Moved on to Victoria, via a steep Pacific Coach Lines fare ($40, city to city; next time i’ll use public transit at each end, for about $19 including ferry). The sky started clearing as i came off the ferry. I rode the top front seat of a double-decker bus on the milk run into town, sitting next to a garrulous native fellow going the shop in the city and in front of a young, Type A public health nurse and her laid-back partner, who were dissecting their lives and plans — job stress, crack addiction, best neighbourhoods to live, preferences in sport — in excruciating, unignorable detail.
The bus drew up on Hillside, next to Long & McQuade, and i disembarked spontaneously to check out their hand rhythm section, which i found freshly stocked with new toys. Then i found MEC, where i revamped part of my wardrobe, then the downtown hostel where i’m trying out my new membership tonight, in a dorm with about 40 other guys. It’s been a few years and i want to know what i’m up against, hostelling it across the country.
Everything seemed to slide along nicely once i got back on the Vancouver Island, and that gives me a good feeling about the place. So now i’m thinking, yeah … Victoria … i might be able to do that.
Now to get in touch with some people….
Greg Blee 