Exploring the BEAUTIFUL Victoria, BC (Vancouver Island) | Downtown, FOOD + tea, & MORE!

For the last week and a half we've been exploring Vancouver Island from Nanaimo to Tofino, up to Campbell River, and down to Jordan River in Fort Renfrew. And for our final stop on the island we're in Victoria, which is the largest city on the island, the second oldest city in western Canada, and the capital of the entire province of British Columbia. If you haven't noticed yet, Victoria is super beautiful. We first visited Victoria from Seattle back in 2017 for our anniversary and we loved it. The city has had a lot of British influence over the years, with the Hudson's Bay Company establishing a fort and trading post in 1843, and with the island becoming a British crown colony in 1849. And you can still see a lot of this influence today. The city has a much more British vibe than anywhere else we've been in British Columbia. There are so many beautiful buildings here, including the Parliament Building right behind us and the Fairmont Empress, which is a really nice hotel that's famous for its swanky afternoon tea. But we're too cheap for that and not fancy enough, so we're going to go somewhere else for more affordable morning tea and pretend we're having fancy afternoon tea. Afternoon tea isn't just popular at the Empress, you can find it all around the city due to the British history here in Victoria. Tea has been steeped in its culture since the 1840s. Typically with afternoon tea you get cute little sandwiches and treats, so we're not sure if our setup totally counts, but if you're looking for a more affordable afternoon tea-like experience, Murchies is your spot. We got two teas and a blackcurrant scone, all for 11 bucks-ish with tip. We got the Murchies afternoon tea. We're not a hundred percent sure what kind of tea it is, but it smells very, very nice. Pinky's up, sir. This is definitely a black tea and I don't really know how to describe it. It just tastes like a nice black tea. Over the last holidays I got really into the Great British Baking Show, so I want to give my best Mary Berry impression. We'll see how I can do it. It's quite delicious. You can see it's very soft and, you know it, pillowy in there. The blackcurrants, they taste fresh. This just tastes really fresh baked. Not overly sweet either. It's perfect with the tea. We've headed to the Chinatown area of Victoria, which was actually Canada's first Chinatown. We're about to walk down Bantan Alley, which is the narrowest street in Canada at three to six feet wide. Can we walk side by side? Barely. Not only is the alley fun to walk down, but there are also a bunch of really cool shops down in it, and I just heard someone describe it as feeling like Harry Potter, and I totally agree. We needed a little bit more caffeine, so we stopped by a coffee shop called Hey Happy, and it's very appropriately named because coffee makes us very happy, and that place was so colorful and fun on the inside. It also made me super happy. For lunch, we came to Redfish Bluefish, which is this fish stand in a shipping container right on this dock. It's a very popular place, so make sure you get here early, and we're gonna have ourselves a fish feast. We're starting out with our chowder, which is a chipotle coconut chowder with white fish, and it smells incredible. It smells very coconutty, and I love coconut-based soups. Oh yeah, holy cow, that is incredible. It has, it's unlike any chowder I've ever tried before. The chipotle and the coconut, oh my goodness, it kind of gives it more of like a Thai flair to it. It's not overly fishy at all. It's loaded with veggies. So this is a taco, and it's basically a taco rolled into a cone. There's coleslaw in there, pea shoots, pickled onions, and some sauce. I got albacore tuna and tempura cod. That is a giant piece of tuna in there. Heck yeah. That thing is awesome. It's hefty. You get your money's worth on this thing. Huge piece of fish in there, like I said. The coleslaw, the crunchiness of it, and then the tenderness of that, tenderness of the meat in there, and it's got a little bit of some seasoning on there, the grilled tortilla. Oh man, this is awesome. Whoa. See all that steam coming out of there? It's so fresh, and this one's hefty too. Big piece of fish, and this outer batter here is so light, so crunchy, flaky, crispy. This is perfect with the sauce in there. And I got the jerk taco tostada style, and the jerk is a mix of halibut, cod, salmon, and tuna simmered in a Caribbean jerk sauce. I know I always say this, but as someone who's still warming up to fish, this is the perfect thing to get here because you get a little bit of that fishiness, but this jerk sauce is just loaded with flavor. It's a little bit of a spice to it. That's good. It is super meaty too. They give you so much fish on here. The best is putting a little bit of the fish on the chip because you get that kind of softer, tender texture of the fish with that nice crunch of the tortilla. We've now headed to Beacon Hill Park, which runs from town down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It has nice walking paths and coastal views, so we're going to take Kona on a little walk. We mentioned earlier in the video about some of the British history of Victoria, but well before white settlers came to the area, this was the native land of the Lekwungen people, and the area now known as Beacon Hill Park was an important area for them. They harvested camas root here, which was a staple in their diet, as well as traded with other First Nations. This park is gorgeous. It is so green. There are tons of beautiful flowers. There are peacocks just running around, and there's this really cool moss lady. She's made out of a stainless steel frame, cement, boulders, metal pipe, vinyl coated chicken wire, and a clay-based soil suitable for moss. She also apparently has a cousin in Australia, so if any of y'all live in Australia, keep an eye out for her. We came to Parachute Ice Cream, which came highly recommended from our friends who live here in Victoria. They said it's their favorite place in town. We both got two scoops, and one of our scoops is lemon cream, and this is insanely fresh tasting. The lemon has that perfect tartness, but it's also sweet. It's also insanely creamy, but also really light at the same time. It's incredible. The texture is super different. In a good way. The look of this, it almost looks like it's whipped. It looks so light. It's like they just had a cream base and just threw in a bunch of lemon juice. You can even see, if you look really close, there's some little flecks of lemon in there. My second flavor is oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. That is exactly what it tastes like. Little chocolate chips in there, and then also there is a bunch of little flecks of cookie in there. I think their flavors change daily, so we can't promise all these flavors will be here, but for my second flavor, I got pistachio, and you can see just little flecks of pistachio in there. That tastes like being back in Italy. While here in Victoria, we're camping at Goldstream Provincial Park, which is about 20 to 30 minutes away from Victoria. It has a super nice wooded campground, plus some hiking trails to enjoy. It's getting kind of late in the day, and it's starting to rain on us, so we're going to check out one quick spot, Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is 47 and a half meters tall, and as you can tell, it's a little different than the one in Ontario and New York, but it is still impressive, and it was just a short walk from the parking area. Unfortunately, this marks the end of our time here on Vancouver Island. We have wanted to come back here for years to explore more of the island, and it did not disappoint. We loved it here so much, and it kind of felt like all the best parts of Washington, which is our favorite state, just in a more condensed area. Everywhere we went was just magical. We've got a couple more days here on the island. We're gonna get some work done, do some more planning, because when we get back to the mainland, we're gonna be starting our final trek up to Alaska. It's almost here. I cannot believe it. These are very hard to pour without spilling. If you go too fast, it becomes pouring out. If you don't go fast enough, it'll just drip all down the sides. Whatever. Maybe it's supposed to be that way. Oh no. I thought that too. Another lip smooth. I love tea. I love tea too. It's quite delicious. I love tea even more. No, I love it the most. You're staring into my soul. I love tea the most. No, I do.