Vancouver Island

Yesterday I went to Vancouver Island.

The day started off with us getting up way too late. I say that in reflection because I had no idea it would take that bloody long to get there. Kye said something about an hour there, an hour back. Lesson of the day, never trust Kye.

The breakdown of the time spent travelling;

Catch a bus to Ladner Exchange = 40 mins
Wait for transfer bus = 20 mins
Bus to Tsawassen Ferry = half an hour
Ferry ride to Swartz Bay = 1.30 hours
Bus from bay to Victoria = 45 mins express

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

So we got up at 9, caught a bus at 11 by then I was already getting sceptical.

That picture was taken at Ladner Exchange.

Canadian buses are strange. They don't except notes and you have to have the right change because they don't give you any change if you only have a few dollars. A few more things about their buses.... most have this gear outside on the front of the buses where people can attach their bikes. Very nifty, and most of the city buses are hybrid buses and run on electricity XD

On the ferry we decided to have some breakfast/lunch. It felt strange being on such a huge ferry. The ones in Sydney are tiny in comparison. But I suppose that's fair enough. The ferry that went to Vancouver Island was carrying cars, trucks, buses and passangers, and the travel does take a while so it had plenty of seats, food stuff, shops, tv's and kiddie play areas.

An interior shot of deck 6.

The ferry from the outside. See how big it is @__@

On the topmost deck.

Now brace yourself for a bunch of photos of a lot of sky, sea and islands...

It was a long trip and we spent most of the time outside on the deck getting blasted by the wind. We met this interesting guy named Ian who's an environmental conservationist. He told usa lot about the surrounding islands, the kind of work he did on said islands, told us about how hardly anyone lives on the islands and how people are slowly selling the land back to the government to be conserved. He also told us how bad it is that people feed bears and how they have to be scared off. He also told us about the local wildlife, and pointed out some seals and sealions which were swimming around in the ocean around the island coastlines. Was great to meet a local.

Talking to him made time pass a lot quicker. We then piled off the ferry and got on a double decker express bus to take us to Victoria.

We took a quick detour to Sidney, lol!

Met Ian again on the bus and he told us some more stuff about the land and then before he had to get off at his stop gave us some chocolate as souveniers. YEAY! FREE CHOCOLATE!!!

We finally made it to Victoria at around 4pm. Which meant half an hour of daylight left.

This is Government House. It looks really pretty at night.

We were also very impressed with The Empress which I can only assume is a 5 star hotel.

A small courtyard.

We ventured inside to see how snoty and uperclass it was. ALthough I didn't take photos they had this period dress fancy dinner set up and were setting up more things for some Jane Austin event that they were planning. THere were a lot of old ladies sitting down in period dresses and waiters in top hats and ye olde clothes.

Went back outside to admire the garden.

The hotel lit up for the evening.

Wethen quickly went to the Royal BC Museum. It was shuuting at five and we had fifteen minutes to go into the foyer, look around and grab more information.

After that we decided to go back home, mostly on me insisting because tghe last ferry would leave at 9 and we had nowhere to really stay, so I just wanted to be sure we got home before the buses stopped working and what not. Got a bus at 5:06 or so, which was a slow bus, so we got to the ferry at 6:30, and it departed at 7. I stood outside for a while, watching the islands pass in the darkness. Was most relaxing, but soooooooooo cold.

Lucky for us we ma naged to get an express bus to Downtown Vancouver, so no annoying change over. We got home a bit after 9:30.

So... it was a long journey, and we only spent an hour at the destination but it was good, fun and very beautiful. We have decided to return to Vancouver Island, and Victoria once we finish our contract at Banff. INstead of going to Toronto which is very expensive we'll just hang aorund the island until we have to head back home. I'm sure there'll be lots to see in Victoria. For one we want to go see the castle they have thre, also have a proper look at the huge museum and see other attractions. Plus it will be so much more beautiful in spring and unlike Vancouver, Vancouver Island actually gets sunlight!!

So onto today. Today nothing much happened. We decided to sleep in an extra hour as it was Sunday and things open up later, or that was the excuse anyway. We decided to head into Vancouver and check our Broadway for some winter gear.

Just some random photos I took while walking over this bridge, both going to Broadway and coming home.

So then we got onto Broadway we walked and walked. I think the whole trip took nearly an hour by foot, going both ways. Broadway is a very long street. Go figure why all the shops we were after were the furthest away, bah!

We saw some interesting murals. One on the bridge and one on Broadway.

It's a one dollar/reject shop. I'm failry sure. Coz Canadians call their One Dollar coins 'loonies' and the Two Dollars are 'toonies'.

I find it weird how there are shops of the same kind next to each other sometimes. Like a row of computer shops for instance. This amused me too.

Just thought I'd throw this in because, even though he'll probably not look at this blog... DENNY FOR THE WIN!!!

While walking along I saw this nice little garden.

A view of our hotel.

Anyway, I GOTTA GO!

Going out for dinner! WOOOOO!