IT'S ONLY 30 KILOMETERS!

Mp3 track of the day - Running around in my automobile - Chuck Berry

Weather: Beautiful, a nice breeze as I cycled today with beautiful sun shinning.

I was due to meet Rosy for breakfast at 9:00am, and so I was down for 8:50am and Rosy was late ... AGAIN! However only 5 minutes late and so I let her off. After breakfast we went to the bike hire shop and I got myself some wheels.

Rosy had told me that the potholes we were planning to visit were only 30km's away and that the water would be lovely to swim in if it was a hot day ... and so we set off.

Unlike Tofino the whole way was a designated cycle path (and also the bike was allot nicer to ride ... no saddle soreness for me) that, at the start, went through urban areas and parallel to busy main roads (not very scenic). However after about 18km we got away from human development and entered a rural and 'Jurassic park' type of terrain area with ferns on the ground, huge trees and rock faces dominating our views. The strange thing about Canada's weather is that, when you are in the sun you are pretty hot but as soon as you go into shade you become really cold (much colder than normal) ... it's like the Canadian ground doesn't hold any heat and you could really tell the difference on this bike ride.

We continued to cycle on and on (and on) and it was all lovely and picturesque with wooden bridges (that when cycling across shattered all your bones in your body due to the vibrations) over deep canyons, however I did notice the 'km' signs going up and up along the path. When looking at the map it appeared that the distance we covered didn't justify the distance covered on the map and so I questioned Rosy about it, to which her reply was "... I was told it was only 35km..." (35km ... gone up by 5km since yesterday).

This wouldn't be the first time I questioned Rosy over the distance and every time it changed to "... well I think it should be between 30km and 40km..." until it actually turned out to be 50km to the potholes!

Once we were there we had some lunch (we were both starving and ate loads) before trying to get down to a pothole ... which we were unsuccessful as the Canadian authorities had closed most of them off. Instead we went to 'pebble beach' which was exactly like it said on the tin, and went swimming in the lake.

The freshwater lake was biblically cold and my feet went numb, swiftly followed by my legs (so much for the water being nice on a warm day - hey Rosy). However Rosy said that after a while your body gets used to it and that you just have to enter the water in stages (i.e. put you legs in, get used to the temperature, put your waist in and get used to the temperature etc, etc). Anyway to cut a long story short I did go swimming in the lake but it did take a little while.

Swimming in the lake was fantastic and there were a few others doing the same; some children were snorkeling and it was a little worrying when one child shouted to the other "... look here, I've found the biggest one I've ever seen..."

BIGGEST ONE WHAT! ...water snake, crocodile, cod ... what!

After about half an hour we got out of the water and then we sunbathed until the sun went behind the tress and, just like when we were cycling, the temperature plummeted and so we got changed and back on our bikes.

It had take us 4 hours to get to the 'potholes' and it was now 6:00pm. Neither of us fancied cycling back and so we cycled into the nearest town and caught the bus back to Victoria (all local buses over here have bike racks on the front, which are so simple but yet so brilliant ... need to introduce them into the UK).

Once back we were starving; I had a 'chunky' canned meal left over, however we both fancied going out for something a little more substantial ... pizza was decided. However looking at the restaurant pizza prices we both purchased a oven cook pizza from the local supermarket (I forgot about my 'chunks meal')...

... Okay so the hostel kitchen doesn't have an oven. We both broke down laughing, as we were both so hungry, and I think we would have cried if not. Anyway, where there is a will there is a way, and so we decided to create our own ovens by using a frying pan on the stove, putting abit of oil in the pan and then covering the frying pan over with a bowl.

The plan would have worked perfectly if 'tool' here hadn't got impatient, 'blasted' his pizza (turned it up onto the 'high' setting) and then forget about it only to return to a steaming pizza, which the toppings looked good, but the bottom of the pizza was charcoal. I ate what I could and then chucked the rest in the bin.

Tomorrow I head back to Vancouver for my last night in Canada (where has the time gone from the 6th May until now?) whereas Rosy is heading north up Vancouver island. We said our goodbyes tonight just encase we miss each other tomorrow; I will miss Rosy allot as she kind of pushes me out of my comfort zone ... I don't think I would have ever decided to go swimming in a fresh water lake without a little encouragement (and it was sooo good ... if a little cold).

It's late and so I should really go to bed ... hadn't had allot of sleep recently and tomorrow will be another early start!

Toodle Pip!

Crazy situations, museums and beaches

MP3 track of the day - Last night - Diddy

Weather: sunny but cooler than the previous two days

Today I had planned to meet up with a friend that I had meet in Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff ... Rosie. If you remember, Rosie is planning to bicycle from the Yukon to the bottom tip of Argentia on the strangest route known to man. Anyway we were due to meet at 9:00am and of course, being a female, she was late.

Still I didn't mind and so I just waited about 25 minutes before I saw her bike come into view. First thing she said was that she was soooo glad to see me and then she gave me a big hug (well, she is only human). However, for once, my overpowering good looks and charm weren't the main reasons that she was happy to see me; she had being staying at this hotel for free (due to the fact she had met someone staying there and became good friends). However this woman she had met turned out to have a screw loose, and that she batted for the other team ... or so to speak. To make matters worse the woman had tried to kill the guy on reception yesterday, someone off the street had also tried to start a fight with the receptionist yesterday (poor receptionist) because they accused one of the hotel staff of stealing some of their stuff from their room ... oh and to top it all off, some bloke broken into Rosie's room as apparently he sometimes goes there to smoke pot (apparently Rosie said that he was the most apologetic squatter she had ever met).

Now I've never seen a bicycle leave rubber as it rode off, but I could truly believe that this could be the case here, but the crazy thing is Rosie went back to help 'mad woman' move her stuff somewhere else (so that she didn't kill the receptionist) because she said she would.

Being a gentleman (knight in shining armour etc) I said 'to hell with that' and left her to it; I decided to pop into town and we were due to meet up 40 minutes later (if she was still alive that is). There was a old car show in town with hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of old cars in mint condition; I think my dad and grandad would have loved this and I took some photos which will be loaded up to Flickr some point tomorrow.

After wandering around, looking at all these stunning pieces of machinery, I headed back to the hostel to find Rosie had checked in; we then headed out for a cup of tea.

It was now 11am ish and I wanted to go to the Royal British Columbia museum which I had herd so much about from my guidebook; slightly annoyed at how late it was (my guidebook said you needed at least a day their if not more) we purchased our discounted tickets from the hostel and went around the museum.

Actually I thought the museum wasn't that good at all; most of the stuff I had seen before and the exhibition halls were tiny compared to Winnipeg and Ottawa ... I could not understand what all the hype was about. It was great to have Rosie there as she is a fashion designer and loved clothes, therefore I learnt allot about the old clothes that were present within the museum.

After we headed back to the hostel for lunch before chilling before eventually heading out towards the harbour front for a lovely walk. Now, when we were both in Banff, we had a great time trying to find proper cake in a supermarket, but alas to no avail. Now you would have thought the experience from this would have armed us here but no, we went to a shop and purchased two Cinnamon sticks which were dryer than cardboard. They were so bad that, on our walk, Rosie tried to give them away to a mad homeless person with a 30 second memory capacity (I see now how she gets herself into these strange situations) but even he didn't want them ... and so we binned them.

We then walked further along the harbour front and it was beautiful; we chatted allot and it was nice. The thing that wasn't nice was coming back past the Parliament Building. This building (I've got a load of photos on my Flickr account) in the day is beautiful; the architecture is wonderfully done and it just looks superb. At night with the, what seems like 40 watt bulbs stuck all over it, it looks like a fairground ride at Blackpool and it was so ugly that I wish I hadn't seen it (somebody should really look at this and change the design ... i.e. remove all the 40 watts lights off the building and then use big ground lights to light the building from the bottom up).

Anyway so we are back at the hostel and Rosie has gone to bed; I'm off now because I'm shattered and Rosie has talked me into a 60k bike ride tomorrow ... anything for a pretty lady (and she is very good looking).

Toodle Pip!

Victoria, beautiful but is it British?

MP3 track of the day - Scream - Keri Hilson

Weather - Guess what ... another beautiful hot day in Victoria with a cool breeze and fluffy white clouds ... perfect

Well you may recall yesterday that the plan was to have tea (nachos and cheese) and then an early night ... well that didn't happen. Instead the guy who I was playing pool with yesterday invited me to play teams at pool against two Quebec girls. This was fine by me as long as it didn't go on too long but little did I know that I would soon be going out for a drink in town with them. To be fair it was a nice night; the two Quebec girls were travelling for a month and were planning to head to Alaska (therefore they were asking me for info about my recent trip). The only slight uncomfortableness about the whole situation, for me, was that one sister was 19 and the other 15 (11 years younger than me ... though she didn't look it) ... I felt very, very old and it felt like I was taking my daughters out for a drink.

Luckily we came back to the hostel around 10:30pm and I could then go to bed. However I didn't sleep all that well as the hostel is situated right in the centre of town and it was Friday night (hence loud music and lines of people waiting for a taxi right outside my window). To make matters worse some guy got up early and, for some reason, was fixated in trying to make as much noise with a plastic bag as humanly possible ... therefore I woke up at 8:30am and got ready and headed down for breakfast. At breakfast I met the two Quebec girls and the guy I played pool with yesterday; after eating I said my goodbyes and off I went into the city.

Victoria is a beautiful but compact city and so it didn't take long for me to see, and photograph, all the sights. The only problem was that the Chinese battle buses (which I haven't seen for about a month ... the Chinese don't seem to like Alaska) were in full flow and the Chinese were everywhere (but more importantly, they were getting in the way of my photography ... AGAIN). After photographing the Empress Hotel and the Parliament Buildings (among other sights) I headed to the Beacon Hill Park, which was very beautiful with all the flowers in full bloom.

After this I headed into town to purchase some Victoria Creams (vanilla and raspberry) from Rogers chocolates which, apparently, ship (probably at our expense) Victoria Creams to our Queen ... well if they are good enough for 'ma rm' then they are going enough for me, and so I purchase two for lunch.

Back at the hostel I made my lunch of cheese sandwiches, oranges and Victoria Creams and sat down to eat it. Being a bit of a 'chocolate expert' (even if I do say so myself) I would give the Rogers Victoria Creams a 6/10.

The way the chocolate is presented, within a checked pink paper casing is okay, however the presentation of the circular dark chocolate itself is very bland and uninteresting. The size of the Victoria Creams are too large (too big for 'ones' mouth) and the texture of the filling is too dense. However the contrast between the dark chocolate and filling (whether vanilla or raspberry) is well matched ... but I feel 'mar ms' palette would be better served with Belgium chocolates which, overall, are at a much higher quality.

After my chocolate tasting I left my bag at the hostel and I went window shopping. I love souvenir shops; each has the same tat, but each displays it in a slightly different way. I went in most of the shops down the main high street and found two funny t-shirts I really like ... however they were pretty expensive and so, before I decided to purchase them, I thought I might look online to see if I can get them any cheaper.

And this is where I am now; tonight I hope to have an early night however a exchange group of 44x 16-18 year olds have just turned up. Already they have managed to make more noise than a Formula 1 race and so I have a feeling tonight might not be as peaceful as I hoped ... joy of joy!

Having walked around the 'downtown' area of Victoria all day, I can quite confidently say that only parts of the city are, in any way, related to British design. The Parliament building looks a little British however the Empress Hotel looks more Mediterranean / French; there are a few Victorian buildings, with their bay windows, but these are very few and far between. To me Victoria would look a little out of place within the UK.

Tomorrow I might go to the Royal British Columbia museum, still not sure yet.

Toodle Pip!

Victoria!

MP3 track of the day - Honeymoon - The young Victoria

Weather: Another hot and beautiful day in Canada

My alarm, annoyingly, got me up at 6:30am ... another early start and I got ready to catch my bus. There was another guy who was also planning to catch the same bus as I, and so we walked together. This older gentleman was from Oregon, USA, and he was telling me how the US is falling apart and it's all going south (the end of the world is nigh ... that sort of thing) and that he sees Canada becoming the next great power and that he would love to live here as Canada seems to be going in the right direction. However much 'doom and gloom' he spread, it was pretty interesting to hear about problems in other countries and I had a very interesting political conversation before the bus arrived.

I first had a short ride on a shuttle bus before transferring to a coach that went all the way to Victoria. Once on board I sat down at the only available two 'seater' and began to read about Victoria within my guidebook (and circle things I wanted to see). The great thing about this coach is that it had no reclining seats (Huzzar!) however, the young couple in front of me kept kissing every 36 six seconds. It was like they both only had 36 minutes left to live and were stuck on this coach ... I didn't know where to look. Occasionally they would part briefly to sleep (oh and when the driver asked for tickets I did manage to see where one person ended and the other began ... but only for a brief second or two) and then they would be back at it ... fully on as well. I almost suggested to the guy why didn't he take his girlfriend to the coach toilet and chuck one up her ... get it over with!

Anyway the view was nice and we were soon at Parksville where, luckily, the couple in front off me got off and my coach continued onto Victoria. The coach was pretty full and so all seats were taken ... until Nanaimo where all bar seven people left.

After Nanaimo we had a 10 minute stop where I found out that the driver originated from Manchester, UK ... he came over in the 50's with his mother.

The scenery, yet again, was beautiful for the next leg of the trip, with dramatic hilltop views of the lakes below.

We got into Victoria around 3pm; everyone in Canada keeps telling me how 'British' the place looked but I thought, from first glimpse, it looked more Mediterranean (the weather certainly did). Once at the bus station the driver offered to drop me off at my hostel ... bonus, as I didn't fancy walking with all my stuff in this heat.

Once at the hostel I dropped all my stuff off and then headed to the closest grocery store to purchase food for the duration of my stay (well not the whole duration as there are no lockers within the kitchen at my hostel, and so I am a little weary of leaving so much food insecurity).

$40.00 it cost me for three days food! I got 2x canned meals, a bag of nachos, a block of cheese, a loaf of bread, a box of Lucky Charm cereal (I'm such a child), 3x oranges and 3x bananas. I did also get three luxury items; a fruit salad (for $6.00! ... £4.25 which tasted lovely), a bar on lint raspberry chocolate (lovely) and some English sweets as we are in Victoria (apple bonbons and dolly mixtures ... ace!).

After putting this lot away in the hostel kitchen, I then set to doing some laundry as I was almost out of clean clothes. Whilst waiting for the stuff to be done I noticed a guy I was talking to earlier was practicing pool by himself and I asked if he wanted a game. I won the match 2 (United Kingdom) -1 (Canada), but he was by far the better player and I only won because he potted the black incorrectly twice.

With my washing done I sat down with my PC and updated a few things (like this post). Next I shall cook myself my tea (cheesy nachos as I'm not that hungry) and then have an early night. Tomorrow I plan to sight see around Victoria on foot before coming back to the hostel for lunch and then, maybe continue on foot or look for something else to do (there is supposed to be a superb museum here - one of the best in he world - however I shall have to leave that for a full day as my guidebook states it will take that long and some more). I've also been in contact with Rosie (the mad cyclist from Jasper) who is now over here after cycling to Winnipeg (why I don't know) ... need to hook up with her and share stories.

Toodle Pip!