Victoria and Alberta

When last we posted here, goats were merrily roaming around on rooftops.

We expected a little more decorum from Victoria, but what did we find - why, deer on a golf course! Surrounding a nifty sports car! We just happened to walk past in the suburb we were staying.

Victoria made up for it with this poncy hotel though, aptly titled "The Empress":

We had been overseas for a little over a week by the time we arrived back in Victoria, and I was already feeling greased out and unhealthy, pining for home-cooked meals. On our way down from Tofino, a bolt of inspiration struck! "It's brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT, I tell you! Genius, I say!" I cried. Instead of relying on vegetables for our nutrition, as is our usual practice, we could start having fruit instead!

And what did we find waiting for us at our second Airbnb?

It was so nice!!

In Victoria, we planned to visit the Butchart Gardens - world famous! When we discovered they were about $30 admission each, however, we decided to seek out some free displays of flowers instead, and went to the Government House gardens.

We also visited a space centre. It was closed, but still worth it for John to get this shot:

John is, like, SO egocentric!

We also visited another Christ Church cathedral. However, as we encounter more and more of them, they are losing their novelty value, so no photos of this one. Honestly, with so many other Christ Church cathedrals all around the world - why all the fuss over the one back home? ;-)

Alberta

We flew on a small plane to Calgary, then a tiny one - only 48 seats! - to Edmonton, where we stayed for three days with friends of mine. In other words, sumptuous feasts, lavish hospitality and great entertainment! Unfortunately, they are secret agents, so we cannot publish their names. They can be known simply as "the Edmonton residents". We were also unable to take any photos to accompany the following narrative. You may say, "How can you READ this? There's no pictures!" Don't worry: there are many descriptions of food.

We were treated to large, warm, fresh, home-cooked cinnamon buns with icing for our first breakfast - a Canadian "thing", apparently. Just as well we're not on Weight Watchers! Especially so, as we grabbed some mini-donuts and iced capps (frozen coffee) from Tim Horton's (ubiquitous fast food/cafe/doughnut shop that's really quite cheap, but still quite nice, named after a Hockey player from ages ago) to have on the way to our first activity. Don't get your hopes up - I had a fruit smoothie instead!

We then travelled back in time at Fort Edmonton, which was like this park that had all these old buildings that had been relocated there, and people dressed up in old style clothes who would talk about the time, what it would have been like, and the history of Edmonton. It went all the way back to the "Hudson Bay Company" (which actually still exists, and is now basically a Farmers/Ballantynes type store called "The Bay" with expensive items. There seems to be at least one in every city we've been to so far in Canada, although in Quebec it's called "La Baie" because French). As we entered the park, we were informed that we had picked the day of the year that they had 20,000 school kids (or something) running around, which meant that the steam train wasn't running. Literally 20,000 school kids, and literally running around. Not even using figurative language. After about an hour the kids cleared out, and we had the rest of the place to ourselves. Again, no photos to protect our sources.

We were then jerked back to the present at the West Edmonton Mall, a shopping centre that is an attraction in its own right. As well as trendy stores, it comes with a pool with multiple hydroslides, a casino, a minigolf course, an ice skating rink, an animatronic dragon that breathes fire, a random pirate ship in coloured blue water, a seal enclosure and an amusement park. We had to see it to believe it! The day was rounded off with proper Canadian hot dogs for "supper" (dinner/tea).

The following day we had warm, fresh, home-cooked waffles for breakfast, with real maple syrup! In Canada! Fitting, eh? We had a more relaxing day, just enjoying the company of the Edmonton residents. Since we are listing nearly every food item at this location, I should mention the perfectly-cooked steak we had for supper.

The last day, we visited their church with them, and then had some donairs (sort of like a souvlaki - hot meat and salad wrapped in a flat bread with various sauces) for lunch to send us on our way.

We left very satisfied. It was also really nice to see people we knew, even after only 2 weeks away! It helps that they are such lovely people.

We also left ready to work off all our indulgences at the national parks... Jasper and Banff! Be prePAAARED... for more animal pictures!

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a beautiful place, with beautiful people:

It reminded us both quite a bit of New Zealand, with the forest walks, and the chilled out people.

We took the ferry from an unpronounceable place in Vancouver to Swartz bay, which is about half an hour from the main city Victoria. I for one am thankful that I got to try driving on the right hand side of the road in a smaller place, before panicking at a four way stop sign in the middle of a properly big city. Greater Victoria is about the same population as Christchurch.

Our first night on the island was pretty wild. We decided to try some spontaneous accommodation booking in Victoria, and spent an hour driving round trying to find a cheap place. Once we had booked into a place, we drove to Walmart to get some dinner to cook up, and consequently spent an hour driving round trying to find our motel again. We are definitely partying it up on our OE!

From Victoria, we drove to Nanaimo, and stayed at our first 'AirBNB'. Can recommend (out of the two that I've been to).

Here's a work of art in Nanaimo, standing next to a sculpture of an eagle of some sort.

There were a few nice walks and stuff to do there. Not a hang of a lot though.

We went for a walk around a lake and heard rustling in the undergrowth nearby... but only caught a glimpse of a couple of tails as they slithered away.

This is apparently snake habitat.

Tofino was cool. It had beaches:

We strolled down a stretch of beach toward an island named Frank; the strip connecting it to the mainland is submerged when the tide is in. Consequently, it has neato plants and animals hanging out that you wouldn't normally get to see out of the water!

(Note from Anna: I had "Under the Sea" playing in my head the whole time we were on this beach.)

Starfish just chilling out:

With the beaches, though, come extreme dangers:

Tofino also had a bunch of sea kayaking and whale/bear watching things that you could do - if you weren't cheapos like us. We did try to book a kayaking expedition, but they never got back to us, and the weather turned a bit foul.

In the middle of the island is a forest full of old growth trees, up to 800 years old. A lot of them have fallen down, and since they're cedars, they aren't going anywhere any time soon. Huge trees too:

Lastly, there's this place named "Goats on the Roof", and it definitely lives up to the name.

Next stop:  back in Victoria for a day or two before... Alberta!

Wild Vancouver (and its environs)

Tip: When booking a place to stay, figure out what type of neighbourhood the place is in.

Flying into Vancouver was easy as. At least, we didn't hear any complaints from the pilot, and the plane landed fine. No sign of any dragons though.

The Patricia hotel is a grand old building on the top of a rise on the ocean side of Chinatown. It was also the cheapest place to stay that would give us a room to ourselves, and was close to the central city. And it also seems to be a centre of homelessness, prostitution, and drug addiction in Vancouver. Pretty wild.

Thankfully, night falls slowly this far north. No one seemed to notice us, and we were able to make our way through the city, dragging our noisy bags along with us.

(The view from our room)

The next day we visited Lynn Valley. We bought a day ticket for the public transport system, and took the ferry across the harbour, and then a bus into the suburbs and out into the countryside. Very nice place, rather a contrast from the previous setting. They had a suspension bridge:

 and some wildlife:

(That's a waterfall in the background.)

We'd been told to visit Stanley Park, so we did, although I was rather tired and sore at this point, so we didn't explore too deeply. We did find some more wildlife though:

(There may or may not be a squirrel in this picture somewhere. I won't burden you with the picture of the big slug that we saw.)

Lastly, while wandering through Vancouver, we came across this thing, which is all but extinct in Christchurch:

(Yes, that's Christ Church Cathedral, looking a little different from the one in Christchurch.)

Finally, here's a bonus photo of a photo (of sorts) showing the traffic outside our room at the Patricia projected onto the ceiling: