Victoria is more than just what it’s been portrayed to me. It is pretty quaint and simple, but there’s a particular charm that speaks to me. It’s small enough without being too small, and large enough to still be a comfortable city to me. One would think that the sake of being stuck on an island would create some sort of noticeable separation from what you experience on the mainland, but that’s not completely true. The smell of the sea is probably stronger than it is here in Vancouver, and the comfortable arms of the mountains are replaced with that of the Pacific Ocean being just a short distance away.
Basically, this is the hub of the province without a whole lot really going on in the city. For the most part, all the “action” is back on the mainland except for the politicians that meet up here to decide the better good for the rest of the population that comprises B.C. You’d never really realize that if it weren’t for the large building that sits over-looking the harbor with a nice flag on its center dome. For just being the city that it is for just over one hundred years, it still has plenty of promise to it.
You have to keep in mind that great cities and civilizations just don’t spring up overnight. It takes people to gather. The masses build. Then things start to happen over a period of time. I kind of get the feeling that Victoria is on the verge of becoming quite the city in its own right over the next period of years. How long that might be, I’m not sure. If the northeast is taken to be any example, I think Vancouver Island is going to find its way of competing with the getaway culture of the east coast. It already is, but it just feels like it’s not that well known yet. That might be a good thing.