QUAINT IS IN.

Launceston Tasmania
March 10, 2004

Metro Backpackers Youth Hostel is where it's at right now. I am sharing an 8-bed dorm room with other kids, half of them Japanese, an older german-sounding woman and Cat (the trekker girl from England). It's only 9:09 pm and everyone's gearing up for bed, or packing up for an early trip to Cradle Mountains in the morning. I, on the other hand am bored. It's only 9pm, and I'm sure I'm missing good shows on TV. (hah)

I flew into Launceston from Sydney at noon today, arrived in the airport, hopped into the shuttle and asked nice-driver Jeff to drop me off at the hostel who's flyer I had picked up at the airport (I am now trying to navigate Australia without my Lonely Planet bible which i stupidly left beside Adam's computer. Woe is me.) [As I type this on the hostel balcony facing the street, nice driver Jeff pulls up in front of the hostel! coincidence? I think not, he works till midnight.]

All the bottom bunk beds were taken in my room. As kids, my brother and I always fought for top bunk--having to climb up jittery steps to your bed (monkey-bar style) was the thrill of a lifetime. No boring sleeping styles for us-- it was a legal tree-house, kind of, you were ALLOWED to be up that high (woohoo! ), now it's just plain painful. I have this fear of tipping the bunk over as I climb up to my bed. argh.

After settling in, I had my obligatory walk around Launceston. This town defines quaint. There is definitely an old-London feel to it, narrow alleyways that lead into little squares of shops and coffee places, cobblestone and curved entryways. I wandered around wanting to get lost, but always found myself back on a main street somewhere that had some sort of logical leaning. It was quite impossible not to find your way around. After procrastinating for a few hours (and spending $40 on presents) , I decided it was time to get backpacker serious. I learned from the Adelaide Hostel run-in that that best way to actually meet people (and kind of save money) is to buy groceries and cook in the common kitchen. So off I went in search of a decent supermarket. An hour of walking around and $10 dollars spent later, I still couldn't find one within the main square. I talked to an old lady watering her plants and her vague directions had me walking diagonally on a Park at the end of Brisbane Street to find a Coles. Hmmm, I found a little grocer on the next corner and after dutifully buying three tomatoes from him (the grocer dood), asked again where the supermarket was. I got the same "walk diagonally through the park answer". How strange.

So I did just that, I walked to the end of Brisbane St., past my backpackers and cross the street into the loveliest little city park I had ever seen, It was the size of a block and walled -off on most sides, sloping just a little bit to the right. The path I was on undeniably cut diagonal into the park. So I followed it down, past flower beds and a little kiosk, everything was so calm I could hear a dry leaf tumbling after me on the path. It was a happy moment-- those incredibly lucid seconds you sometimes get when you just know your happy, right then and there and you smile to yourself not wanting to be anywhere else.

I found Coles. It was at the end of the road after I cut diagonally across the park. How strange. My mission in Coles was to buy Dinner, Breakfast and Lunch food all under $20 and with the cheapest stuff possible. what do you do when you're on a budget? You succumbed to bad dorm food-- Mac and cheese (for the uninitiated) and canned tuna, a loaf of bread for sandwiches, cheese slice (the ultimate in processed dairy) and a few veggies thrown in to keep you thinking everything's fresh.

So I started on my cooking spree, Mac and Cheese + tuna tonight ( a recipe taken from Ms. Clara Kauffman). Here I was thinking no one would bother to actually cook themselves gourmet, I mean I was with backpackers right-- key word "stingy"? Wrong. Everyone around me was "Wok with Yan" reincarnated. Holy shit can people whip up meals! I felt like a shitty little amateur with my college staple Mac and Cheese. WTF. I don't think I've ever felt like such an inadequate meal-maker!

{Interruption in process} Ok, I knew that balcony was the place to be in this Hostel! Under me right now is the nightly Launceston Ghost tour, passing through-- they've stopped right in front of the hostel and the tour guide is now telling them (with me eavesdropping) that our building used to be an where the local undertaker did his business, weird grooves on the wall were made for formaldehyde bottles, and this balcony where I am sitting overlooking the street is where ghosts were said to appear. groovy! Now he goes on to say how wrong it is that Tasmania is the only state that doesn't get channel 10 and the Simpsons! (oooh, church bell tolling). i knew something was severely wrong when people didn't gather around the telly at 8! {/interruption}

It's pretty cold down here in Tassie. I'm wearing a turtleneck sweater and still my fingers are numb (even though I'm typing). I'm liking this little balcony I'm on, so much is happening below me (oooh the little eavesdropper in me rejoices) and I can smoke! Tomorrow another day.

Comments

[Tiphaine r-]

i had abandonned checking your travelogue, a pre-year of the monkey time zone stasis, now i keep scrolling down and up and feel as there is way to much to capture in one single read...
Tiphaine r-
pix any time soon?

[Steph]

T! I promise to update more often. I'm in Sydney now and close to a computer. Back then I was in Tassie, with a backlog of entries I had on my pbook (yeah, some backpacker--travelling with a pbook. tsk), so i obviously took advantage when i had a hostel with a hook up! woohoo. ;)

[Tiphaine r-]

postcard?

[steph]

address? same goes for anyone else who wants a postcard! :)

[Tiphaine r-]

check pickingplums

[Tiphaine r-]

Received the sparking blue water card. Now where are your feets taking you and when shall we all expect you back in the Big Pomme?

[Tiphaine r-]

Received the sparking blue water card. Now where are your feets taking you and when shall we all expect you back in the Big Pomme?