Tasmania and the Wombats - Part 1 (The Pre-report)

Who doesn't know it: the time on site always seems to be too short, the travel list infinitely long, and the money not inexhaustible. So, 'make the most of every day and look for bargains' was the motto when I found out that my orientation week would start in early August instead of mid-July.

'Off to the warm weather!' was the actual desire after freezing my butt off in Adelaide for days - to lie on the beach in northern Australia for a few days and let the sun shine on my belly - just like everyone in Germany is doing at the moment. However, this seemed to be the thought of all South Australians at that time, as the flights were ridiculously expensive.

New consideration: where does no one want to go at the moment, even though it's beautiful there? After a little googling back and forth, one destination became quite clear: TASMANIA. In July, it's rainy, cold, nothing going on, the cities deserted - simply not a popular travel destination at this time of year. 'Wonderful!' I thought to myself as I booked the super cheap plane tickets. Being a native of Stralsund, I'm used to bad weather and after all, I've already bought another sweater in Adelaide.

What was planned and booked by me as a solo trip turned out a few days before departure to be a Swiss-German travel duo, as I was able to inspire another (prematurely arrived) international student for Tasmania with my already completed research.

Punctual as always, Lara and I met on Monday evening, 25.07.22, at the airport in Adelaide and looked forward to the coming days. We had only seen each other briefly twice before and had a lot to talk about - until we noticed that we should have already taken off and everyone was still waiting at the gate. At around 6:30 p.m., after more than an hour's delay, the announcement finally came that the plane was suddenly unfit to fly (but it just landed, didn't it?) and everyone was rebooked on a flight for the next day at 2 p.m. Well great, it's starting off great again... Pretty annoyed and definitely hungry, we took the bus back to the city and went to eat sushi - after all, we could spend 30 AUD on food at the expense of the airline as an apology for the inconvenience.

Part 2 of the trip will follow soon :-)