Victoria!

Well it has been a while since I posted! I decided to try my luck in the lovely, funky city of Victoria until my money ran out. Here, I have had so many adventures that I'll have to write a book about it at some point :) The first few weeks I lived in a boarding house that would have been inspiration for a Dickens novel. My fellow in-mates (as I fondly think of them) were for the most part completely crazy, and I arrived once to find the police rummaging about the place and investigating a theft. At some point or other, I was pulled aside by almost every boarder, who warned and gossiped against each other: "Don't trust Bill," or "Never leave your door unlocked or Nancy will get in," and "Never make a deal with Tom." People's food was going missing, and at least one person was well, how to put this politely.....not entirely trustworthy, so I rigged up an alarm system for my bedroom door (I was quite proud of myself) to prevent against theft.

The city of Victoria itself is fascinating. It has a sense of age and dignity like Ottawa (as well as a sense of its historic connectedness to Britain), but it is different in that it is a port city where the tall ships come sailing into the harbour and the float planes buzz back and forth in the air like giant dragonflies. Cruise ships from Seattle chug in and out of the harbour, and enormous cargo monsters plow about as well.

The old, stone parliament buildings down-town are lit up at night like a giant, glowing gingerbread structure. Whole areas of historic homes in the city have stained-glass in the windows and many back-yards are filled by private and community gardens. Recently there was a book festival in the city, in which people left novels lying about in random places (picnic tables, bus stops, benches, etc.), and anyone was free to pick them up and then put back when they had finished reading them. There are little coffee-shop nooks and long paths for wandering near the ocean. People in general are friendly and eager to help, and there is a laidback-ness here that must come from being on an island in the pacific!

The lovely gardens of the rosy city!

Fernwood: One of the funkier areas of Victoria

I'll try to post more stories and better pictures soon.