HOBART reconsidered

this capital city is contrast:  it has a  beautiful waterfront filled with ocean-going sailboats, modern cleanly designed restaurants and bars overlooking the harbor and its signature Salamanca Street cafe/restaurant/pub culture, and yet a few blocks away a world of seedy, badly painted, sadly "modernized" 19th and early 20th commercial buildings.  Above the harbor Battery Point is an elegant and graceful collection of colonial and Empire houses and small shops, shaded and restored with obvious love and affection. A small candy store has the largest selection of chocolate and licorice tidbits i've ever seen, all stored in large pragmatically labeled glass jars. Yet a few blocks away the CDB (Central Business District) contains a vastly diverse collection of commercial buildings from late 19th to Art Deco buildings, but  so many of them have been updated with glaring colors, ugly signage, and oversized overhanging awnings as sun protection that seeing the original design requires work to ignore the added visual abuse.

over the past weeks i've noted my own sense of isolation, despite the number of people i've met; here in Hobart, i feel returned to travel; an intriguing variety of people, galleries, an active and modern cafe culture, and the sheer pleasure of seeing some intriguing art and crafts instead of the usual tourist junk of bad postcards, stuffed toy Tassie Devils and and key rings with the vanished Thylacine returned in numbers probably never achieved in its entire history.

wanted to post photos, but the internet speed here is so poor that it feels more like punishment than pleasure, so will have to wait until i am back to Tim and Anna's place next week.

*** for motorcyclists:  I had previously reported my surprise that so few riders here acknowledge my wave as i pass, but the other day my entire perception was turned upside down when SEVEN Harley riders each acknowledged my wave as we passed.  need to import those guys to the US.


If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time - Edith Wharton