Victoria Weekend

Last weekend I ventured over to the island (Vancouver Island that is) to visit friends and have a little getaway. Though it was short- just over 24 hours- since I have school on Sunday, it was well worth it! I drove to the ferry terminal, parked my car and walked on, it was so easy! Victoria is a lovely city with many pretty views and trendy little shops and restaurants. I will definitely be going back there. Apart from piling into a catering van with 20+ people to get a free ride to a karaoke bar (friend of a friend's birthday party), I did a lot of cool stuff! Here are some of the highlights!

1. Breakfast at Demitasse which is a cute little restaurant with very colourful walls covered with art work to the ceiling! The food was really good...though I ordered "The Infamous Early Bird" A Demitasse classic... 3 fluffy steamed eggs or a Jumbo croissant with Canadian swiss or Aged Cheddar, add fillings if you like" which was tasty, however the 3 steamed eggs were just a little too much egg for my liking. almost formed a thick sort of egg patty. blech. but once i divided it up a bit so i could actually taste the croissant and other stuff it was really good! plus I added bacon. yum! the dishes around me looked super good too.

2. Smoking Lily-such a cool little shop! its literally the size of my closet! My 3 friends and I didn't even go inside because we figured we wouldn't fit. But its simple to just window shop and the clothes go all the way up the really tall wall so there's a lot on display and apparently there is a way to make a change room but we didn't see it transform while we were there. The clothes are really nice, I've seen the stuff sold at Purr in Calgary and some other similar stores. There's also a Smoking Lily in Vancouver.

3. Fan Tan Alley-My friend lead me to this place in China town which is the oldest china town in Canada to see this little alley. I thought it was just a tiny gap separating the buildings but you can go through it and see all these little shops! Really cool. It reminded me of the markets in Marrakech though much smaller and less dense and no one hassling me to buy anything. (click on the link to have a virtual tour of it!)

4. The Seals at Fisherman's wharf-kind of sad to see them manipulated by tourists sucked into buying fish to watch them pop out of the water and grab it from their hand. But they are cute none the less. Its cool to see them so close.

5. View from Mount Douglas- we drove up this mountain and then walked a bit farther to the top and it was a beautiful view!! Mount Baker in Washington was so clear that day!

6. BUNNIES! My friend kept telling me about how he wanted to show me the bunnies at the University of Victoria campus and I was thinking maybe a couple show up every now and then and if you're lucky you might see them driving through....but it was like bunny island!! they were EVERYWHERE! and all different colours and sizes. and they weren't your normal wild rabbit, they looked like PETS! I'm not exaggerating. Here is a video I found on youtube about them..

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7. and finally...A meal at The Rebar Cafe before it was time for me to head home...this place has great food. The best grill cheese I have ever had! I know it sounds like a boring thing to order, but it had this super good chutney which gave it a bit of a bite and slices of apple and fresh spinach and really good cheese. And I had a side of soup which was corn chowder and also really full of flavour and delicious and the best part was the brownie I took away with me to eat on the ferry. It was heavenly. The place has come out with a recipe book, they are all vegetarian dishes and for a meat lover like me I still found a ton of things I wanted to try on the menu. The book would make a really great present for someone....your mom, your sister...me......So...there you have it. A lovely weekend trip to Victoria packed with fun stuff. I'd definitely recommend it!