Well, not exactly, but how about bus, seabus, skytrain, double decker bus, ferry, 2 more buses to Butchart Gardens and another to downtown Victoria?
Today's the day to explore Vancouver Island! We originally wanted to take the trailer over, but much too expensive unless we were actually spending several days there (one time a truck camper would have been perfect!); next plan was just to take the truck ($50/each way), then we looked up public transportation, and voila!
So, up very early to walk to the bus (good walk); transfer to the seabus (a small ferry) which connected to the skytrain - actually half subway, half elevated train; then to a large city bus (the kind that is hinged in the middle) to the ferry terminal at Tsawwassen. Cost so far? $1.75 each! This is a large ferry like the one going to PEI from home which gave us a 90 minute cruise from Vancouver through the islands to Swartz Bay; then a double decker bus (not the fancy red kind, but a city bus) which transferred to another city bus which took us to Butchart Gardens, then another bus to downtown Victoria!
At the station for the skytrain we met a confused young Japanese girl who is a college student here for a month to learn to speak English. She was with a group, but missed her first bus so they were separated. She had the station and bus routes written out, but it's a lot of transfers. Since she was going to Victoria too, she followed along with us. Then another young lady going to Victoria for the weekend decided she could be 'tour guide' for all of us, joined by a third young lady who now lived in Vancouver but whose home is in Victoria - she had a backpack, a heavy hand bag and was carrying a pie that she baked for her Mom in an aluminum pan! Once off the skytrain we met yet another young Japanese man accompanied by his quite senior hostess who also was going to Victoria - she was getting him to the ferry. It turns out that the 2 Japanese students came from the same city in Japan! Anyway they enjoyed talking together during the ferry ride. During the ferry ride the Japanese girl called the contact number she was given only to find out that that person had stayed in Vancouver! So she stayed with us through the gardens and on to Victoria and then figured she might be able to find the rest of her group on her own. Anyway, it was interesting, and fun to meet and interact with these young people.
The return trip was exactly the same but in reverse (except for the people). We left Victoria at 6 pm, made fairly good connections all the way but the every hour on the hour ferry had an hour off (meant we waited almost 2 hours for the next one since we had just missed the previous one by minutes), then missed the seabus by literally seconds even though we ran all the way through the station. Now it is dark and we still had a long ride on another bus to go and a walk back to the trailer on an unlit street. We arrived 'home' at 12:45 am!
Was it worth it? Yes! We enjoyed the public transit, much more interesting and less frustrating than driving and finding parking spaces, plus Mike figured he saved a bundle on fuel and parking.
Posts for Butchart Gardens and Victoria to follow - this morning we're off to the Farmer's Market!
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