Victoria was all about laying low. After we sailed from Ketchikan on Friday afternoon we had nearly 30 hours at sea before we reached Victoria, British Columbia. In that time at sea we took in (rather, we participated in) a marriage game show, and I bundled myself up in cozy wool blankets, whale watched, snoozed on the lounge chairs on deck, and continued to stuff myself silly. It was awesome.
The excursions offered for Victoria weren’t all that exotic or enticing. They primarily consisted of horse drawn carriage rides through the city, high tea at the Empress Hotel, pub crawling, or an excursion to Butchart Gardens. The photos from Butchart Gardens looked phenomenal and I wouldn’t have minded spending an evening traipsing through the gardens, immersing myself in fragrant blooms and fireworks, but ultimately we decided against buying into an excursion in Victoria. Having studied abroad in England and traveled to Germany, I’d already been on a horse-drawn carriage ride, participated in afternoon tea on a daily basis, pub crawled, and seen outrageously beautiful gardens on castle grounds. Ditto for Ted. For starters, all of the above were ridiculously overpriced, and we didn’t want to spend our limited hours in Victoria doing something we could do in Ohio. We’d read that Victoria is a lovely city and a walker’s paradise, so we decided to hoof it and spend our 7 pm-12 am port time cruising the city on foot.
We walked several miles through a quiet historic residential neighborhood, past the famed Empress Hotel, through a downtown port-side market, and into the business, pub, and shopping district. We listened to several talented street musicians (including a middle-aged dude dressed as Darth Vader playing speedy violin jigs), stopped in gelato bars and fudge shops to ogle the selections, stumbled upon a Roots store (my fav. hip Canadian sportswear store!), dropped into a fabulous and unusual games/toy store recommended by the DJ on our cruise who co-hosted the game show we participated in (we ran into him on the streets of Victoria and hung out with him for a bit), and then capped our night off with a beer at the pub. Victoria is a young city, a place teeming with people and nightlife late on a Saturday evening. It was really low-key, but a great way to experience Victoria.
