A few months ago we made the big move over the strait from Melbourne to Hobart. A Melbourne girl born and bred I've happily trekked the globe and embraced long-term (2-3 year) stints in both London and Berlin, each time returning to the mother city that I love the most. This time, however, the move was a necessity rather than a choice per se so came with an entirely different mixed bag of emotions.
London and Berlin are both global cities with their own definite 'brands'. Working in the creative industries, both places were a no-brainer when it came to considering the effect living in these cities would have on my career. Single and fancy-free, I embraced both places and returned home to Melbourne with loads of new friendships, career highs and - after Berlin - a boyfriend in tow.
So where was Hobart going to fit into this life of mine? How was I going to engage with its people and creative underbelly with 2 babies at home, no social network and a boyfriend who was busy building up a new bar and off hitting his own career highs every evening? Slightly overwhelmed I did the only thing I feasibly saw possible and dove right in with gusto.
5 months have gone by and I am thinking over those months while sitting in the comforting fold of Melbourne's inner northern cool for a couple of days. This is my third trip across since our move and, whilst I LOVE popping back to Melbourne and touching base with family, oldest friends and valued clients - I'm beginning to realize that the idea of a work/life balance that simply alluded us in Melbourne is strangely within reach in Hobart. The city has a peacefulness and a proximity to...well...everything that makes a day made up of equal parts family and work achievable rather than a massive race to the end.
Lifestyle aside, the sheer beauty of Hobart's Waterfront, Battery Points ridiculous charm, the hugely flourishing creative pulse of the city (growing all the time thanks to the pioneering fabulousness of places like MONA, initiatives like Dark Mofo and MONA FOMA, the ever-growing buzz of the growing restaurant scene and crazy cool design of every aesthetic from the striking beauty of Satellite Island to the sustainable cool of Macq01) and the strangely comforting constant of Mount Wellington's shadow have definitely crept under this Melbourne girls skin.
Huge thanks to Sweet Natured Photography for capturing these moments as we settled into our new home 5 months ago.