cornerofmadness

You know how chatty I get on vacation so cut for length



The remainders of the trip here

Toronto airport is a very nice airport I must say. Nice shops, not a bad lay out. I wasn't expecting the airbus I was put on and had no idea until a little too late that I should have shelled out the 3 dollars for the ear phones. I could have watched my choice of TV or movies, with three choices, America, Canadian and French Canadian. I would have liked to see a few of the Canadians ones just because. I would have brought my own earphones had I known. They also served me dinner (sandwich and chips). I was pleasantly surprised at the service on Air Canada, two full turns with the drink cart and two turns with a jug of water.

Unfortunately, somehow the luggage going bunged up and we were on the tarmac for another forty minutes but at least there was no one middle seat so I felt less cramped. So we arrive on Vancouver Island much later than anticipated. I must say it was a gorgeous view coming down. The transport over took me thru geography/ecology that reminds me of Northern Wisconsin where I used to live but with beachy sort houses. It was very interesting.

I was shocked to see a China town and I hope to make it up there to check it out. I have noticed that Canadians seem even more enamored of sushi than Americans. I have lost track of how many sushi bars I've seen between here and Toronto.

By the time I got to the hotel (it's amazingly beautiful) I had been up for 21 straight hours and with only 3 hours sleep the night before. They told me wifi was 15$/day but there was the president's club. I was too tired to process that. I looked at the room service prices, about fainted, then went to dinner. Oh. So it wasn't much more to dine in my room. Yikes. I hit the Bengal and got an appetizer, Bengal poutine (i.e. butter chicken over fries dripping with cheese. Eh, diets don't apply on vacation).

By the time I hung up my clothes, got showered and into bed, I had been up for 25 straight hours. Snooze in spite of the room being stuffy.



Day One

I woke up to the wake up call, not. It was Mom, apparently unconvinced I survived my trip based on my brief call that I'll surely be overcharged for by the hotel since I have no cell service and my supposedly international calling card isn't working. Now that I'm awake, I notice that a) there are no overhead lights b) a lone ceiling fan over my bed (which is why I chose it) cooling the room c) no a/c. Interesting. The room is very muted but very nice. It's big with an adjoining suite. The staff here is very nice, every maid has said hello to me.

Here's a thank you to all the presenters for the great breakfast. I've never had an egg wrap so full of egg and goodies. I love the presenters. I've got so much free crap and put my name in to win stuff. I also have a lot of freebie books coming (I'm looking at everyone's pathophysiology books. I'm going to get that class, or at least try my hardest).

The seminars are very good. Lunch time was used to photograph the hotel and the harbor across the street. I hope to find a book store that might have some local history books (especially since I've almost finished off all my books already). There are so many souvenir shops here and not so much on the restaurants. I found the Bard and Banker Scottish pub. Beautiful place but not my best choice in that the proportions were tiny and expensive. I did stop at the tourist kiosk to stock up on crap I can go see later in the week. However stopping for a gelato was a bad idea. I had to leave the first afternoon lecture due to it not agreeing with me.

Pearson's get together in the early evening was a zoo. Apparently you can't wave free food and one free drink (I cadged two) in front of professors. We're vultures. I left early and went into an art gallery in the hotel. Most things started at 13K and went up so I went to the art show raising money for japan (just to see what they had not so much to buy) then walked back together downtown. Found a seafood place claiming to be voted #1 in Victoria. I then had to come to grips with the idea that in this part of British Columbia food is very very expensive. Lunches are going to run me 15-25$ and dinners are between 25-50$. Yikes. I'm going to be SO poor when I get home. Dinner was good, seafood papadella (tomato seafood broth, papadelle noodles and locally caught clams and mussels with shrimp and a grilled wild coho salmon filet). The clams were as oceanic and salty as any shellfish I've ever eaten, yum.

I'm too tired for swimming tonight (as if I'm allowed to do much of that). When I got back I noticed that curtains were flying out windows at the hotel. I realized that unlike most American hotels, this old dame isn't sealed up. I have the window open. It has no screen. I'm waiting for me to fall out four stories or a bird to fly in. I think I'm above the zone for bugs. It feels so good. I'm sitting here watching Sanctuary (never seen it before but it's so dumb...) and plotting what I might want to do. I had it planned months ago only to get here and find out the graylines travel agency left the area a few weeks ago.

Ugh now I'm waking up. That'll never do so I'll shut up now.




This the Fairmont Empress. It's so big I'm tired out by the time I get from my room to the front doo.