(Victoria, B.C., Canada)

Victoria has a very busy downtown area. In many ways, it reminds me of downtown Kingston: a very large legislative building overlooking the harbour, and a relatively “British” feel to city. However, there are some key differences.

Kingston does not have a huge and venerable hotel in its downtown core. While there are some smaller old hotels with a great deal of character, there is nothing as imposing as the Empress Hotel in downtown Victoria. The Empress is another one of the grand old railway hotels that were built across Canada over a century ago…and still retains its ancient traditions such as afternoon high tea.

Kingston also doesn’t have a distinct “Chinatown” district like Victoria does. Nor does it have a street as narrow as Fan Tan Alley, which is just 3 feet across at its narrowest.

Fan Tan Alley used to be somewhat rougher than it is now. The opium and gambling (“Fan-Tan” is a Chinese gambling game) of the past has been replaced by very tourist-friendly businesses.

We also spent some time visiting a friend in one of Victoria’s elegant neighbourhoods. And what made the biggest impression on us was something you don’t typically associate with a provincial capital city: deer.

The deer are everywhere. They have become part of the urban environment. There are signs warning motorists of the large animals in their midst. And there are even local tensions about the best way to deal with the increasing number of deer.

The deer pictures here were all taken in our friend’s backyard. As you can see, the deer is quite young. There are many more like this one, everywhere you go. And they are particularly fond of the fig trees that are scattered throughout the neighbourhood.

We have about 200 pictures of this deer. I might use some more of them in a future post, if I don’t have any other photos to accompany the text. But I think you get the idea: Victoria = deer.

Stay tuned for a post about the real reason I was in Victoria!

(Victoria, B.C., Canada)

During our visit to Victoria, we stayed in the suburban community of Langford. While parts of it had a few too many chain businesses and big box stores for my liking, there were still some interesting pockets. There’s no question that it is a very prosperous community, and some of the “corporate creep” was redeemed by having a solid Thai restaurant.

I can’t help thinking that Sabhai Thai is not the first tenant in this building. The decor seemed more “Steakhouse” than “Southeast Asian”. But we enjoyed our meals and would have returned for a second time if the need arose.

The next day saw us journey into Victoria itself. Because of our distance from downtown, we had a rental car for the period before my competition began. Downtown parking was potentially an expensive proposition. But some timely research revealed that the city’s parking garages were free on Sundays. We took advantage of that and enjoyed a leisurely ramble through downtown.

Our first stop was the Provincial Legislature in the heart of Victoria’s downtown. The (free) tour of this impressive building was brief but easily booked at the last minute (even on a summer weekend) just outside the building itself.

While obviously not identical to the various other provincial legislatures, the home of the B.C. government certainly shared a lot of “traditional” characteristics with those other buildings. But it was also very different from the much newer territorial legislative buildings in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

There are countless places to eat in the touristy downtown core. However, rather than visit one of those places for lunch, we walked south from the Provincial Legislature building to a community called James Bay. Despite being only a couple of minutes by foot, the vibe here was quite different.

In short, James Bay seemed to be a real neighbourhood. Many of the shops were clearly oriented towards serving the local residents. We opted for a quirky restaurant called The Bent Mast, where we enjoyed an al fresco lunch in the shade.

Given the previous evening’s Thai meal, it really wasn’t necessary to have a Thai-inspired lunch plate the next day. But I really like the freshness, colour, and diverse flavours of Thai cuisine, and it just felt like the right thing to do on this pleasant day in Victoria. And like many other independent restaurants we’ve enjoyed on this trip, they had a lot of unique local beverages that you probably aren’t able to enjoy outside of B.C.

Stay tuned for more on downtown Victoria!