After a faithful night of drinking, smoking 'Sheesha' (thanks to some random french guy) and music making with my fellow nomads from Oasis I was awoken by a rather large and grumpy lady barging her way into my room at about 11AM only to tell me my time is up and I was meant to have checked out at 10. Had I known this was my last night I probably wouldn't of got so hammered. So next thing I know I am packing up my bags and bidding farewell to my fellow travellers. I knew it was time to move on from Melbourne and I had a good idea that Tasmania was the place. Of course when you leave it that last minute and go on the day your options are limited and beggars cannot be choosers my fellow readers.
2 choices, ferry ($165 with bed) or plane ($295 1hr flying). I chose the ferry which was actually quite good. Restaurents, pubs and lots of roudy bikers. I was sensible and only had a few drinks before turning in at around midnight. The ferry arrived in Devonport, Tas at 6:00AM so I knew it would be early wake up and an interesting day working out where to go from there.
At around 5:30AM I was woken up by the loudest bang you could ever imagine hearing whilst in deep sleep. That was a 60 odd year old guy on the top bunk bed opposite me, miss footing his ladder and having it slide away from him directly onto my bed while he of course came crashing down. After the initial shock of waking up so quickly it was very amusing.
Once arriving in Devonport I realised this was the complete opposite side to Hobart which is the main city, very interesting. Luckily I managed to wing it again and jumped on a Tassielink coach all the way. Having been here for 4 days now in Hobart it's an interesting place, where shops and newsagents open and close whenever they want, they are as random as the weather, one minute sunny, the next hurricane winds. There is some nice places here particularly some of the residential houses which are near the main ports and bays nice location to live. We are surrounded by ports, with a nice bar and many restaurents onverlooking them.
I went aboard (for free!) the Sea Shepherd; a greenpeace type Australian, volunteer ship dedicated to the preservation of marine wild life particularly whales. Ask any Japanese person and they will tell you it's a terrorist ship! It was good seeing how they worked and lived and we saw video footage of them on actual chase, where they scuttle the harpoon ships.
There is a huge market here called Salamanca which runs every Saturday which is very lively.
Now I have seen on three separate occasions at markets particularly Victoria Market in Melbourne (where they sold crocodile burgers) UGG BOOTS. Yes I am beginning to encounter them and some have been very cheap around $29 genuine sheepskin...
I very much want to check out Port Arthur (Steeped in history) as my next spot before heading to a different part of Tas.
