Just got to Vancouver, the goal of my road trip from east to west through Canada, but felt as if it’s not time to “settle” yet. I wanted to explore the Vancouver Islands before to see if I rather live there than in this big city Vancouver is. Luckily in my hostel in Vancouver downtown I met two who also wanted to explore the island. First, I agreed with a German girl to share a car and since we also got along pretty well with a French guy, we decided to invite him as well (btw. in case you are wondering, I’ll never mention names here or post pictures of others to keep there privacy). A few days later our road trip trio set out via ferry from Vancouver to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We rented a car together to explore the island and if you can split those cost between three it’s actually really affordable to travel around the island. The hostels aren’t too expensive, especially if you compare it to Vancouver or Toronto and the distances aren’t too far. Just did 813km in the week we had the car and I was the driver. But since in Canada I had 6586km before that and in my last job around 700 to 800km each week where normal, it was totally fine for me, especially with nice music, good talks and a stunning scenery around us. Another factor is that we got there mid October so it was off season.  So again, the pros of off-season travel for me mostly overweight but this time we actually had some more bad luck according to the weather. It rained a lot, so I needed to buy rainboots and we hiked with raincoats and umbrellas. Still, it was beautiful and we had loads of fun! Traveling solo is really nice but I enjoyed having company and conversation that ranged deeper than just small talk and would sure do it again. Actually I hope to see the island itself again too since we weren’t able to do some stuff that we wanted too, for example a whale watching trip got canceled because the storm was too strong and we couldn’t to kayak due to the same reasons and there are some other places I would like to see. So hopefully I’ll find an opportunity to explore Vancouver Island again in Spring or Summer 2020.

Off topic: Talking about 2020, I still have some blogs following that actually took place in 2019. Since this blog, photography and editing is my hobby, which I really love, I realized that it’s hard to keep up while traveling and now (spoiler alert) that I settled in Vancouver daily live kicked in and it’s hard to find time for it. But I’ll catch up with it, I’ll promise, can’t just promise when. This is btw. my 100th blog and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy the making of it! There is going to come a blog about Squamish and Whistler, one about North Vancouver where I lived the last two month and a big one about Vancouver which I might even split up into a few smaller ones, since being here for a long time accumulated some more pictures and it is a big area. Further journeys aren’t fully settled, since I will need to earn some money first, but there will definitely be some more travels coming this year! Ideas are roughly a trip up to Yukon, maybe including Alaska, winter trip to Banff, as mentioned Vancouver Islands with hopefully more sun, West Coast USA road trip, Hawaii (flights from Vancouver are quite cheap) and maybe some parts of Central or Latin America. Chances are high that not all of that is going to happen, but I’m sure this new year is going to be amazing! Canada already gave me so much in the last almost 5 month (time is flying way too fast) and I’m looking forward for what will come!

Now back to Vancouver Island. As mentioned, we landed in Victoria and explored the city. A part of it on the first day and some more on the way back. It’s a relaxed city by the water and I liked the vibes. Still I decided that Vancouver would be my choice to settle for work, but who knows what the future holds for me 😉

Btw. since Vancouver Island is a really beautiful one and I took loads of pictures I decied to split it up into three parts, so the ones about Nanaimo and surroundings and Tofino and surroundings is going to come soon while this one focuses about Victora and everything we did nearby.

Downtown Victoria

Sandcut Beach

Around an hour drive west from Victoria we got recommended to visit this and another beach by a waitress in a bar we went to. It wasn’t recommended online but I love to follow the recommendations of locals so we had to check it out and it was definitely worth it. A really short hike through the rainforest down to the beach and you’ll find a beautiful view with two waterfalls.

Mystic Beach

Not even 10 minutes more by car you’ll have a longer hike to this stunning beach also with a waterfall by the water. It is about an hour hike going up and down over roots and even a small suspension bridge. We got there short before sunset and really had to hurry back through the forest with rough light conditions at the end to get back to the car, but the hustle was absolutely worse it! Want to come back next time with some more time around here 😊

Thank you very much for your time and interest. I hope you are enjoying my blog. Feel free to follow and leave me feedback. I am thankful for every advice and happy to answer questions. You can also follow me on Instagram or Facebook for photography and stories or FindPenguins where I track my journey to get a general overview. I am happy to see you back soon.