Long time since I reported to you (all of my twelve readers)
with an update on my fantastic life. Recently our flat was full of friends for
six weeks straight. Sounds good, doesn’t work. When they were all gone after
the month and a half, my wonderful man lovingly rewrote the sign on our black
board saying: welcome nobody.
Luky left for homeland one day in October and Radek arrived
a day later. We only managed one yoga class, dinner at a vegan restaurant and a
tiny walk around a beautiful waterfall and Dominika landed at the Brisbane
airport. She was really stoked when I took her on a 25km hike in the Lamington
National Park. She complained, but was grateful that thanks to this, she
basically had no jetlag. The hike was beautiful, full of waterfalls, flowers
and small lagoons. Of course I didn’t expect that it was going to be 25km long
so I was a little bit stressed for the pork that was in the slow cooker. Turns
out, six hours on high temperature is just right for the perfect pulled pork
and we had a feast. Much needed after the long walk.
I have organised a small trip to Tasmania so Dominika would
see a little bit of Australia since she came all the way and Radek has decided
to join us. We had to wake up around 4AM or even earlier to make it to Brisbane
on time for our low cost flight. For this special occasion I have organised a
lift offered on a FB group. He was a bit of a talker for AM hours and his car
smelled a little bit, but overall seemed like an alright fella and drove us to
the airport on time. We had an average overpriced airport breakfast and with a
lot of laughs we boarded our first plane of the trip. Upon arrival to Hobart,
we picked up our road trip vehicle and off we went to our first location on the
GPS, it read: the best brunch in Hobart, and it was fantastic. Poached eggs on
a crunchy sourdough bread, with perfectly fried button head mushrooms, spinach
and bacon. As if that wasn’t fantastic, I was already in love when they brought
me a locally roasted single origin filter coffee. Unfortunately while we
enjoyed our first Tasmanian meal, the weather outside changed for the worst and
we had to make our way to the car in rain and wind. Luckily it turns out the
weather can change within minutes, as it happens on small islands, and when we
arrived in Port Arthur it was sunny again. We dropped our bags and after a
lengthy conversation with an overly chatty hotel owner we set out to explore
the port. The historical site – prison for convicts from the Commonwealth
countries was massive and pretty impressive. It also had a vast potential for
the guides to tell us stories that would give us goose bumps and teach us
something about the bloody history. However all three tours, including the
overpriced ghost tour, sounded like an excerpt from a Wikipedia article. Either
way, we still enjoyed the place and its atmosphere.
The next day we went to see the remarkable cave in our
woolly hats because it was so cold and windy. But the views were beautiful and
so was the walk around the old mining site where we were completely alone. We
ate massive burgers for lunch, got caught in the rain in a desperate search for a good coffee. In the end we found it in a small chocolate making factory. Unfortunately
the girl had a hard time pushing buttons of the coffee machine and tried to
explain to us that she is new and that she’s only just learned how to make a
cappuccino and does not know how to make a short black coffee. Reason behind
this left us all puzzled, but we managed to get somewhere on the caffeine front
eventually and also raided her “tasting” plate when she left to the factory.
After the coffee saga the sun came back out and we had the
greatest pleasure of meeting some samples of the Tasmanian devil population and
it was brilliant. If you ever find yourself at the end of the world that is
Tasmania, I highly recommend visiting the Unzoo in Port Arthur. We got to see
the Tasmanian devil rip into his lunch and were educated about their
population, lives and eating habits by the friendly staff. We also got to make
friends with the kangaroos and I was lucky enough to cuddle a baby kangaroo,
which was the cutest thing in the whole zoo. It wasn’t the same like the time I
got to hold a baby lion back in Argentina, but my happiness was real.
Finally we made our way to Wineglass Bay to the coldest
accommodation ever. Despite the fact that we turned our heating to a maximum,
we still slept in all of the clothes we brought with us. We also had a great
pizza for dinner at a local newly opened restaurant where Dominika charmed the
bartenders into giving us the wifi password that was intended for business use
only.
The next day we were woken up by the freezing cold, we
cooked breakfast and our breath slowly became less and less visible as we drank
tea and ate our bacon with eggs. After the coffee debacle the day before we
didn’t want to risk it so our first stop was the delicious restaurant from the
day before where we enjoyed sipping our coffee outside in the sun. The wineglass
bay walk was great. Not to sound like our overly active friend Martin, it would
have been better to run it. The route was nice and easy and the weather was
just perfect for it. The beach was great and all, but what was even better was
what came after.
The Devil’s Corner, finally a piece of that famous delicious
Tasmanian cuisine. In the middle of nowhere, nothing but an extensive vineyard,
winery and two different food stalls. We had a pizza, oysters, salmon and fish
and chips and of course the wine. I was absolutely in my element only wishing
that Luky was there because he would have loved it too. We spent the rest of
the afternoon driving through country roads, dodging wallabies and kangaroos on
the road, stopping at a few sites and making our way to Launceston. The city
was beautiful, our motel was not, but a glass of local Tasmanian wine made the
room much more acceptable.
Early morning start, airport breakfast and before we knew it
we were landing in Sydney. This was a surprise stopover for Dominika, which I
have planned so she would see the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I know
that first time I was there, it was a spectacular sight and I wanted the same
for her. We only had time for a great meal at the Social Brew Café recommended
by Karolina and off we went to walk right into Darling Harbour, under the
Harbour Bridge and all the way to the Opera. We snapped a few photos and went
straight back to the airport.
Unfortunately I had to work the rest of the time Dominika
was here, but I think we still managed to enjoy our afternoons on the beach and
a weekend trip to Byron Bay, our breakfast in the highest building of the
Southern Hemisphere, yoga classes and dinners.
Radek moved out, Luky’s friend moved in and before we knew
it Lucie arrived at the flat. Not before our friends from Noosa managed to stay
the night in between. I was almost starting to feel like a low budget
traveller’s inn, but Lucie was a great company. We enjoyed a few longboard
rides, beer on tap and a balcony joint during the week and finally on the
weekend we went for a road trip. Starting with Fingal Head beach where we
climbed all the way to the rocks. The dolphins came to visit as they always do
when we go to Fingal. We continued to Byron Bay and stopped at the Farm, which
is definitely my favourite restaurant and a café venue in the area. We had some
lunch and continued to the walk to the lighthouse and the easternmost point of
Australia and we finished the day off at the marketta for some live music.
Sunday started with my favourite Acai bowl and after we picked up Radek and
Stepan we continued into Springbrook national park to dance under the
waterfalls and it was excellent. Her short visit ended at a taco Tuesday in
Mexicali where I managed to get tipsy on one margarita so it was Luky who had
to drive her to the train station. Short but sweet. After all of this we went
to sleep at 8PM. It’s not the entertaining and visits the drained my energy,
the killer of everything is a full time job, eight hours every day.
We are back to normal with Luky now and we are enjoying our
time and our place even more than before. If I ever felt constant waves of
happiness it’s now. Every time we take a long time to eat breakfast and every
time I wake up next to him. Only nine more days to go before my last day at my
job. Only ten more days to go before we leave to Thailand. Only nineteen days
to go before this year is over. What an incredible year. I will elaborate on
that in my next blog. Also photos in the next post.
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