Hobart - Part 3

Written on: 13.04.12

I paid for the tour of Theatre Royal today. I was actually the only one doing the tour and I felt a little bit like I was in a library because the guide was talking so quietly. It’s a beautiful theatre, it’s very small so I’m a bit surprised that they still use it, but at the same time it’s great that they do instead of just getting something new and bigger.

 My main reason for going was because I wanted to see the basement which, according to my Hobart’s historic places-map, incorporates remnants of the original theatre, including the tavern commonly known as “The Shades”. We did go into the basement, but I only got to see some of the old dressing rooms that were now used as storage. The part where “The Shades” is, which is right under where the seats are now, is closed off, which is a shame. So I’m a bit disappointed that I spent money on that tour when I didn’t get to see what I really wanted to, but at the same time the Theatre is beautiful and I didn’t have to pay for a show, and the money from the tours goes to bring disadvantaged children to the theatre, so at least it’s for a good cause.

"Grafitti" on one of the walls in an old dressing room.

 After the Theatre tour I walked around Hobart to see the rest of the historic places on the map.

One of the places on the map is St. David’s Park, which used to be a cemetery. The cemetery closed in 1872, and by the turn of the century its condition had become a public disgrace. In 1926, the area was converted into one of the City’s most attractive parks. It was fun to see the massive gravestones, has anybody ever seen a modern version of those?

 There were also some walls with loads of gravestones on them. I had a look at some of them, and it was so sad to see how young people were when they died, and there were quite a few for young children. Although I do have to admit that many of them are much prettier than the modern ones.

Written on: 14.04.12

I went to the Salamanca market this morning. It’s on every Saturday from 8.30am to 4pm. I went with one of the other girls from the hostel as soon as it started so that we could do that and then still have the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted.

 There were so many nice things at the market. I would love to have an apartment here and loads of money just so I could fill it with things from the market! Haha! There was also loads of food stall, many which did free samples. Needless to say I got a free sample from every stall that had something vegetarian.

After the market I walked up to Anzac Parade.

When I got back to the hostel I played some cricket with one of the guys in the courtyard… Not really the best idea as there is tables and chairs there and people sitting there with their laptops, but we managed to not hit people with the ball. I almost did, but only once. I have never played cricket before, and although we were just pitching (or I guess it’s called bowling in cricket?) the ball and hitting it with the bat to each other it was really fun. It’s also quite tiring; how the professionals can play for a few hours I don’t understand. I wasn’t very good at hitting the ball to start with, but after a while I got better, and it’s always fun when you can tell you’re getting better at something.

Tomorrow I am going to borrow a bike at the museum and art gallery in town and cycle to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), I have heard it’s really good, and I saw the pictures one of the other girls took there and it does look amazing, so I’m really looking forward to that.

One of the girls at the hostel and I went to Dumpling World for dinner tonight. We ordered vegetarian dumplings and stir-fried noodles. The noodles were really nice, but we both agreed that the dumplings had too much garlic in them. I quite like garlic, but with these I had to dip them in a lot of soy sauce, which I don’t normally like, just to try and get rid of some of the garlic taste. Maybe the meat dumplings are alright, but I would not recommend the vegetarian ones.