Before arriving to Tasmania, Ryan had the expectation of a finding a small town / wilderness area with quirky people, but instead found a small city just getting its big boy pants.

I didn't think Hobart Tassie would be very different from other cities we'd visited so far, except for maybe the geography. Since I had done more research on the places we were traveling, I guess I had more of an idea of what might be.

Look a bar! And there's a bus parked in the beer garden area. Could be a place in Seattle.

We had some beer at the bus bar. It was delicious!

We didn't rent a car while we were there so we spent most of our time exploring Hobart on foot. Fortunately, we didn't plan to do much camping or traveling around in the wilderness because Ryan picked up a really terrible head cold and then later we were notified our credit card numbers had been compromised. We ended up needing a place to rest with cell phone reception in order to have the same conversation, for several days with two different banks, over and over again.

It all worked out fine in the end. Ryan's cold went away and our new credit cards arrived from Pennsylvania to California and then in person in Bali Indonesia, a few weeks later. (Thank you Pat and Twyla!!!)

I spent a morning taking pictures in the rose garden near our hostel while Ryan rested to fight off his bad head cold.

During our short visit we enjoyed a mountain with pipe organs, a modern art museum with an exhibit that can be fed and poops, jet boats, sail boats, navy boats, a botanic garden, Tassie whiskey, Tassie beer and a fireworks display.

We also saw a 7D movie theatre that was showing some real gems: Space Coaster or Lost in Fear or Bloody Road, among others. We decided not to indulge all seven dimensions.

Our visit to MONA was one of the pricier excursions we went on. It cost about $80 USD for the two of us to take the fast ferry over and visit the museum, which felt like expensive tickets to go look at weird modern art stored underground. But it's also the exact sort of entertainment I enjoy handing over money for. I will gladly pay to sit on a plastic sheep and travel on a graffiti covered yacht that I'm pretty sure is making fun of every person traveling on it. Also, a lot of the artwork in MONA has a sort of F*U attitude. Like I'm not going to explain to you what this is, or why I made it and I don't care if you get it or not. Basically, the building / underground bunker is full of video, sounds, sculptures, photos etc. that most of the artists didn't expect to end up in a museum space. I loved it!

There is so much to see at MONA! If you're ever in Tasmania, try and go to there!

I was really excited they parked a crashed car in the parking lot. I think this was called Tight Spaces or something similar.

Trump. Everyone asks us about him once they learn we are from America. Also, his name appears in MONA as the exhibit randomly prints out the most searched terms online with water drops.

The artist made this work as a reaction to obesity epidemics around the world. He chose a Porsche for it's a widely recognized sign of luxury and status. I found it a beautiful candy-colored blob of a car.

One of the installations is a line of 150 life-sized plaster casted vaginas. More impressive than the lighting for the art, was the audio commentary in which a young woman interviewing the male artist disagreed / argued for 15 minutes about how most men view and treat women in our society. She argued against the artist's stance that misogyny still exists today and is rampant in our world. It made me laugh out loud.

Time for the graffiti yacht back to Hobart. Whee!

After a few days, it was time to catch a bus up north to Devonport and take a larger ferry across the Bass Strait to Melbourne.

The ferry we took from Devonport to Melbourne can transport 1,400 people and 500 cars over 230 nautical miles to Melbourne. We took a small ferry across the river to get to the big ferry.

Look how small and cute the small ferry is when compared to the big one!

The view as we departed from Devonport. A smokey haze covers the shipping depot mostly due to fires burning out in the wilderness areas.

We were super lucky with the weather!!! We'd heard the water can be like a roller coaster once you sail out to sea beyond Tassie. They hold yacht races in the open ocean and a lot of boats don't finish. Because they break in half like a taco and sink. Or, maybe they just fall over and can't get up. Either way, the sea was a lake for us which was pretty awesome considering I sometimes get motion sick and barf.

The open sea behaving itself as we watched the other Spirit of Tasmania Ferry cross to Tasmania.

Ryan spent hours playing FIFA while I lounged around alternating between reading, sketching and watching the ocean pass by. We saw the movie Joy in the little movie theater and listened to car alarms echo up the stairwells from the car deck. Overall, we enjoyed our micro-cruise and it in no way convinced us of taking a longer one, anytime soon.