So this is the second part of my little series on my quick trip to the West Coast, carried over from my previous post about the Vancouver leg.

We had an incredibly early wake up call (for me) at 5:30 am in order to make the first ferry out at 7:00 am. It involved a pricey and somewhat scary cab ride, but we did end up making it with a little bit of time to spare. I was very excited to take the ferry, as I enjoy boats and water very much. It’s an hour and a half to get across to Victoria, so I had plenty of time to enjoy the experience. The car portion of the ferry was packed, seeing as how the next ferry that departed at 9:00am was alright 80% full. Walk on traffic was not that bad, though the waiting area was a bit crowded prior to boarding. The ferry is completely done up, with restaurants and internet connections and games rooms. I spent most of the time outside taking pictures though, seeing as how the line for breakfast was incredibly long and neither of us had cash. Luckily we’d brought power bars and water, and I do suggest bringing some food with you when you take the ferry in the morning.

The view from the ferry is just breath-taking and envy inspiring, as you drift by all the houses sitting on the edge of tiny remote islands. I would adore to have a house in the middle of the ocean waters, with only a few select neighbours. Gorgeous and something I hope I have the ability to do in the future. It takes about an hour and a half to get across the channel Victoria, so we were there by about 8:30. The ferry terminals are quite out of the way, but Victoria (unlike Vancouver) provides wonderful city transit service that is direct to the downtown core. It must have been my lucky day because sitting in the bus terminal waiting to take us to Victoria was a double decker bus, which just happens to be on my life list. The fare was only $2.25 too, so it turned out to be an excessively cheap double decker ride. We of course sat on the top level.

It took about an hour to get into the main city of Victoria from the ferry terminal, but we were provided with a fairly scenic tour. We were dropped off about two blocks away from the main harbour or Wharf Street. I have to say this before I go any further: I LOVE VICTORIA. I was blown away by the atmosphere, the water, the buildings. Astounded! There was just so much to do, and we did make a full attempt to as much as we could. I think we did more in Victoria in less than a day than we did in a full three days in Vancouver.

We started the day off by visiting the Parliament Buildings, which is too touristy for words, but how can you resist when it’s one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, rivaled only by the Empress Hotel, really. You can also have a self guided tour or a full tour complete with stylish tour guide and characters along the way for free, and I’m not sure what I enjoy more than free things. I love free things when traveling, and I typically find them a lot more worthwhile than shelling out big bucks for tourist traps that don’t reflect any semblance of genuine culture or atmosphere. We spent about 30 minutes in the Parliament Buildings, mostly waiting for groups of small children on field trips to get out of the way. This did provide us with something of a tour guide without having to wait around for one at all times. The building is beautiful and full of history, and given that it is free and a fairly quick stop, it’s a must on any trip to Victoria.

After a quick pit stop for lunch and liquids, we headed over the the Royal BC Museum. I don’t normally vote for museums while traveling unless their a niche museum, but this one was huge and looked like it would be worth the money and hour or so. I did feel bad we didn’t have more time to invest into the museum, as Adam truly enjoys reading every single sign and type plate in museums (making him a grossly unsuitable museum partner for me, unlike my mom who can do a museum in 14 minutes and then proceed to fucking around with me [evidence here.]) The museum wasn’t very pricey either, at 14 dollars for an adult (given that you could spend four hours in there easily, I figure this is fair if you compare it to an average movie ticket price). Adam and I also have the ability to use student ID cards, though to be honest hardly anywhere actually checks them so I might reccomend just claiming student status and seeing if you can get discounts anyways. During the summer of 2008 it has a wonderful display focusing on the Free Spirit of BC, which I reccomend highly. Though it will cost you some money, I don’t think any trip to Victoria can bypass the Museum!

Since we’d already gotten our tourist feet incredibly wet, we figured we’d give in and shell out some bigger bills for a boat tour of the harbour. While it wasn’t cheap by any means, it was fun and gave us a nice perspective on the city from the point of the harbour. It was given in a little tug boat that could hold probably 10 people at the very most, making it adorable to boot.

The last thing we did on our trip to Victoria was just so full out tourist it kind of hurt a little, but since it was on my list, I couldn’t quite resist the temptation. The Royal London Wax Museum is right along side the harbour (like everything else we did that day) and is actually very big and well done. Not cheap, but worth the money, especially when you factor in the “Chamber of Horrors” in the basement of the place that is gory and disgusting. Also, they have a full wax set up of the last supper, which (ignore if you’re really religious) gave me and Adam amusement and then some. Is it worth going to? Well, to be honest probably not, even if you are dying to go to a wax museum. Unlike houses of wax in Europe and some North American cities, all the wax figures in the Royal London are glassed in. This means that you can’t get “Look I met Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp!” pictures, and any pictures you take of the installations feature a nice glare of light off of the glass. Though it was fun and gave us a few giggles and “wow” moments, you may want to go to one that provides more interaction and gives better photo ops.

There was so much more to do in Victoria that we just couldn’t fit into our 7 hours on the island. They have an Undersea Garden which I hear good things about (though it’s expensive and you may just want to go to the Aquarium in Stanely Park, Vancouver). The culture there is also incredibly, just walking around the main harbour and up and down Wharf Street will provide sights and sounds to entertain you for hours (and for free in most cases).

So far on this portion of the trip I crossed off
#221. Ride on a double decker bus
#445. Go to a wax museum

 
Here are some random pictures!

In the BC Royal Museum, he was just too happy to ignore.

Not sure how this picture came to be, but here it is

This above photo was Adam’s favourite and I found it quite amusing too.

Adam on the Harbour boat

Statue outside of the (useless) tourist information centre.