The past week I’ve had quite a few dates with peer reviewed
journal articles, excel spreadsheets, and PRIMER6 graphs/tables. It’s just been
soooo exciting here. Now that my plant ecology assignment is finally finished
and turned in, I can write another blog post. The past couple weekends we have
stayed at UTAS, so we could work on our big assignment. We managed to have
quite a few adventures though!
Weekend #1
Saturday we found ourselves back at the Salamanca Markets!
I’m seriously going to miss living near them when I’m back in the US. I love
exploring the markets, eating the yummy food, and seeing all the unique shops.
On Sunday Tanner and I went to Cascade Brewery, which is
Tasmania’s oldest brewery. Of course
when my daddy found out that there was a famous brewery near Hobart he
suggested that I should for him. I was excited to finally get to see the place
I had been promising my dad I would go to for last few months. Two of our
friends from UTAS, Myrna and Kate, decided to join us, so our brewery adventure
was already off to an awesome start! Myrna and Kate are exchange/study abroad
students from Mexico and Canada, so between the four of us we represented North
America well!
We hopped on a bus near campus and headed into Hobart to catch the bus that would take us up to Cascade. There was only one bus heading to Cascade that would get us there in time for our tour. I felt much more relaxed once we were on the final bus, especially because I was the one in charge of bus times/locations. It would have totally been my fault if I miss read the timetable and we didn’t make it there! It all worked out perfectly though and we actually ended up getting there about an hour and a half before our scheduled brewery tour.
The brewery is
situated near Mount Wellington with lots of trees and gardens surrounding it. I
immediately liked that the buildings were historic and the scenery was so
pretty. It was perfect day too, so that was definitely a bonus! Since we were
there so early we walked on some of the walking trails around the brewery. This
of course included a nice walk up a hill. This one wasn’t that long or steep though!
It was a beautiful fall walk. Some of the trees here, especially the non-native
ones, change color in the fall. It’s so weird seeing everyone from home post
pictures of the plants and flowers blooming and coming alive, while some of the
trees are loosing leaves here. My brain struggles with what season I’m actually
in! Eucalypts trees and some of the other plants don’t loose their leaves, so a
lot of Tasmania is still green.
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| On our walk near the brewery |
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| Cascade Brewery |
Once it got closer to our brewery tour time we headed back
to the visitor centre and checked in. We didn’t realize that we needed long
pants, completely enclosed shoes, and long socks on… basically no skin on our
legs could be showing. It worked out fine though we just had to play a little
dress up in the brewery’s tour clothes closet. Tanner borrowed some jeans, Kate
got to wear some gym shoes, and Myrna and I rocked some long socks. Everyone in
the tour group also got bright yellow vests to wear. After our how group of
roughly 15 people were all set to go we started the tour. On the tour we got to
go inside the historic brewery building. It was constructed in 1820s and is
still being used today. It was cool to walk around and see where they make
their famous beer. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures
inside the building, so you’ll just have to take my word on this one. During the tour they let us see and smell
their hops, showed us their packaging room and told us about the history behind
Cascade brewery. Since, we went during the weekend we didn’t get to see them
actually making or packing their beer, but that’s ok. While I was there I
learned that at one point (a long time ago) there was an open bar for the
workers inside the brewery. During their breaks the workers were allowed to go
and drink as much beer as they wanted. Much to the workers dismay they had to
stop that when present day regulations and laws came out.
After the tour was over we each got three token/bottle caps
to get free beer samples. I thought they were pretty nice-sized samples and
since drinking age is 18 here I was actually able to sample their beer and
cider! I had their sweet cider, the Cascade Blonde beer and the Cascade Pale
Ale (so I could say I sampled their oldest beer!). They were all good, but the blonde took the
win!
Once we were done sampling we took some last minute pictures
of the brewery and then caught the last bus back to the city. It was a successful day!
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| Mryna (right), Kate (middle), and I |
Weekend #2
During the week we mostly worked on our plant ecology
report, so I was definitely ready to do something exciting during the weekend.
Last weekend was ANZAC Day, a big Aussie Holiday. I learned ANZAC stands for
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. It is the anniversary of the landing on
Gallipoli and is a time to remember this major WWII military action. However, a
big part of this day is to commemorate Australian and New Zealand men and women
that serve in the military, especially those who’ve lost their lives protecting
their country.
On ANZAC day Tanner and I woke up early to go to a dawn
service with our college and other UTAS students. We toke a bus from
accommodation and went to the Cenotaph, a major military monument in Hobart. This
ceremony took place about an hour before sunrise and ended as the sun was
rising. We stood around the Cenotaph with a lot of other Tasmanian and
listened to different speakers. It was a really nice ceremony and I was honored
to be able to participate this special tradition.
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| The Cenotaph |
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| Not the best picture, but the ANZAC Dawn Service |
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| Tasman Bridge at dawn |
On Sunday Tanner and I went with some of our friends (Mel,
Olivia, and Seth) to tour the HMAS Canberra, an Australian military ship. The
ship docked in Hobart for ANZAC day and people were allowed to tour it for
free. There was a huge line when we got there, but we did a good job amusing
ourselves. I think the people around us got a little entertainment too. I was
pretty excited when it was finally our turn to get on the ship. It was insane
how enormous the ship was and how much was in it. We walked by a dorm,
bathroom, surgery room, radiology room, mini hospital, exercise room, kitchen, and
a few helicopters. We passed quite a few hallways as we were making our way
trough the ship. I would definitely get lost in there! We also got the chance
to go out on the decks, which was my favorite part. I was cool to see Hobart
while I was standing on a massive and very impressive ship! I really enjoyed my
time on the HMAS Canberra and I’m so fortunate I got to experience it.
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| Hobart waterfront... I see the ship! |
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| Waiting in line... |
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| So close! |
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| We got to listen to the military play at one point in line... They were AWESOME! |
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| Seth, Mel, and Tanner |
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A very nice Tassie lady insisted on taking my picture and
then talked to me about the US/Tasmania for a while. She was so cute!
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The rest of my weekend was spent working on my plant ecology report. It was pretty challenging for me and I was so relieved when I finally got to turn it in! We have some more adventures coming up this weekend, so I’ll write again soon.
Less than two months until I’m back in the USA! Crazy! Miss everyone tons and I hope finals/the school end of the year go well!
Love Always,
Bobbi
