Victoria

Hello everyone! Today was our first full day on Vancouver Island and we woke up to a fantastic meal of Canadian bacon and eggs. After that we took the scenic route to BC's capital, Victoria, visiting the local golf course, the University of Victoria (complete with wild bunnies and a 'moderately-sized' sports stadium - it was Perry Lakes sized, complete with grandstand and lights!) on the way in to the city. We spent the afternoon seeing the sights, such as Parliament House. It is a really cool building that is totally huge and awesome looking. We also walked to Fisherman's Warf, which is a 'floating community' - all the houses are built on floating platforms tethered to the wharf (see the photo below). Alex and I have decided we have to live in one at some point, its hard to actually explain how awesome they truly are.

Little known fact about Canada... the seagulls are HUGE!!! Like the size of a medium dog. They probably would eat Australian seagulls for a snack. And they have yellow beaks... but mainly its the huge thing that is crazy. In fact just about everything in Canada is huge, the ferries (their are busses inside them!), the trees, the seagulls, the government buildings, the seagulls, the cars (every single ute is like an F250 or bigger... some are 18' long!!!) and ESPECIALLY the seagulls. We are currently working on a photo that demonstrates just how massive these gulls really are. Will keep you posted.

We also watched the last few minutes of one of the Stanley Cup (ice hockey) playoff games - Vancouver Canucks vs. St Louis Blues. Vancouver won 2-1, but the Blues got pretty close in the dying seconds. In some circles, hockey seems like a religion here. We overhead a girl on the bus who especiallu purchased a new LCD TV just for that game, and it wasn't even the final in the series.

It is also ridiculously cold! Except the locals don't seem to notice as much. The local teenagers were dressed in shorts and cardigans today, even though it was only about 11 deg. But it was nice and sunny so apparently shorts are the go. Alex and I were decked out in long pants, jumpers and jackets and even then we were still a tad chilly.

Tomorrow we have planned a scenic train trip (with an early 6am start) to another part of the island so more on that tomorrow. And we will post pics of the house as we got home too late for good shots today.

Oh and Alex lost $4 to the stupid bus today cause they don't give you stupid change...stupid canada. Alex is very upset about this. Very upset. I want my money back.

Here are a couple of shots from our day:

It's freakin cold at the local golf course! (Big ducks as well)
Alex about to trespass on a floating home at Fisherman's Wharf
More floating homes
In front of Parliament House ey


Me under the British Columbian Flag inside the Parliament Building