Victoria Dragon Boat Festival (that was the plan)

This weekend it was Victoria Dragon Boat Festival. Julie and I started the day pretty easy walking downtown along West Bay Walkway.

View from West Bay Walkway

We had breakfast at Lady Marmalade, delicious! And a cute place, too. After that we walked to Moss Street Market where Julie wanted to buy a few things. She's a pretty decent cook, I'm such a lucky bastard. Then it was time to meet with Christoph and Nancy down at the harbor for what was supposed to be the main event of the day. First we heard a talk about the history of Victoria's Chinatown. Then we met Sarah and went to a nice place I forgot the name of to have something to eat, right at the harbor, great view. The waiter was veeery chatty but still mildly funny and he even persuaded me to not have an Americano but a regular coffee instead—even though those Europeans are quite particular about their coffee he added, but the Americano would simply be too weak at their place. Respect, man. Unfortunately, Sarah was too shy to share some of her German with us even though she lived in Hamburg for quite a while. Fortunately, she told us a way to make that happen. Quoting her: “I haven't had enough drinks, yet.” Well, that can certainly be arranged.

Eventually we walked down to the races. It was so hot I didn't even care about putting my telephoto lens on. The races were rather boring actually and the boats weren't quite what I expected. I guess high expectations can kill just about anything.

Dragon Boats

We strolled around a little more, Sarah had to leave already, I finally got to buy my SIM card (and it was even $10 more expensive than last time I asked, f§$%ers!) and then we went back West Bay Walkway to our place where Julie used what she bought in Chinatown to prepare some great dinner for all of us. Christoph and Nancy decided to go home instead of joining us for open-air cinema so Julie and I went to Beacon Hill Park to watch Princess Bride. We were too far away from the speakers, though, so I could hardly understand anything and I think I even fell asleep a couple of times. I'm such a bore.