Last Friday afternoon we drove down south to Hobart. We arrived as the sun was setting, checked into our hotel and then jumped in a taxi to meet a bunch of my boyfriend Andrew’s mates at The Winston Alehouse and Eatery.

The menu is all American style, so I had a chilli dog with fries and almost an entire serve of jalapeno poppers to myself. It was delicious. I immediately embarrassed myself by asking for a non specific “beer” when there are literally hundreds of craft beers on the menu and I was surrounded by connoisseurs. I ended up with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which was really good. Thank god someone else made that decision for me.

The night ended with two party pies and a Magnum Ego at 2am at the 24 hour Salamanca Bakehouse. Sounds irresponsible but we were really just honouring a tradition set by Andrew during his uni years. The next morning we went for a walk past the wharf to the Salamanca Markets.

Pretty

Don’t let the above heavily edited photo fool you, the weather was very average.

Salamanca Square

I insisted we eat breakfast at the Machine Laundry Cafe, having been recommended the place at least 10 times over by various people.

Cawfee

The coffee and breakfast was delicious. But I couldn’t help but laugh at the surly hipster that brought me my flat white, she could have given the wait staff at Collingwood cafes a run for their money. Perhaps she should consider a job outside the service industry.

Scrambled eggs with chorizo, feta, rocket and beetroot.

After eating we braved the rain and had a stroll through the Salamanca Markets. My Mum, a pro shopper on the craft market circuit, had told me it’s a must see. And she was right, it was so great; bursting with food, music, fresh produce, craft, clothes, everything.

We grabbed some more coffees and some breakfast dessert and wandered around.

Hot jam donut anyone?

Mmmm jam.

I made one purchase, a small felt snowman to match with the Frozen theme of the holiday.

CUTE.

We headed back to the hotel to grab the car to take to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) passing through the wharf again.

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Boats

More boats

Ye olde building right near our hotel.

MONA, as everyone told me, was incredible. The location, the underground building and the wacky art I certainly did enjoy. But I often find modern art confusing and have to keep telling myself not to always go looking for meaning where it probably doesn’t exist.

I loved this cool water words fountain that greeted us when we first walked in.

Maybe it rains a lot in Sarajevo?

These black pen swirls were made by a machine holding a pen that was attached to a wind machine outside. It was drawing the wind, so dreamy.

Windy

I had been warned about the smell of the replica human digestion machine… And true to form the room really did stink. ART.

Digestion in action.

I really did want to stick around to see how it worked, but it was just too gross. Moving on…

Fat Ferrari… A comment on the nature of consumer culture?!

A big old pile of magnets.

My favourite piece was a room within a room within a room. That’s the only way I can think to explain it, it was creepy and kind of claustrophobic. After an hour and a half it was nice to see daylight again, especially with such a great view.

Mt Wellington in the background

There were lots of amusing things around the grounds, like the car space reserved for ‘God’ and these signs above the bins:

Heavy

No museum or gallery visit is complete without a stroll through the gift shop. I bought a syringe pen.

Hopefully no one sees it on my desk and gets the wrong idea!

After MONA we headed up Mt Wellington to checkout the views over the city.

Not bad at all Hobart, not bad.

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the pub. I snapped this last photo of the wharf as the sun set.

We flew out early the next morning. I really wish we’d had more time. Hobart is a very cool city. I loved all the old convict-era style buildings and the hills. I can’t wait to go back on day. Preferably in summer.

Have you been to Tassie?