Victoria BC- where the mountains meet the sea

After a hectic two days in Vancouver stomping about the city and keeping a weather eye out of muggers, it was time to go to my overnight hideaway, in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. For those of you playing at home, that was Tuesday 30 January 2007.

The night before I had spent an hour or two down in the pub next door to the hostel, getting to know a variety of other backpackers, mostly Aussies heading to the ski fields, Quebecqois (French Canadians from Quebec who were escaping from their own Winter Carnival I was about to go to) and Germans who just "luff to travel". Although Vancouver downtown is set out on a grid (terrific) the cross streets are marked in such a way suspended over the street that it became difficult to determine whether I was on the street named or about to turn onto it. Also, unlike Sydney where the roads slope down to Circular Quay, the main roads undulate, uphill one block and down the next, making it a bit disorientating. However, the extra hours of hillwalking have set me up well for Quebec city, and gave me cause for self-congratulation on my choice of hiking boots and explorer socks.

That night I went to bed early only to be kept up most of the night by the nightclub next door pumping out the usual "doof doof" tracks. Earplugs blocked out the sound but I was faced with a quandry when I actually looked at my bed- how to sleep when your bunk is actually visibly vibrating, 4 storeys up? It was laughable and defintely not something covered by the Lonely Planet review of Vancouver... "vibrating bed for no extra money". It was a throwback to "O" week at uni all over again.

Pre-dawn start to Victoria the next day by 3 buses and a ferry. The hostel had let me leave nearly all my gear with them so I travelled light and after waiting at the wrong bus stop, a very kind bus driver invited me onboard and dropped me at his next stop (the right one) at the cost of only a little conversation to amuse him. I didn't get your name, driver, but I'm grateful. And you didn't laugh at me when I, pale and sick looking and unbreakfasted, said I was moving to Winnipeg.

The Spirit of Vancouver is a lovely ferry and the trip down to Vancouver Island was incredibly scenic, proving that the travel brochure photos of BC are not doctored. The mountains met the sea dramatically emerging from the fog and were covered in snow-topped pine trees.

Arriving in Victoria was like arriving in Brighton or most other picturesque British seaside towns. They put the "British" in British Columbia. I took a peek inside a main street popular pub, The Sticky Wicket, which houses a large collection of English cricketing memorabillia and went for a walk down to the Harbourfront and the Provincial Houses of Parliament. Being a weekday, there were few visitors and though Parliament wasn't in session, I was allowed to have a good look through. The buildings look much like Harrods in London or the QVB in Sydney but even more grand and I spent time absorbing the memorabillia lovingly displayed from the Queen's visits, Victoria Cross awardees, attorneys-general portraits and read the Canadian Bill of Rights.

It was onwards then to Beacon Hill Park, saw the tallest totem pole in the world and did most of the clifftop walk beyond Beacon Hill Park. It was a clear and sunny 8 degrees and I encountered a lot of dogwalkers and a retired British lady named Jo who offered to take my picture on my camera and told me she liked playing online Scrabble with Australians and South Africans. That decided it for me. The internet is really cool.

The past 10 days of travelling had caught up with me though and by the time I returned to my hotel I had walked 6 hours straight and was pretty sick. I holed myself up with some dinner and some local TV (the Aussie drought and the Perth fires was the no.2 headline- Iraq was no.1) and slept in total quiet for the first time in a fortnight. Hooray !

The next day dawned brighter than the one before and after breakfast at Smittys (great local cafe where the elderly owner had the entire collection of Royal Copenhagen plateware on display on the wall) went for a shorter walk to Fisherman's wharf. I didn't make it all the way though as I had a bus/ ferry to catch. In all, Victoria stood out as a far more livable place than Vancouver for me. Maybe it is full of retirees and young families, but they didn't have the same pinched hardness to their faces that I saw in Vancouver as people were forced to step past the less fortunate.