Little Britain

Trip Start Oct 15, 2007

Trip End Aug 24, 2008

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Flag of Canada Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Saturday, November 24, 2007

The journey to Victoria was long and tortuous. We left around midday and caught the SkyTrain to the city centre, then took a bus to a place called 'Airport Station', which is some distance from the airport and is where the buses all go to swap passengers. We waited for our connecting bus to take us to Tsawassen to the ferry terminal...and waited...and waited...and eventually, an hour later, it arrived. We just made it to the terminal in time for the 3pm ferry and having boarded, decided to go to the 'all you can eat' buffet for food. We spent the whole 90 minute crossing filling up ('all you can eat' is a dangerous phrase to use around people who are living on a budget). On our arrival in Swartz Bay in Vancouver Island, we were both feeling the need to extend the waistbelts on our rucsacks. We got a bus in to Victoria, then another to the area where our host, Brennan, lived. We arrived sometime after 6pm.

Brennan and Nicky (his girlfriend of Bristol-origin) were very welcoming and we spent a while watching a terrible TV program about female body builders before being introduced to the Wii. The game we played was a strange Japanese offering, which was in lots of little stages involving using the control thing to describe the actions of activities such as driving a car, hammering a nail, sharpening a pencil etc. Very odd, and strangely compelling. After a while, Nicky headed for bed as she wasn't feeling too well, and we went out to Brennan's favourite pub for some beers and conversation. Brennan is a silly, funny guy and we all had a nice evening.

The following day, we headed out to explore the sights of Victoria. It's a city with an obsession with its British heritage. There are red double decker buses, of which they are very proud, but we've seen double deckers before. There's a cricket themed pub downtown, despite Canadians having no real clue what cricket actually is, outside being a quaint symbol of Britishness. They have a statue of Captain Cook on the waterfront. Being an explorer he's necessarily a Brit who went overseas, so maybe isn't as quintessential as a red double decker, but Jacob wanted to get in a mention of another intrepid Yorkshireman. It was all a bit strange though: could be a British city...except for the totem poles and the moose dressed in RCMP uniforms outside the souvenir shops.

We walked along the seafront walk around the inner harbour and up to a market area. We watched a man creating a totem pole out of a huge tree. It's an odd combination of real attention to detail and, well, whacking at it with a chisel and hammer. Then we decided to check out Fisherman's Wharf, an area inhabited by fisherman (well, quite) and bohemian types in which all of the houses are house boats. It was lovely, but being out of season, the fish and chippy was shut. We did see a seal though, and spent a while admiring it whilst it tried to convince us with its big eyes that we wanted to buy it some fish.

Feeling somewhat hungry ourselves, we headed back to the inner harbour area and went to a cafe which promised Victoria's most awesome fish and chips (another gesture towards Britishness). Well, that sounded like a gauntlet. We had a starter of chilli prawns and calamari which was delicious, and then each had fish and chips. They were really good, the fish was tasty, the batter was gorgeous, the chips were crisp and golden...but it was nothing like 'fish and chips', just really good 'fish' with 'chips'.

We decided against the unquestionable delights of Madame Tussaud's and decided instead to go and do a little window shopping. We wandered, particularly enjoying the T-shirt shop with hundreds of funny, silly and downright weird T-shirts.

All worn out, we headed back to Brennan's for a quiet evening. Brennan cooked Huevos Rancheros for himself and Jacob. Kirsty was feeling off colour, so didn't partake. We did some washing, watched a film from Brennan's huge DVD collection and had an early night.

The following day, we headed out to the main central part of Victoria again. We wandered and found ourselves some brunch at a nice little cafe, which we ended up getting at a discount as the waitress thought that round-the-world travellers should get free tuna sandwiches! We did a little internet stuff, sorted out a bus to Seattle and bought some Harrogate Toffee from a 'British Candy Shop' and some Yorkshire beers from a liquor store for our hosts as a little taste of home. We also found some really nice pictures in a gallery, so bought ourselves some small prints.

That evening, Nicky was feeling a lot better, so the four of us went out to a bar for food and drinks and general conversation. Nicky is not a beer drinker ("they all taste the same, and they all taste horrible"), so the pitchers were just shared between the three of us, whilst she had some alcopop type unpleasantness. Then to bed, for we had a very early start ahead of us, if we were to reach Seattle by evening.