia de Las Águilas Beach, Pedernales. Jaragua National Park, Beach
Natural Parks
Lagoa Oviedo a Bahia de las Águilas, Dominican Republic

In Search of the Immaculate Dominican Beach

Against all odds, one of the most unspoiled Dominican coastlines is also one of the most remote. Discovering the province of Pedernales, we are dazzled by the semi-desert Jaragua National Park and the Caribbean purity of Bahia de las Águilas.
Fort São Filipe, Cidade Velha, Santiago Island, Cape Verde
UNESCO World Heritage
Cidade Velha, Cape Verde

Cidade Velha: the Ancient of the Tropico-Colonial Cities

It was the first settlement founded by Europeans below the Tropic of Cancer. In crucial times for Portuguese expansion to Africa and South America and for the slave trade that accompanied it, Cidade Velha became a poignant but unavoidable legacy of Cape Verdean origins.

Correspondence verification
Characters
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
Beaches
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
The Crucifixion in Helsinki
Religion
Helsinki, Finland

A Frigid-Scholarly Via Crucis

When Holy Week arrives, Helsinki shows its belief. Despite the freezing cold, little dressed actors star in a sophisticated re-enactment of Via Crucis through streets full of spectators.
The Toy Train story
On Rails
Siliguri a Darjeeling, India

The Himalayan Toy Train Still Running

Neither the steep slope of some stretches nor the modernity stop it. From Siliguri, in the tropical foothills of the great Asian mountain range, the Darjeeling, with its peaks in sight, the most famous of the Indian Toy Trains has ensured for 117 years, day after day, an arduous dream journey. Traveling through the area, we climb aboard and let ourselves be enchanted.
Buffaloes, Marajo Island, Brazil, Soure police buffaloes
Society
Marajó Island, Brazil

The Buffalo Island

A vessel that transported buffaloes from the India it will have sunk at the mouth of the Amazon River. Today, the island of Marajó that hosted them has one of the largest herds in the world and Brazil is no longer without these bovine animals.
Saksun, Faroe Islands, Streymoy, warning
Daily life
Saksun, streymoyFaroe Islands

The Faroese Village That Doesn't Want to be Disneyland

Saksun is one of several stunning small villages in the Faroe Islands that more and more outsiders visit. It is distinguished by the aversion to tourists of its main rural owner, author of repeated antipathies and attacks against the invaders of his land.
Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, giraffes
Wildlife
PN Bwabwata, Namíbia

A Namibian Park Worth Three

Once Namibia's independence was consolidated in 1990, to simplify its management, the authorities grouped together a trio of parks and reserves on the Caprivi strip. The resulting PN Bwabwata hosts a stunning immensity of ecosystems and wildlife, on the banks of the Cubango (Okavango) and Cuando rivers.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.