Around the World in as long as it takes.

We arrived in Victoria and walked up to the hostel.

We were in the Ocean Island Backpackers in Victoria... which unlike our original impression, turned out to be one of the large Inner City Hostels! ARRGGGHHH !

We hate these places!!!!

Big, Impersonal.... inefficient.... busy.... Trying that little bit too hard to be the Ultimate Backpacker Hostel and yet... forgetting all those things that matter....

A Genuine Hi.... as opposed to the McDonald's "Have a nice day" Commentary!

Drives me nuts up here!

Anyway, the Room was in a Mini Double (which as cheaper)

Ok..... so It's a mini room....... Mini.......... This room was feckin Tiny !!!

And I'm a European and we're used to small rooms (compared to our North American Compadres)

Would love to see an American from Texas or the likes being put in one of these rooms

Anyway.... Imagine a Box.... with a door on the near wall (roughly half the length of the wall)...
a shelf..... on the near wall also.... the bed was a fold out bed... which when folded out was the Width of the room and meant that when it was out... we couldn't open the door completely!

Now to make things worse.... on the near wall (behind the door) was a fridge !!! a Feckin Fridge !!!

What the feck was the point of a Feckin fridge in this bloody room !!!!

The walls were made of Polythene... or so it seemed... and they shook like a cheap Film studio Set when you shut the door !!!

This room was Fun !!!!

Oh, and there was a Bin.... right next to my pillow on the floor next to the bed....

great use of space !!!

So.... as I'd always thought..... get the rooms in to make the Money.... No..no..... of course not.... we care for our guests and this City hostel is not all about "Show me the Money"

I hate these type of hostels !!!!

An another thing.....So where did our bags go........ when the bed was down... there was no floor space..... a couple of hooks (no way could I hang my rucksack up on the wall!!!)

They were shoved at the ends of the bed!

So as you can guess....... We already liked this hostel.

Then came the Kitchen.........

Then the Downstairs Bar........

No Drinking your own booze in the hostel............ which is the ONLY feckin hostel in the whole of Canada that we've seen this (apparently a BC rule) However......... I would be very skeptical about this and think this might have been more to do with Profit... PROFIT....feckin PROFIT !!!

OK one final thing......

No frying in the kitchen....... WHAT ??????

Yep absolutely...... No Frying !

So No Fried egg for brekkie.....

Why I have no idea !!! Apparently (once again) this was a Victoria City regulation.....

Strange or what !!!

Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining and we went out for tea and found a Brilliant Mexican round the corner where we had tea....

including Feckin "FRIED" Beans

The Next Day we met Claudia for Brunch (only a quick visit which was a pity) and then we went down to the dock to meet Joe and Myrna.

They'd already arrived in the Dock and were docked right in front of the Empress Hotel.

Their Boat was a Lovely sailing Yacht and it was brilliant to be back on the water.

We went out for tea that evening having walked around Victoria for a while and through the Empress hotel (which is where Joe and Myrna had spent their Honeymoon some 25 (or so) years earlier)

We left early the next day and set sail for the US !!!

It was a Beautiful Day as we motored out of Victoria harbor.....

Bye Bye Canada !!

It's been "Swell" (If a bit expensive!)

We spent the rest of the day sailing and motoring along the Islands between the US and Canada and porpoise spotting along the way.

We reached Friday Harbour later in the day and Joe took our passports to the Immigration office.

This was quite cool as there wasn't anyone there, but rather a scanner where Joe scanned in our passports and that was that !

Cool !

So we were now in the US !!!

I never thought I'd say I was glad to be in the USA.... however I was !!!

It's much cheaper than Canada !!!

A pack of Ciggies was down to $4...... half that of Canada (up at $9)

We popped to the local pub for a few bevvies and then played cards for the remainder of the evening

Joe woke us up with the Ringing of the Bell at 8am (a lie on whilst on Board we were assured!)

We set sail, however, it was a foggy day and it was raining as we left port.

We decided to head through Deception Pass (against the tide... albeit a slight tide) and then we headed up canal to Anacortes harbour which is where Joe and Myrna's Home Dock.

We tried to catch some crab that night (which was unsuccessful) however, had some lovely tea on board and then played Dominoes until bed time (Mexican Train... a new game which we'd play quite a few more times with Joe and Myrna )

We left the Boat the following morning and drove through the Cascade National Park to Ellensburg (where Joe and Myrna live on a farm)

The Farm grows "Timothy" Grass which is sold to Japan and other places as some of the best hay available....

There was plenty of it about in the Farm anyway and the next Day Joe showed us his stock piled grass in the Barn.

The Next Few Days were to be spent recuperating and preparing for South America.

We've booked our tickets and got our flight and hostel in Quito Organised... so it was time for Steph to wash etc. and me to Update the Blog.... there was a lot of catching up to do....

I also managed to burn our photos onto DVD and we managed to send them home before we head Down South!

It was really nice and Joe and Myrnas as we had our own little room in the building next to the Farmhouse and we did a few walks with Joe up in the surrounding Hills around Ellensburg.

They made us feel totally at home and more than welcome which was much appreciated by the two of us.....

So we said goodbye a few days later and headed to Seattle.

They gave us a lift to the City (right to the hostel doors) as their daughter lived in the city and they'd use the day to visit her also!

We said Goodbye and Thanks and went into the hostel.

Once again... the Green Tortoise Backpackers was a large City Backpackers... However.... this time it was the only backpackers in Seattle.. so beggars can't be choosers so to speak

Today Stephs off Shopping and I'm updating this damn Blog site so we're going to head underground in Seattle to do a tour of the Underneath of the city later today and then tomorrow we're off to Ecuador.... Yee Haaaaa !!!!

I can't wait !!!

Roll on South America.... here we come !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1