Well it's 10 minutes to 1pm on Tuesday afternoon as I sit here in the Pacific Station.
We all got up a little late this morning (last day of rest I think for some time), showered and whatnot and eventually got ourselves down to the local cafe (that does chips and gravy) it's an instant favourite with me, I can't fault any of there yummy food (especially like the shrimp and crab meals). After I boarded the ferry over to the CBD one more time and walked over to the Sky Train. It's much like a monorail train - but it's really just a fast electric train. Unfortuantely I only had to go 4 stops (about 2 minutes) before I had to disembark. Quite good fun really riding a train just like I was back in Wellington again.
The train station was in sight as soon as I stepped of the train, so I went and booked myself a ticket for a coach/ferry/coach trip over to Victoria on Vancouver Island. All in all, it's supposed to be a 3.5 hour trip and it leaves in about 30 minutes so I should be in Victoria city by 4pm. Which should be just before it gets dark. I should be able to find a motel or hotel rather easily, I saw lots of the online yesterday evening whilst doing my research.
Overall the time with the boys was brilliant, really good to get a little base settled and to learn a few things about the surrounding areas (like the unwritten rule of standing on the right side of the escalator if you aren't going to walk up it). Very handy. The Canadian/American accent is still very funny to listen to but their mannerism are still rather cute. Lots of 'eh' this and 'eh' that. haha! Plus a lot of them liek to repeat each other when they are surprised by something haha Still brings a smile to my face when I watch them talk - haha gotta be careful though, I could get in trouble if I laugh too much hehe.
Today is a very fine sunny day. The weather here seems a lot more settled than in New Zealand and is a bit tricky to realise that when you get a fine day, you will generally get 3-4 fine days in a row, but vice versa if you get some bad weather (as I have just experienced). But luckily Starbucks is my friend and conviently shelter me form the rain for a small price (of which I get a free drink as well haha).
Intermission... photo time... :-)
On the bus with Matt Scott!
On the ferry with Matt Scott!
(A little bit later!....)
OK well oh man what a trip! Funnily enough, I've never actually been on a ferry. Any today, I was treated to a giant ferry of the southern tip of Vancouver, which went over to the southern part of Vancouver island. The ferry itself only took 1.5 hours which seemed to go very quickly, probably because I spent most of looking out the window and walking around the 7 different decks exploring the ship. It was pretty awesome really. About half way there we had to pass between 2 islands which looked like something straight out of a Canadian postcard. Lots of trees, hills and probably frikken bears hiding around the back of the cabins haha.
Pretty much as soon as we disembarked form the ferry though, it was dark and then there was a 40 minute drive into the city of Victoria which so far, is dark and cold. :-) It was just after 6pm when I got here and being "British based" pretty much everything was closing. So I bought some tickets for a couple of IMAX shows (Mars and Prehistoric Sea Monsters) and went for a walk while I waited for the right viewing times about an hour later. It's surprising how much ground you can cover while you are waiting for an hour to pass :-)
After the show I went back to the hotel, and did I tell you the this hotel has 8 different pubs in it? Only 6 are operating at the moment, because 2 of them are on the roof and are only open during summer. But I found "Big Bad John's" to be pretty much me, and settled in there with a bourbon (or 6). Chatted to most of the locals, found some other kiwi guy, who had come over to Victoria on a holiday several years ago, and met up with some kiwi girl and never really left. I dunno, I gave him some crap about that and he started talking to me in Maori, just before he got boted out of the pub for being too drunk haha. I got told off for swearing too much, if you can belive that! haha That's not like me!! Anyhow, I got on with the locals and eventually the place closed at 2am and I got walked out (about 4 bouncers walked me out because they must have thought I wasn't going to leave hehe) But yeh, stumbled up to the hotel room and crashed out. Top day all things considered :-)
Matt
Just like you to get too drunk and kicked out of the pubs. GG L2Drink
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