The hotel had a continental breakfast that was kind of like my dream breakfast, with cottage cheese and fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, hard boiled eggs, and coffee with vanilla soy milk. The muffin and yummy (and very helpfully wrapped) cereal bar were squirrelled away with me and eaten mid-morning.
First breakfast: consumed. Second breakfast: pictured.
Harbour breakfast view
Then I wandered around Victoria, where I was lucky enough to have two days free after the festival. This was exciting because a) I'd never been there before and b) my friend H. just moved there a few months ago. She kindly consented to playing tour guide and hanging out tons. I hope she doesn't mind starring in many of these photos! I took way too many one-handed cell phone photos,using my knuckle to click the shutter on the touchscreen, and unsurprisingly most of them are blurry. But I took a little more care when there was a person in the frame.
Major features included coffee (I also love B.C.'s coffee obsession and expertise), vintage clothing shopping and an amazing stationery store. We also tasted tons of fancy olive oil and vinegar at this neat place in the market. I would probably have been tempted to bring some home if it wasn't for the potential suitcase disaster involved.
Photos from our wandering:
There are bronies among us.
Victoria: looking pretty
I can really get behind this pie shop sign
Amazing fancy olive oil and vinegar place!
We went to Rebar for dinner, which I'd heard of thanks to the famous cookbook but somehow always thought was in NYC. It was yummy.
Rebar, lovely friend, and a bottle of Blue Buck!
Another thrill about my stay in Victoria was that my hotel room was also one of the most amazing hotel rooms I've ever stayed in. It was roughly the size of my old apartment, except with real furniture.
Oh hello, home-away-from-home
The best part was the fully equipped kitchen that made it perfect for saving and reheating leftovers. (Being without food and the fear of being without food is one of my major travelling paranoias.)
Precious, precious leftovers in my hotel fridge
My second day in Victoria was not unlike the first: long breakfast, wandering/shopping, meeting up with H for a movie and late drinks/food. Hurrah for true vacations.
Beautiful sky
More Victoria vintage heaven
A trip to Victoria would not have been complete without a visit to Munro's Books.
Munro's Books of Victoria has a surprisingly imposing street presence (former bank?)
At first I thought they didn't carry Bone & Bread and I was sad, but then I turned around and saw that they had a whole special section for Canadian Literature!
Beautiful CanLit shelves at Munro's Books
(I love the proximity of Bone & Bread to Dear Life by Alice Munro)
The next morning I left to catch the ferry to Vancouver to attend the Vancouver International Writers Festival... To be continued...!
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