Visiting Victoria: British Colombia's Capital

(The waterfront in Victoria, with the "Underseas Garden" in that boat on the left)


(The wide variety of goods at the Dutch bakery. Mmm!)


(Here this was, hanging out in downtown Victoria...)


(And then I realized it's along most of the lamp posts in this part of town! Just rows and lines of stretched bras weaving between historic buildings! Let's just say somewhere a large group of women are missing their support systems!!)


(Nice big bowl of chili on a rainy day)


(Parliament building in Victoria)


(This chocolate, hazelnut tart at a cafe called "Death by Chocolate")


(Me in front of a wall of flowers at Butchart Gardens)


(The sunken garden, one of their several gardens, at Butchart Gardens)


(The ferry taking me away to Victoria on Vancouver Island!)

Dear Family and Friends,

These last few days I have been in Victoria, BC's capital, exploring the city and visiting interesting sites. I decided to take a few days off from my research to make this side trip, although to be frank, my research is quite fun and does not involve a lot of work. I visited the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, an ex-quarry site that's been transformed into a hugely popular tourist destination. The flowers were blooming despite the dark skies, and the perfectly manicured and trimmed plants gave me an eerie feeling. Beautiful it was, but maybe I am more in favor of wilder, more natural surroundings. But the trip was fun nonetheless! I also meandered through the Parliament buildings, various shops and stores, and the gorgeous James Bay and waterfront. Victoria is supposed to have an old English feel about the town, but I totally did not get that vibe. Did go into a Dutch bakery this morning and had a delicious chocolate eclair with fresh whipped cream inside. I like to indulge myself, of course not every day (but almost).

Taking the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria is about 1.5 hours, but the total commute, including public transportation, is about 5 hours! I just arrived back in Vancouver this evening, and I'm worn out! One thing I've noticed and suffered greatly because of it: I've completely and utterly over-packed!!! "Light-packer" is not my middle name, fosho. This helps me though because for my next trips I'm seriously going to do the whole take-only-half-of-what-you-think-you-need, because as I'm learning the hard way, you do not need extra clothes for those "just in case" moments, like if you're invited to a fancy ball or decide to go skiing out of the blue.

Oh, another interesting thing: I went to a city council meeting this last week, and got to sit in for their discussions on making Vancouver the greenest city in the world. They're taking this very seriously! They already have most electric buses, which is amazing because I'm not used to being on a bus and having it stop and it being COMPLETELY silent without the sound of an engine running! Anyway, at the city council meeting I got to see the mayor and the council members interacting. Crazy. I've been to planning meetings in the states before, but I never saw the mayor anywhere! He's a pretty young guy, too!

As you all know, the Olympics is in Vancouver this Winter, and the city is buzzing! Literally, construction sites are all over the city, and downtown is a chaotic hard-helmet zone. Many locals have told me that they hate that the Olympics are taking place here. I guess not everyone is enthusiastic about having millions of people invading their city for two months. I had a totally unenlightened conversation with a guy who explained why having Olympics tourists here would slow down and decrease airline tickets, not contribute to the city's economy, and is making the city a worst place for the locals. He gave the explanations in painful detail but I still didn't get it. Oh, and all this while he was smoking in the car, and I kept thinking, "this fool is stealing precious minutes from my life for smoking and forcing me to inhale this poison," so that may have had to do with me not comprehending all that he said.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to the University of British Colombia's farm and farmer's market. Exciting stuff! Miss you all still. Cheers!