Tassie and Melbourne

Tasmania. A place, when mentioned to Americans, brings a chuckle and an inquiry about hunting for Tasmanian Devils (made popular by a children's cartoon of the 60's). Off the radar to North Americans, they ask, is it a country? A city? Buzz. The jeopardy question is: what is an island state in Australia off the east coast, a one and a half hour flight from Melbourne?

We might not have ever ventured there except for the desire to see friends we met through Arielle's work buddy, Jane. We became acquainted with The Moores when they visited Milwaukee to see Jane play Australuan football. It was a perfect opportunity to see them again and learn about their beloved Tassie.

First of all, it is beautiful. There is a calmness, even in the main city, Hobart. Considering what they consider heavy traffic, the impression is that life is less hurried , less plastic, less stressful than we know it. We did see some outlets of the multinational chains, but the roads and neighborhoods are populated with more small businesses than we are used to, not garish strips of shouting neon. There is an impression that the best part of the 1950s has been held onto.

A short ferry ride took us to MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, an unusual and magnificent structure housing ancient relics and wild contemporary art side by side . The current exhibit, Gilbert and George, is controversial at best. Our hosts also introduced us to The Botanic Gardens, and to the lookout on top of Mt. Wellington.

A long drive through the countryside, navigated deftly by Ken at the helm took us on a perimeter road circling the irregular land masses south of Hobart through small villages on the coast. My favorite town name is Cygnet. Sparkling coves full of sailboats, vacation cottages, and adjacent pasture land for future lamb sausages filled in the serene visual landscape. There were no ugly billboards or annoying signs disturbing our respite. This entire area had been engulfed in a devasting fire in 1967, which is the reason so many of the "new" structures are no longer built from wood. In the wooded areas, denuded and stripped trees are still evident. A serendipitous stop at a small but very professionally curated area museum documents the inferno.

Lucky us, we were in town for the once a week Salamanca Market. A long street near the docks fills with tents of vendors selling crafts, gourmet jams, Tasmanian honey, fancy soaps etc and of course second hand books and some antiques. We sampled flavorful coffee while strolling and viewing in the midst of noticeably mild mannered crowds. There was even an exhibit by a car club of reconditioned Fords from the 1950s.

A highlight of the two days in Tassie was the evening planned by Jenny and Ken at their beautiful home in New Town, a part of Hobart a few minutes from the downtown. They invited (cajoled?) Ken's barbershop quartet buddies to attend and perform at their BBQ. Lovely people!

Not knowing much about our own uniquely U.S. musical tradition, we learned about the history and current international barbershop subculture. Imagine Japanese and French groups performing at the annual competition in the US every July, in English! We were smitten and hooked! They delighted us with favorites old and new and we could have stayed all night listening. The rest of the evening we were engulfed in fun and warm hospitality, and regretted not having enough time to talk to everyone more. Kudos to Jenny who made a Pavlova dessert, an extradinary creation of merengue, cream and fruit.

 

Melbourne

This city is what Chicago should wannabe. It too has a central loop, surrounded by magnificent skyscrapers, a navigable River, memorable bridges and river walks, world class museums, botanic gardens, festivals, seemingly endless city sprawl, and amazing multicultural restaurants. One difference is a cohesive downtown in a fairly contained area with an encircling FREE and efficient transportation system by tram, which takes natives and tourists alike to the main arteries for work, cultural institutions and entertainment. There is also one "ground zero" center of town at Federation Square, a modern plaza of museums, venues, tourist assistance and crossing tram lines. Our five days here have been full, easy to get around and safe.

 Some highlights:

The Queen Victoria Market is a few football fields worth of space for exotic food, produce, Aussie flea market products. We swooned while eating our Borek rolls of cheese and spinach.

Several times we ambled in and out of the miles of covered arcades and lane ways inside the downtown loop. These are similar to what are found in London or Paris, full of cake and chocolate shops, small Aussie bars, and fancy goods. We happened upon a Dr Seuss print store. Jim walked in and saw a photo of his cousin in Chicago! It turns out that this cousin is the art dealer who has the license for Dr. Seuss art! The shopkeeper knows him and was as surprised to meet Jim as Jim was to come across the photo.

We walked through the Botanic Garden (lush fern gully), and the nearby imposing war memorial. The river walk offered various points of interest, including walls of immigrant statistics by country. Britain, Ireland and The Phillipines counted the majority of new Australians. Beautiful bridges over the river contrasted with the varied and quite artistic facades of the newest tall buildings nearby. Certainly the architects must have been in competition with each other to design the most colorful, playful and head turning constructions. Few hum drum skyscrapers here.

Many of the buildings have a long triangle motif embedded somewhere in the architecture. Curious. We also stumbled across a number of eagle sculptures. Turns out they are related. The creation story of the Aboriginal people involves a sharp tail feather.

Our favorite eating experience was in Hardware Lane, wide enough to have a comfortable and busy outdoor cafe scene, which made us think we were in Rome for awhile. Note the Max restaurant on Hardware. We also enjoyed a Greek food on the street of Greek restaurants, 

Also downtown is The Victoria Library , a gem of a building with a magnificent dome.