Monday, September 25, 2006

victoria (23rd-24th sept 06)

day 1
the weekend was absolutely fabulous! i went with hiroko, gilbert and joseph to victoria and we stayed there for 1 night! the journey to victoria was a horrendous 4+ hours via many many buses and a ferry ride from tsawwassen jetty to swartz bay - but the scenery on board the ferry was really beautiful so that made the journey at least more bearable:) heh. i was so relieved that my motion sickness wasnt triggered:) thank God for that!



the 4 of us at the airport busstop - all happy and ready to go!! we had to wait 1 hr coz we just missed the bus:( im starting to appreciate sbs and tibs back home. there are so many buses in canada (especially in victoria. argh) which has such low frequency - the buses come once every hour. madness. bah.

the ferry that we took to swartz bay in victoria - spirit of vancouver!

hiroko and me - on board the ferry! this picture doesnt do justice to the beautiful scenery behind us though!! the wind was really freezing cold! in fact i was still very cold - even though i wore 3 layers + a thick jacket!

the ferry passed by many islands. we noticed many houses constructed sporadically along the bay of the islands. that is really what i call having a waterfront view.

WHERE'S THE BUS?!? haha. we missed so many buses (coz we decided to be adventurous and find alternative routes to the butchart gardens. and no, im NOT blaming you gilbert - our navigator for the trip;) haha) and it really didnt help that their frequency was like 1hr? it's so crazy! we waited for soo.. long. when the bus finally came, it couldnt carry us coz it only had space for 3 more passengers - but there were the 4 of us. tough luck.

in e end, we decided to take a cab - after waiting for more than an hour! we didnt want to waste another hour waiting for the bus - coz it was getting late and we were all very tired of waiting! anyway the taxi meter in canada jumps at such a crazily fast rate - almost like once every 2 seconds - this is the case when the taxidriver is NOT speeding?! in the end, the fare for our 10min cab ride amounted to a hefty CAD$15. bah.

this was what made everything worth it - the world-renowned butchart gardens! this is actually my 2nd visit here! i came here with my family about 8 years back. but the beauty of this garden still moves me greatly. there were many improvements too! my family would be delighted to know that there are now fountains and fireworks in butchart gardens!! i bought a 12 month season pass coz i will probably be coming back a couple more times - at least definitely with my family and the other half. oh by the way, butchart gardens looks different during every season!

my favourite part of the garden - the sunken garden. when we came here, the 4 of us couldnt help but go wow!! it almost seems like it is a setting of a fairy tale? really a sight to behold!!

another of my favourite part of the garden - the italian garden. absolutely breathtaking. alright i shall let the pictures do the talking ;)

oh look! there's the fountain in butchart gardens! there's a fireworks display here every night as well!

me, my jap friend hiroko and the japanese garden in butchart:) heh. but we look so small though.

haha. quite understandbly, all of us couldnt stop taking photos! click click click...

after exploring the whole of butchart garden, we all went to have traditional english afternoon tea - scones with jam, honey and butter!! yummy.