After landing and spending the night in Vancouver, I took a ferry over to Victoria on Vancouver Island. The journey was uneventful, although if you’re planning to do something similar, I wouldn’t recommend taking the Pacific Tours bus from direct to Victoria as it costs about $45, which frankly is a rip off. Luckily I braved the public transport option (after all, that’s what traveling is all about. If I wanted a luxury coach I’d have waited until I was in my 60′s like everyone else on coach tours…). It was my no means a mistake. For a start, Vancouver has an amazing transport system, possibly to do with the upcoming Olympics, although I cannot judge having not seen the “before” version! Secondly, everyone is so helpful and kind, that there is no way you can go wrong.
The shiny new Canada line has Air conditioning and full mobile reception. Sorry I haven’t taken a picture, I may well upload one retrospectively if I grace Vancouver with my presence again! It costs $2.50 to go anywhere on the evenings and weekends, and you can take as many busses and trains as you want with your ticket for an hour an a half. Meaning my bus from the hotel to the Subway, the subway itself, and the subsequent bus to the ferry were all included in the price of my first bus ticket! There is a direct bus from the subway to the ferry terminal, and foot passengers only pay $13. After that I had the friendliest bus driver ever, who took us all the way to downtown Victoria, giving everyone helpful advice on where and when to get off or change busses.
I arrived at the Ocean Island Backpackers Inn absolutely exhausted and in need of some serious food. I checked into a room which really wasn’t great – there were 5 guys who were already living there for awhile and the room was smelly and cramped with all their stuff. I asked at reception to change rooms, but unfortunately that night they were all booked up. The girl on reception was really helpful though and changed my room as of the next day, and I decided that one night in smelly room won’t kill me. I went down to the Hostel’s bar, slightly apprehensive about being on my own and knowing that I’m quite rubbish at making friends in large groups of people. Luckily the place was pretty dead, it was only about 6pm, so I ordered some food (a home made Chickpea curry which was IMMENSE) which is very cheap in the backpackers – only $5 or so. The barman, Tim, got chatting to me and soon we were sitting in a group of 3 or 4 trying to come up with as many band names as possible that had food in them. Hostels are amazing for random shit like that. After a few beers I decided to have an early night, and went and slept in the SMELLYroom.
The next morning, bright and early I checked out of the room, and headed in to Victoria to see the sights. It is a quaint little town, by the sea, with not that much going on. I walked round the whole town in a few hours, admiring the buildings and wishing it would stop raining. After a slightly disappointing club sandwich for lunch I headed back to the hostel, fed of of rain and having seen everything and went to check out my new room. Another English girl, Leane, had just moved in and we quickly became mates. After discouraging her from going to McDonalds, I persuaded her that good healthy cheap food was in abundance down in the bar and so we trooped over there for another chat with Tim, and our own vamped up version of trivial pursuit. Quite a few Canadians seemed to have turned out that night, so we talked to some locals about Canada and British Columbia and the like. It turned out that Tim had done a season at Cardrona as well, which is why I keep mentioning him here – we had LOADS to talk about. It then freaked us both out beyond belief when we realized we had been living there at the same time, a couple of streets away from each other!! And we’d definitely crossed paths more than once. I love weird stuff like that!
I think that is one of the many joys of staying in a youth hostel – they are so full of people who are… well, the kind of people who stay at youth hostel. And I am one of them. It’s always dead easy to get chatting to people, and if the layout of the hostel is right ( and Ocean Island had it down to a T) then you can do it with minimum effort. And then everyone can share their stories of their travels, where they’ve been and with whom, and recommend places to go, places to avoid. And you’ll always meet someone who happens to know someone your brother’s mates goldfish knows.
The next day I decided to get what can only be described as the world’s slowest train to Nanaimo. It’s a costal town about 3 hours north of Victoria, and the scenery on the way is BEAUTIFUL. I was quite tired and may have snoozed a little, but it was really quite cloudy and wet so the view wasn’t the best. Nanaimo is really twee and cute and UTTERLY MIND-BOGGINGLY BORING. There is absolutely nothing to do there on a cold and wet winters day. It rained the whole time I was there, bar an hour, which I used to rush around the old town and the Arts district and take photos of everything! There seemed to be hardly any people about, and a lot of places were just shut. It had a lot of cute little shops though, which I checked out briefly. In the end I found a little cafe in the old town which was quite new age-y and hippyish and had several hot chocolates and the world’s best carrot cake. I think the whole miserable trip was worth it just for that cake. My overall opinion of the place was that it is probably an awesome place to visit in the summer – the scenery is sensational (I know this only from the pictures, it was so overcast and foggy that I could barely see the boats in the harbour, never mind anything beyond) and the cafes and bars look like they utilize their outdoor space a lot more than their indoor space! However, if traveling round before/during a ski season, the summer thing is slightly irrelevant.
I met some more of my roommates that evening, including a Kiwi guy called Iain who is a chef. He offered to cook us dinner the following night, but I was so exhausted after my day trip I just went to bed. The next day was my last day in victoria, and I was really quite sad to be leaving. Everyone was just so nice and fun to hand out with, and the hostel felt really homely. I did some shopping – American Apparel is just too awesome and irresistible! And had my haircut and dyed. That set me back a fair chunk, but I figured I was on holiday so whatever!! After that I met up with Leane for a wander, we waltzed through chinatown and popped to the liquor store to buy some wine for our meal that night. I got chatting to Iain about food for ages and then we finally ate the amazing moroccan chicken he’d whipped up for us. It was truly a taste sensation.
Right after our meal, the hostel pub quiz started so we decided to bravely take part. I answered pretty much all the questions, and we came second! We won 40 dollars which were promptly spent in the bar, and since we were merry and mourning the fact that I was leaving tomorrow, moved on to a pub to play pool until 2am. Needless to say, when my alarm went off at 7 to inform me that I should get a ferry, I muttered some obscenities and went back to sleep for two hours! The ferry back was uneventful, and I was soon back in Vancouver for my EA orientation…….
