After leaving the calm Tofino the next stop was the bustling capital of the Island: Victoria. The we took the same road back to Nanaimo as it was the only road in and out of the area and stopped off at different places in between the lakes and massive forests.
One such area was of amazing waterfalls, again not many tourists about probably because every 5 metres was a sign reminding you were in "Bear and Cougar" territory but here we do anything for the gram.
Its useful here to probably update everyone on the dead phone and camera situation. The camera was fully dead but my phone was turning on every now and then enabling me to take pictures. If I'm honest the lack of technology really helped me just focus on my surroundings and in a place as beautiful as this I was incredibly grateful for it.
We stopped in Nanaimo this time to go to a sandcastle competition, forewarning these were not castles....more like fully blown sculptures some politically charged 😎
Canada takes a stab at the USA this time in sand form.
The Air BnB we stayed in was just half an hour outside of Victoria, so getting to the city center was quite easy and parking was not an issue at all.
Important: If you do get to Victoria in the morning you have to go to the Victoria Public Market, I discovered the the breakfast Burrito for a mere 7 dollars- the 2nd best breakfast I've ever had (second only to all Premier Inn breakfasts)
Victoria is an insanely pretty city it does not have the tallest buildings but a really old (in Canadian standards) high-street . Including an old school cigar shop which was definitely the best attraction, i hate tobacco but it was just a beautiful building and the store clerks all wore waistcoats and bow ties and called you sir. Made me feel posh.
In front of the main parliament building is a big statue of Queen Victoria exactly like the one outside Buckingham Palace, nearly all the buildings off the high-street were designed by Francis Rattenbury from Leeds , yes the Leeds in Yorkshire. This fellow Yorkshireman led a pretty interesting life and his murder became a really high profile case in England, i encourage everyone to look at his Wikipedia page
Busking is something that happens everywhere, but Victoria tops it in cities i have been to /lived. From Darth Vader playing the violin to a father son duo singing Elvis there was a bit of everything on every street corner. To top it all off we had come on the right day, that of a concert honoring the veterans in the bay, a massive orchestra playing all the classics into the late evening and all this completely for free.
