hobart! day one, part two: boat rides and where we stayed (and more food!)

I think it is high time I shared more of my trip to Hobart and Mona! After our amazing meal at Ethos, Bonnie and I walked down to Hobart's dock. With my my flat brogues, albeit maroon and pink patent but still, long grey vintage coat and boxy vintage suitcase, I felt like a cross between a rather prim teacher and a WWII child evacuee. Most sensible! Great for walking but that case is not light. New carry on luggage, here I come! It was lovely to walk down the historic streets in the honeyed afternoon light. There are so many beautiful old buildings. Some of the buildings are so narrow and quaint they remind me of Europe. The light in Hobart is so different from Victoria's. When we turned a corner into the shade, it was cold and very blue. Really stark and wintry; I loved it! The boats – ships? – might be historic too. As their bike share bikes are, at least in good looks! So much more attractive than Victoria's. I'll have to see if they ride well next time I'm here. I love that light blue! Beautiful Bonnie had our tickets ready. And so we waited for the special ferrie. I was so excited to see this enormous ship. It goes to Antarctica, and I'd LOVE to go there one day. But we were waiting for a smaller, sleeker vessel. But still had some time for posing in the sun. The seagulls took the opportunity to look like fighter planes. Then our ride arrived. Even the ferrie is branded. I love Mona's mark and how it is used. And we were off. It started to get windy. Very windy. Good for long hair... sort of! So, we waved bye to Hobart as the sun started to finish up for the day. Maybe the wind felt he could come out now the sun wasn't looking. We were looking for penguins and dolphins. And then Bonnie looked like a golden mermaid. After a hilariously windy (we eventually had to give up our top deck positions and take shelter before the wind snatched up our phones and gave them to the sea) trip, the islands came into view. We could see the houses on the cliff face, and wondered which one was to be ours. The view is incredible, really. We docked, and walked up the stairs into a golden world filled with very familiar white hands... And admired ourselves in the reflection of Mona's distorting mirror front. We were then electro-buggied – no more walking for us! – to our house, Esmond. Both of us liked the decor – really modern and funny too.  Then Bonnie got me in the best photo bomb ever. "I see you, taking pictures of yourself in the bathroom!"!!! We took turns at posing in the red chair. Surprisingly comfortable! But don't ferrie rides make you hungry? The staff were absolutely wonderful, and brought us a dozen oysters, through the howling wind, right to our table, even though they weren't on the menu. But we were in Tasmania, we had to have fresh oysters! They were honestly the best I have ever had. I thought the ones I have here in Melbourne were good, but now they'll always be playing second fiddle! Anyway, we devoured our appriopriately mermaidian food... ... and got changed. I liked the furnitures' leg details in the apartment. The ones in the bedroom were a fluro coral pink, which I thought matched matched my shoes rather nicely, don't you? We were going swimming. I firmly put my body image insecurities to the back of my mind and quickly put my pretty (if unflattering) swimsuit on. It was time to go swimming in the infinity pool! So, wrapped in our fluffy white hotel robes we stamped in our hotel slippers through the gale to the heated indoor pool. It was bath temperature, which was welcome after even that 30 second outdoor spree! We spent the rest of the evening swimming, eating more room service deliciousness (I could get very used to having someone bring me my food on a tray, thankyouverymuch) and enjoying the wild Tasmanian sunset. We tried, at least, to get an early night, as the next day we would be up bright and early for Mona!