It was supposed to rain in Vancouver, while the forcast for Victoria was more pleasant. That, and the fact that I had concert tickets for the following two days, was why I decided to take the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver island. It was a 45 minutes drive from my apartment to Tsawwassen, the ferry terminal. I took the car with me onto the ferry, because after you arrive at Swartz Bay, it is another 20 minutes until you arrive at Victoria. I was a little late and concerned, I might not get on the 11 a.m. ferry. But it worked fine and I even had some time left to get a coffee and an acai bowl to go.
The passage was beautiful and takes approximately one and a half hours. I parked the car and started walking. The sun was shining and I wasn’t in the mood for a museum or anything else indoors. So I strolled around, had coffee and a piece of strawberry cake which was just perfect. I still didn’t have my rain jacket and didn’t buy it in Victoria either, but I looked around for it. Chinatown was great and sitting by the water was calm and relaxing. I bought some super cheap little bowl with a koi fish on it, that I just unpacked and luckily still like. As it started to drizzle a little, I walked over to the parliament buildings and walked in for a tour on my own. It was interesting. They have a kayak in the middle of the hall, which was handmade by one of the members of the Legislative Assembly and a woodworker of the first nations. One can attend a session in the Legislative Chamber, so I did that and watched a little. The room is beautifully panelled with brown marble, but it was nearly empty. Only ten people where sitting and listening to one man speaking. He spoke extremely fast, but he read about wine and taxes.
When I left the place at five it was raining heavily and since I had already finished walking around the city and all the museums were about to close, I decided to look at the ferry schedule. I was quite surprised when I saw, that the next two ferries to come were already booked out. I reserved a spot for the 9 p.m. one and now had two and a half more hours to kill. In the end, when all that was left were restaurants (and I was not hungry), I did something that I usually try to avoid, but because of the rain and the cold I got weak… I walked into a Starbucks and ordered a mint tea. All around me were people who apparently waited for something, too. I spent the rest of the remaining time there, holding the hot cup in my icy hands.
