Victoria - Vancouver Island

6th September - Sunsetting over the breakwater

I have spent the past 4 days in Victoria. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and its on Vancouver Island, just over an hour and a half by ferry from the mainland. The ferry journey across is picturesque as the ship weaves in between the islands. Victoria itself is a small pretty town. By North American standards it is very historical. It is an easy place to wander around. I went to the Royal BC Museum and watched an Imax film about Nascar. The Parliament building is very impressive and its free to walk around, the staff and security guards have to be the friendliest people I have ever encountered (the woman on the information desk recognised the Essex accent, she has relatives in Chelmsford). The Empress hotel is quite something and has a very old-fashioned feel to it when you look around it. What really caught my attention were the views from the South of Victoria across the Juan De Fuca Strait to the San Juan Islands and mainland America, absolutely breathtaking.

I did a day of busing it around, going out to Oak Bay and then up the coast to Sooke. Public transport in Canada appears to be extremely similar to that in the UK. The number of weirdos seems to be about the same. Mostly it is people craving attention speaking loudly about odd things. Then there is the high proportion of disaffected teenage youth who look mean and menacing but are as nice as pie to the driver and the other passengers.

I went on a Whale watching trip on my last day. Victoria is known for being a good place to go from as 90 Killer Whales live in the Straits, you are more likely to see them than not see them. Unfortunately we didn't see them. The cruise out there was good and it was great to see the Seals and Sea Lions.

I stayed at the Ocean Island Backpackers Inn. The quotes on the leaflet make it sound fantastic. The location is excellent, it has a bar inside and the staff were very friendly and helpful. The building itself was a little bit old and a little bit unclean. It wasn't so much dirty as having character. I was in a 6 bed room. I didn't manage to get one night's good sleep. Unfortunately the fattest guy in the room was sleeping on the squeakiest bunk bed, plus he snored, also people were getting up early to go to work. On the second morning I woke up to find the bloke in the bunk above me coming out of the bathroom with his face smashed in. His nose wouldn't stop bleeding and his left eye was badly swollen. It later turned out that this guy had decided to go and buy drugs from the local dealers and after purchasing he thought it would be a good idea to get trappy with the merchants, they didn't appreciate this and rearranged his face for him. Apart from that it was a nice place to stay.