http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/ Welcome to Been there. Your tips on the places you know - that you love, live in or have just visited - are what make this guide. http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37339 Carved into the sandstone cliffs of a peninsula in north Hobart, the building alone is worth a visit. It won the National Architecture Award in November 2012.
The collection ranges from antiquities (including several Egyptian mummies) to contemporary art, and visitors are encouraged to give their opinion of the artworks through the interactive audio guide 'the O'.
I loved the design of the building and the way in which visitors are encouraged to interact with the art. MONA lives up to the hype and is one of the most unusual and entertaining art galleries I've ever been too.
The best way to get there is by ferry. The trendy, camouflage print MONA ferry leaves from the docks of Hobart's old town. There is a coffee bar on board and if you go out on deck there are amazing views of Mount Wellington and Hobart's beautiful surroundings.
Adult entry to MONA is $20 and the ferry costs another $20 for a return ticket.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37339 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37338 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37338 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37033 The evening clientele is young - office workers enjoying the late sun and having fun over a schooner or two.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37033 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37014 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37014 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36437 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36437 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36397 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36397 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36396 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36396 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36207 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36207 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36136 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/36136 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35689 If you lost your passport the hotmail account will give easy access for getting help, eg from the nearest Embassy etc.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35689 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35627 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35627 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34914 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34914 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34266 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34266 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34248 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34248 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34244 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/34244 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33853 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33853 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33831 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33831 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33804 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33804 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33801 The Blue Mountains walkabout would not be everybody’s cup of eucalyptus tea. It’s quite strenuous and you will get dirty. But if you want an escape from the frenetic pace of Sydney, see more of the Australian bush than you would in a whistle-stop bus tour and gain a real insight into Aboriginal culture, this is a MUST DO.
Evan Yanna Muru, our tour guide of Aboriginal descent, met us at Falconbridge station which is approximately an hour’s train journey from Sydney’s Central Station. As a former tour guide myself, I am hard to please but I can honestly say that Evan is one of the best. He is passionate about Darug (the Aboriginal tribe that lived in the Blue Mountains) culture and his knowledge of his heritage is vast and deep. The tour group was small and they were an eclectic and interesting crew – ranging from a business tycoon who followed the road less travelled to become a volunteer in Namibia to a technical architect with Sony Playstation who was about to climb Everest.
Most of the 8k walk is off-track and therefore the terrain is rough. You do not need to be super-fit but you do need to be surefooted. However, there are compensations - our group did not encounter one other person all day. Other than our voices and movements, no other noises interfered with the bush soundscape.
I felt slightly ashamed that the Irish who settled in Australia were among those who condemned this ancient culture as primitive. I winced at the irony that many of the Irish convicts, who were transported to Australia for petty crime (I would argue partly because they themselves were dispossessed), went on to drive the Australian natives off their land. The Darug aborigines occupied the Blue Mountains for 50,000 years. Within two years of white settlement (1788), smallpox had killed more than half of this tribe. By 1860 the last of the full-blood Darug people had died.
Unfortunately the weather was not conducive to swimming in a billabong so we had our lunch sitting round a campfire in a sandstone cave. We drank eucalyptus tea and toasted marshmallows.
I do not want to give the impression that the walkabout is too worthy – we chatted and joked and finished the day, weary but exhilarated, in the pub.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33801 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33771 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33771