Victoria, Vancouver Island

Victoria, Vancouver Island, conjures up romantic images, probably because of the word 'island'. The island is 500km in length and about 250km wide so its not that small - however strangely enough Victoria is the capital of British Columbia which is rather large and Victoria is rather far away so go figure.

Horse and carriage in front of parliment buildings



Parliment buildings

The Empress hotel on the waterfront

City hall on the left and all around the city are these fibre glass animals in beautiful colours - when the olympics arrive next year these are auctioned off for charity.

Water taxi that goes to various points around the harbour area.

I think a day, max two in Victoria should be sufficient. Its really pretty especially round the harbour area and there are some fantastic buildings, brilliant architecture and within the city some gorgous cathedrals - saying that though - that was pretty much it for me. You could venture inland by bus to see Butchart gardens, which is a big tourist attraction, my Dad's garden is good enough for me. We have gardens!

The christmas village is an amazing shop which has room upon room of the most gorgous christmas decorations alot of which are hand painted on wood.

I moose you all!

What really made an impression on me as i walked the city flat was the amount of beggar's around, on most street corners, some even young and well fed - i felt embarrassed for them! There are also loads of tatooed types with body piercings, call me old fashioned but i find this element abit scary.

Last but not least there are the buskers, tons of them doing all sorts of things, the best one was a violinist in a darf vader outfit, man what next????

The bronze girl would stand stock still until somebody gave her some money and then should change position, very good.

Would i come back? maybe to other parts of the island if there was something really worth visiting. Also it doesnt really feel like Canada, i could have been walking around at the Waterfront in Cape Town, oh but there was one reminder that i wasnt, the american tourists who descend on Victoria from their cruise ships like locusts, consuming and buying everything in their pathway. One chap walking along was talking so loudly he was shouting, i was shocked that nobody had ever told him not to turn his megaphone voice down.

Ah so, good fun really and rather amusing. I think I have been away from SA too long, cause Cape Town rocks in comparison!

House boats on the water