Victoria, B.C.

Dear Rosminta br Saragih,

Recently I went to visit Victoria. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and is located in Vancouver Island, about 1 1/2 hours driving and 1 1/2 hours ferry ride from where I live. I boarded the "Queen of Saanich", a large ferry that can carry 360 cars and 1700 passengers. With 300 000 population it is the second largest city in B.C.

In April 1778 Captain James Cook, a British explorer, landed on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Subsequent to that in March 1843 James Douglas of the Hudson Bay's company set up a trading post in "Camosack" which then changed .
name to "Victoria" after the name of Queen of England. Victoria is a tourist place, more than 3.6 million visitors per year. Because of its temperate climate many retired Canadians settled in Victoria. A lot of things you can do and see there. Since I came only for a short visit, I can only do a few things. I walked along the sea wall of the inner harbor, checking all the activities there. There was a whale watching boat tour just departing, fishermen mending their netting, restaurants crowded with patrons, street musicians playing their beats and people looking at all the vendors selling arts and other paraphernalia. There were a lot of visitors
coming in from the U.S.A.
There was a statue made of some kind of reinforced plastic standing near the water. I was quite impressed with the detail of construction, and in the process of taking a picture. But the statue moving ever slowly toward my lady friend and hold her shoulder to pose. We had a big startled laughter. The statue was a real living person inside, and he was called a "performance artist", that can stay motionless in uncomfortable position for extended period. The container on the feet asking for your donations probably giving him away unnoticed.

I also visited the BC Parliament building, and it
has quite a story. It
was designed by a young 25 year old Architect Francis Rattenbury with no experience, but got help a lot from his Architect uncle. It was completed in 1897 after 5 years construction, and 100% over budget. He also designed many Victorian style building after that: The Empress Hotel, The Government House and The Crystal Garden all in Victoria. And also Vancouver Art Gallery, and courthouses in Vancouver, Nanaimo and Nelson. Most of them not on time and over budget, a common practice in that time. I went to a 30 minutes tour to the inside of the Parliament building. A guide explained the working areas of the Politicians from the ruling Liberal government and the NDP oppositions.
I went to see "Fisherman's Wharf" by riding a small ferry and checked the inner harbor from the water. It is the place where fisherman tied their boats during off season.
I also went to see "Craighdarroch Castle", a historic Victoria-era mansion built in 1890 by a coal and shipping baron Robert Dunsmuir. He was the first millionaire in BC history or could be a multi billionaires in today's comparison. the 39 rooms castle occupied 20,000 square feet of floor space. But he never moved in to occupy the castle because he died in 1889 a year before the castle was completed.

I also stopped at "mile 0" the starting point of the Trans Canada Highway, the Federal-Provincial Highway system that joins all the 10 provinces of Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Foundland. The construction of the Highway was started in 1950 and was opened in 1962, a 7820 km long starting from Victoria in the west and ending to St.John in the east.

Photo (top): Performance Artist at "Inner Harbour", Victoria.
Middle1: BC Parliament Building, Victoria.
Middle2: Craighdarroch Castle, Victoria.
Bottom: "Mile 0" of the Trans Canada Highway, Victoria.