Victoria, BC

Today looks magic – nice, sunny and warm. Because it’s such a great day, I decide that a walk is on the cards.

I walked around the inner harbor and just kept going. I followed the southern coastline for about 4 kilometers and would have kept going, except the map that I had was minimal, and I lost the street that I had started on. Instead of walking back the way I came, I wandered through the suburbs in the hope that it would lead me back into town.

Totem Pole & Parliament House, Victoria, BC

After an hour and a half I came across the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. This was only a small gallery, but still interesting nonetheless. Its two main exhibits were both by locals. Richard Hunt is a native Indian whose art, masks and totem poles occupy 2 rooms. Hunt is a traditional artist who on occasions mixes this with a modern style. He also combines his art with his other passion, golf, with amusing results. CD Hoy was a Chinese immigrant who lived in Victoria during its early years. His photography of local people covers the early 1900’s. It shows the integration of nature, immigrant and English settlers and how people were encouraged to adapt to the English ways.

From the gallery it was about 15 blocks back into town.  My only stop on the way back in was to call Mum and Kel.  Once in town I bought myself a souvenir, a necklace with a pewter orca. It is meant to symbolize strength. I also bought one for Phil, which is to symbolize friendship. This was in return for the watch he gave me.

Victoria’s Parliament Buildings run a half an hour tour through the building, which gives you a rundown of the history of government rule and the building, which is over 100 years old. Their style of government, based on the English model, is virtually identical to that of state government at home.

I got some photos of the surrounding building before heading back to the hostel. Here I met up with two Marks (one from Brisbane, one from Balmain) and we headed to the Keg for dinner and a couple of beers.

When returned to the hostel I rang Amy and spoke to her for near 3 hours. She’s off to Italy tomorrow, so we had to make the most of it.

I did more walking today than I expected, so went to bed relatively early and slept like a log.