First afternoon at Hobart

After a short 50-min flight from Melbourne to Hobart (http://goo.gl/maps/vxI6i) on Jetstar, we arrived at Hobart. 

My iJedi (iron wife, hee hee) with her "G" force had located a B&B within walking distance from the wharf.  Gattonside (http://www.gattonside.com.au/) was a historical mansion.  Huge room!  The bathroom was the size of a maid's quarter from the bygone days.  Internet, welllll….. Keep your computer in the bag. 

Lunch time at Smolt (http://www.smolt.com.au/).  The restaurant reminded me of Earl's.  Food was excellent.  I got my natural oysters and shared the rest of veggies.  Roasted pumpkins with yogurt.  Root salad composed of beets, hazelnuts, fennels and  mashed pumpkin at the bottom.  Funny, we didn't order much but the food was quite filling.  O, I have to make a comment about the oysters.  It was an oyster plate - from small size to BIG size.  The big size, it was cooked just right with an orange mixture toppled with a little of fennel.  Great when I chewed on it.  The fennel created additional texture in my mouth. 

Lots of galleries along the wharf.  

After the first afternoon, we realized a car was needed to see the rest of the island.  Otherwise, we would have wasted a perfect opportunity.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

first day of vacation

After a 19-hour journey - Planes, automobiles and ferry … Hobart->Melbourne->Hong Kong… we planted our feet in Macau. 

We woke up at 5:45am Aussue time, (a 3-hour head start from Macau) to finally arrived on the (6th) floor apartment at 1:00am on the 24th. I think it was 19 hours mate. 

I thought I would write about the Down Under experience since this trip was my first official 2013 holiday.  With lack of consistent Internet access, clean air, blue sky, friendly and straight forward people with big smiles, I parked all electronic devices away and just enjoyed!  OK… OK, perhaps the mobile phone - acted only as a visual capturing device in place of a 300mm Nikon otherwise I would have carry around my neck.  

The two photos with the church peaks were taken in downtown Melbourne. How could you not love the place with such inviting space and blue! 

Then, the food… the coffee shop so rightly named "the little cafe of awesome" served one of the most delicious coffee and b'fast I experienced.  I had poached eggs, smashed avocado and feta on toast.  Plain, simple and healthy.  Now, how come I can't think of this such simple, low sugar release b'fast?  

We flew Jetstar from Melbourne to Hobart.  The airline was like WestJet - low cost, on-time, efficient (website, check-in, rescheduling), staff with smiling faces… An airline you said .. yes, there was.  

Off we went to Hobart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 hours, really?

You are kidding me right?  One of my online options is 24-Hour Currency Exchange Service.  That's great!  I can do banking around the clock at my OWN convenience.  Not so.  After I went through all the screens and confirm my transaction, I got a System Message.  Read it and see if that's really 24 hours.  So bank$ really DO funny counting….  

Cooking school 2

Here we went for day 2 of the veggie cooking school. Theme was "raw food".

Take a look.

Front of the school.

Around town

Besides cooking, we did a walk-about around town.

Prior Park to see the Palladian bridge. Only 4 in the world and this was one of them. 3 in England and 1 in Russia.

After that a Jane Austen self guided tour. Downloaded the podcasts and a map to our iPhone and the way we went.

Cooking school

Day 1 of a two-day vegetarian cooking school. It was an all-day event. Brunch and late lunch. We made everything!! Bread, soup, tangin, tofu stir fried, grilled pumpkin salad and rice pudding.

Moroccan

First night arrived at Bath after 13 hours of flying and 2hours of train. Cold and wet. Still had snow on the ground. Found an authentic Moroccan restaurant. The outcome was "Wow"!

I had the traditional Moroccan soup hot and steamy. Iron wife had the tomato soup. Followed by a shared couscous dish covered w/ mushrooms and veggies.