This weekend I decided to be adventurous. I've never had the chance to visit our neighbors up north, so I booked myself a trip on the ferry and spent the day in Victoria, B.C. I've watched a lot of movies featuring stereotypes of Canada, and was relieve to realize that none of them were completely true. As always, there's usually an element of truth in every stereotype, but the entire country isn't like that.
Keep in mind, though, I spent ONE day in ONE city, so this is in no way typical for all of Canada. Though it was interesting to see this behavior, as a whole Victoria seemed like any American city. It was full of 15 year old girls pretending to be 30, 50 year old women pretending to be 20, overweight men who don't understand the difference between a mid-rift and a muffin top, Japanese tourists, and obnoxious college students. In reality, I felt right at home.
Here are a few photos from the trip that I think you all will like:
This is the view when you come into the harbor. I couldn't see much through the ferry's fogged up windows, but this bridge just looked cool.
Here's a photo of the legislative building. It was one of the first things I got to see after going through Customs. There's a big statue of Queen Victoria out in front of it, but I didn't catch her from this angle. Sorry.
Growing up, my parents always told me that planting pennies would not grow a money tree. Apparently Canadian dirt is better than ours because they can grow umbrellas and windows!
I'm used to street bands being made up of one or two people with homemade instruments, lots of energy, and absolutely zero talent. This group, though, was incredible! I had to fight to the front of the crowd just to take this photo to show your thier setup. Unfortunatley, my camera doesn't take sound, so you can't hear just how good they were. Their following act, though, was a one-man act; some teenage guy with a guitar and even less talent than the washouts on American Idol.
The advantages of travelling by yourself are that, until you pull the wrong dollar out of your pocket, no one pegs you as the American tourist. The advantages of this are that you are constantly asked for directions, panhandlers don't ask you for money, and no one shouts at you when the anti-American protest walks down the street. I did feel bad for the two families in Disneyland t-shirts who got picked on, though.
It's great to go to other countries and look at how they do things. There's at least two trashcans on every block and one of these beauties on every other street corner. It's solar-powered, so it's free to run - and you don't have the disgusting, overflowing messes that permeate Portland, Eugene, and Seattle.
I didn't actually buy any souveniers while I was up there, but this shirt definitely caught my attention! I think it's hillarious, and it was almost worth the $10 they wanted for it.
I have video of this guy, too. I'm working on splicing scenes together and adding music, so look for a YouTube link sometime soon.
And finally, I've found the sailboat I want. I've tried to describe this to people for a long time, but having a photograph will make things much easier!
All in all, I had a great day! The boat trip to Victoria took a little over 2 and a half hours (a miracle for me because I don't really like boats), and I had about 6 hours to tour the city, people-watch, and take pictures. I was grinning for the first half of the day, it's exciting to just go out and do things (though the Customs officials were confused that I didn't have any set plans ...).
The boat trip back was a bit longer, though, because the boat broke. We were in the middle of the strait (couldn't see land on 3 sides!) and we hit a log or something and got it sucked up into the engine. It took them about an hour to clear the debris, but then they realized the engine STILL wasn't working. After a while, they turned off one engine and decided we'd limp back to Seattle at half power ... a 4.5 hour trip. The engineer got fed up with the slow speed and took the engine apart while we were underway, fixed the problem with the gearbox, and got us back up to 30 knots. We got back to Seattle only an hour and a half late, but it was still a fantastic trip!
