Point and shoot: Victoria, BC

The air in Victoria was different from that in Cobble Hill.

Figuratively speaking. And it’s mainly because I had become accustomed to having the same people around for two weeks at Damali. From this part of the trip up until Banff, I had to take more precaution with my belongings that I did at the farm.

When I disembarked the ferry at Brentwood Bay, I walked to a bus stop to catch a bus to downtown Victoria.

The ride was between 30 minutes to an hour.

I booked a room at Ocean Island Inn, which was a few blocks away from the stop I had to get off at. Although it wasn’t that far away, I felt just a little bit silly dragging my luggage on the sidewalk to get to the hostel. Who still lugs around roller bags anyway? Actual backpacker backpacks are what’s in these days, and I was traveling around with a black roller bag and an obese Jansport backpack, which was immensely fat because I stuffed everything I possibly could into it.

But I didn’t really have a choice, and it actually wasn’t so bad. A bunch of people had probably already made that same route with roller bags.

Most of my time in Victoria was spent sightseeing around downtown.

Here are photos I took:

1 - victoriaparliament — The Victoria Parliament Building! I went on a free 30-minute tour here, and it was informative. For instance, Chris, who guided the tour I attended, shared that BC is the only Canadian province with a provincial fish: the Pacific Salmon.

4 - victoriaparliament — Stained glass inside the Parliament building.

2 - victoriaparliament — Part of the ceiling of the Parliament building.

6 - victoriaparliament — Inside the Victoria Parliament Building.

5 - victoriaparliament — Chris, the tour guide, answered questions about Queen Elizabeth II (pictured on the painting to the left).

1 - christchurchcathedral — Christ Church Cathedral

2 - christchurchcathedral — Inside Christ Church Cathedral

3 - beaconhillpark — Fountain at Beacon Hill Park

1 - dragonboatfest — Participants in the Dragon Boat Festival.

I was flying solo around the city, but the world proved itself small when I ran into Chiara and Matteo at a pub on Government Street. Granted, Victoria is a small city to begin with, but it was nice to see some familiar faces in the new setting. So I joined them for a beer, and Matteo, being such a gentleman, picked up the tab 🙂

1 - scottishman — This man played bagpipes at the pub where Matteo, Chiara, and I hung out for a bit.

We agreed to meet at Bastion Square the following day to explore some more of the city together, and here are some snapshots of what we visited:

1 - victoria — The front of Bastion Square at an angle

1 - smallstreet — A small street Chiara, Matteo and I walked through after walking around in Market Square. It had several little shops in there and reminded me of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies.

2 - victoriachinatown — Chinatown in Victoria is one of the smaller Chinatowns I’ve visited.

*I’ll precede specific entries with the phrase “Point and shoot” if they’ve got substantially more photographs than writing. This is inspired by my camera, a point and shoot, on which I rely on heavily for this blog’s visuals.

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One thought on “Point and shoot: Victoria, BC”

Benny says:

October 14, 2013 at 8:19 pm

Haha, I had exactly the same thought about this “Diagon Alley” in Victoria, when I was there. But I didn’t went into the parliament building, nice to see some photos from the inside.

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