Hi everyone,
Just picking up from where I left off about our recent trip
around Tasmania. If you just happened to
read my blog for the first time or simply need to refresh your memory, here is
the link to the first part of the story.
We drove into Hobart on the afternoon of a sunny warm
day. The town looked very green and
clean, like the rest of the island and we immediately liked it.
The place where we were staying, called Salamanca Inn, was
in an ideal location: we were within
walking distance of Hobart’s waterfront with its beautiful marina, an array of
restaurants and bars and the city centre with its green parks, graceful sandstone
buildings, museums and galleries that we took a great pleasure in walking around and admiring them.
We visited the Botanical Gardens and spent a few hours walking around
the amazing plants and flowers and had a delicious lunch with a million dollar ocean and city view.
the amazing plants and flowers and had a delicious lunch with a million dollar ocean and city view.
We drove up to Mount Wellington to admire the bird’s eye-view
over the city and glistening ocean sprawled around the foot of the mountain.
Our main interest, however, lay in visiting the MONA Art Gallery of Tasmania. We had heard and
read so much about it that being in Hobart and not seeing it with our own eyes
would be unthinkable. As a matter of
fact, we came prepared well in advance.
Back in Sydney, a friend of ours, who recently visited Hobart, suggested
that we should try and book lunch there, he also advised that in order to avoid
a long queue, we should buy our tickets on-line.
And so we did. Not
only did we buy tickets, we also managed to book a New Year lunch at the MONA
restaurant, called the Source.
The story behind this place is quite interesting and worth
reading about. As a matter of fact, MONA is Australia's largest private museum and one of the most controversial
private collections of modern art and antiquities in the world. Described by its owner as a "subversive
adult Disneyland", the collection includes everything from ancient
Egyptian mummies to some of the world's most infamous and thought-provoking
contemporary art. With around 300 art works on display, the collection takes
up three floors within a subterranean architectural masterpiece and is
guaranteed to impress even the most avid art lovers. The only structure that stands above ground
is the restaurant and the cavernous entrance hall to the museum.
The first thing indicated to us that we are about to have a
great time was the quirky way each dining table was decorated. From afar they looked just like regular square
tables with glass tops but on a closer inspection, it was rather a box with a glass top and a solid bottom part set over table legs. As we sat down, I looked through the glass
and saw the bottom panel was all covered in sea salt with a message written by
using thin dry twigs laid out in a circular shape on top of it saying: “It
would only take one wave”. The other
tables were equally quirky decorated, some with feathers, some with stones but
most of all we love what they did to the dining tables outside on a
terrace.
Each table was covered in soil
and natural grass and was bumpy as a lawn would be so the diners were looking
for some indentations to place their glasses without spilling their
contest.
It looked like a lot of
fun. The food was utterly delicious,
well cooked and beautifully presented, the service was impeccable and we had
the most enjoyable time at the Source.
Then the time came to pay homage to the museum’s current
exhibition. I must confess I had mixed
feelings about seeing it in the first place due to a lot of controversial
opinions in the press, the public and the art gurus but
we really liked it. Some exhibits did
not work for me, some of them I found being too twisted but on the whole, we
loved it and I would recommend a visit MONA without any hesitation.
And then our time in Hobart had come to the end and the next
thing we knew we were on the plane returning to Sydney.
Hope you enjoyed reading my recounting of our Tasmanian trip
and would consider putting it on your next holiday destination trip. Please let me know if I can be of any
assistance.
Until then,
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