March 16 & 17, 2026
After another stretch of several days at sea, I needed to get off the ship, vent, and cry.
Rina to the rescue!
We headed to the Irish pub to scope it out for the St. Patrick’s Day festivities the following evening.
I had a beer, and we planned what we would order for our Irish feast the next night. They had Irish dancers performing, which was a fun treat.
This place made me wish my friend Emily were with us.
We were scoping out the neighborhood on Google Maps when we discovered that there were Kelly Steps and they weren’t far away!
The video Rina posted of the Kelly Steps became an internet sensation (at least within the ship community).
We were looking for Thai food and found a place with some rolls, but it didn’t have the atmosphere I wanted for lingering. So we decided to make ourselves a pub crawl!
For someone who doesn’t drink alcohol, Rina is one of my favorite drinking buddies. With each stop, the stress from the ship dissipated, and I felt more and more like myself.
By our last stop, we were pretty full, but when we saw pumpkin pizza on the menu, we had to order it.
It was exactly what I needed – drinks and snacks, fun company, and changing environments.
We couldn’t finish the pizza, so Rina brought the leftovers back to the ship. She shared them with a group who had also been out drinking, and were very appreciative of the late-night snack.
The next day was St. Patrick’s Day.
Olaf Flynn (the gnome pictured below) started traveling with me when I visited my cousins in Seattle. I said I would send pictures of him as we traveled the world, but he often didn’t make it out of my cabin.
This was a day where his outfit could not go to waste.
There was a brewery right by the terminal, so that seemed like the obvious first stop for our holiday festivities.
Rina had a great time taking Olaf on a photo shoot.
They had flights! My favorite!
Some of our fellow ship mates were playing pool with the locals, so we joined them before heading over to the Irish pub.
We’d been thinking about bangers and mash and pies ever since we’d spotted them on the menu the night before.
I went to the bathroom and it was busy. All three stalls were occupied, and a line had formed. One girl was trying not to throw up in the sink while her friend attempted to dry her wet t-shirt with the hand dryer.
Then two girls came out of the middle stall.
Now this is a St. Patrick’s Day.
I absolutely loved the show and was so glad that I wasn’t that far gone.
By the time I came out of the bathroom, a pub crawl had arrived, and the place had become too busy and too loud.
Listen to me! I’m so mature.
We headed down the street to the Whaler, which we had also visited the night before. This time, there was live music!
I convinced Anthony to have an Irish Car Bomb with me and then we called it an early night and went home.
At some point, I learned that some of the pubs in Hobart had originally been brothels -which actually isn’t that unusual- but these ones had secret tunnels that led to the Parliament buliding!
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