A Nice Place

Amy Wright

Travel. One of the oldest and greatest of human endeavours. From the time we were able to fashion sea-worthy boats, the first of these apparently being made out of hemp (it really can be used for anything!) we have been going hither and yon on this little pale blue marble we call home.

Things have only gotten better in recent centuries, despite the best efforts of those in power. Intercontinental travel is not only possible but safe, easier and more comfortable and, most of all, faster, than it has ever been before. Something to remember the next time there is a flight delay at the airport. A few hours being rather piddling in the face of the few months endured by our ancestors (they didn't have big enough bathrooms or bags of peanuts either).

As always happens when things reach their natural zenith, there comes to be something of a backlash against it. This is partly what is behind the Renaissance in vinyl records in response to the onslaught and alleged dominance of “digital” music. Similarly, people have started either exploring within their countries of birth and even forgoing travel all together, terms such as “stay-cation” slowly creeping into the vernacular (if not yet the dictionary, thank Oxford).


One local well ahead of the curve in this respect is Victoria, British Columbia, which is on the West Coast of Canada. The capital city in fact, despite the fact the majority of the world assumes that it is Vancouver. Which is sort of like thinking that the Capital of New York is Manhattan and rather than Albany (a no brainer really) or other the national capital of Australia is Sydney, or Melbourne or Brisbane and not the obvious and logical choice of Canberra.


Since the early 2000s, cast your minds back kids, the local tourism board has been encouraging citizens of the Greater Victoria Area to “Spend Time In Their Own Town Like A Tourist” and, really, it is easy to see why. Not only does Victoria proper combine all the noise and issues of a big city with the size and lack of amenities of a small town, packing 86,000 citizens (1,387 of whom are homeless adding sum local colour in the form of pan-handlers and street musicians) into 7.52 square miles, it has some of the best weather in all of Canada with, aside from the occasional, biannual snow storm, nary a flake of the white stuff. 23 inches of rain per year but hardly any snow.


There is also all the wonderful history to investigate, embodied by the cities famous “heritage buildings”, like the Empress Hotel, built in 1901 or, up until they tore it down, the famous Johnson Street Blue Bride, designed by the same engineer behind the Golden Gate Bridge as well as the bridge at the Winter
Palace.

Like to shop? You are in luck! Victoria is chock full of all sorts of commercial opportunities, most within walking distance of each other given the relatively small size of the downtown core. Parking might be a problem, there being an estimated 73 metered parking spots though the public transit system is second only to Vancouver in terms if quality and edges out the New York subway system in terms of simplicity of routes.