POV Part 1: Victoria

I took a prop plane from Vancouver to Victoria which quite fun and then spent FIFTY DOLLARS to take a cab from Victoria Airport to the hotel. I couldn't believe how far it is from the airport to the city. That aside, Victoria is a wonderful city. It's a delightful place with quite calming weather and a much slower pace then the crazyness of Ontario. I spent my week in the Best Western Inner Harbour which was quite a good place to stay. Priced well it also included full internet service (that worked intermittenly) and a kitchenette. Having the kitchenette helped me to save quite a bit of money. The hotel included free breakfest, POV (Pacific Opera Victoria) provided lunch and the kitchenette made dinner (though I did get sick of eating hot dogs and stuff by the end of the week).

The hotel is also located relatively close to the major bus stops downtown so it was less then a 10 minute walk to grab a bus that would take me to the University of Victoria which is where most of the program occured. UVic is a beautiful campus spread out over quite a distance of the island. Located away from the city it's quite nice. Interestingly though, unlike the rapant mutant squirrels of Queens, UVic has quite a problem with rabbits. That's right, bunnies are everywhere. They apparently are such a problem that every year the university has to poison a bunch of them so they don't overbreed and die of starvation. As well, because of the bunnies, UVic had to hire more night security because Homeless people woudl come on campus and kill the bunnies for a meal. Quite interetsing to see so many bunnies:


On my way home on the first night I discovered quite the lovely surprise most of the harbour of Victoria as well as the parliment buildings have quite the light display with lots of twinkely lights on lampposts and all over the buildings. The city litteraly is glowing at night. The city of Victoria actually has quite the vibrant arts scene and I"m glad I've managed to make some contacts out there. As an added bonus I got to have a quick visit with Ming during my stopover in Vancouver on the way to Victoria, and on my way out I managed to see my cousin and her husband in Calgary during my stop over there. However my flight back was painful as it was the redeye and I was stuck next to this guy who smelled.. really bad.

Two more pictures: