Monday in BC

We had intended to catch the 7am ferry over to Vancouver island, then just before we fell asleep decided on the hour later ferry but then woke up late and finally made it onto the 11pm ferry alhamdulillah. Was nice to be on a ferry again, its been so long since I used to go on them from Liverpool docks. Was nice to be back on a boat again too, I forgot how much I missed the water, I suppose when it just isnt around you (lake Ontario doesnt count) you sort of stop missing it. But the missing and longing is back there now :( then Ill be back in UK and travelling to Algeria, morocco, syria, egypt and back around some places in Europe insha'allah.. so im looking forward to the sea again :) insha'allah. The wind was nice, although cold at times, we had a hot drink with us and took a trip around the boat too. I think it was good to go on this trip with someone pretty new to the whole travelling thing, it makes me stop taking things for granted and forces me to see things through the eyes of a newborn (almost) Alhamdulillah. On the way over a woman stopped us on the deck and pointed out these 'clouds' to us that were actually some mountains in Seattle I think. It was amazing, subhanallah... it was so clear out that day and we were truly grateful for everything we saw. Although we had been told you can see dolphins at times, unfortunately we didnt :(

We drove down to the hotel we were staying in for the night to find that we couldnt check in until 3pm, so decided to do some of our sightseeing while we were waiting around. So we grabbed a quick sandwich (foot long veggie for me thank you, I was hungry) and made our way over to Glendale gardens. I must admit I wasnt really looking forward to walking around a garden but after the pace of the last few days I was glad to just take it all in there. The gardens were amazing, with all different types from mediterranean to japanese, masha'allah and the views surrounding the gardens were breathtaking too. There was a little lake at the bottom (although you would prob call it a pond here, but a pond to me is something in your back garden) Pond or lake people? We spent a good few hours there, and the weather was amazing too alhamdulillah. After the gardens we drove back down towards the city, I seem to remember driving somewhere else before going back to see if we could check our bags in... oh well, thats what old age does for you :P we dropped our bags off then walked down the road with the trusty map and found our way to Victoria chinatown. The place was amazing.. not as big as vancouvers, but still pretty impressive, there was even a public school there in the shape of the traditional chinese buildings where all the kids were stood outside playing. So cultural masha'allah. Then we popped into the market square which was quite but so nice, we could almost imagine it on the weekend days, especially with how the weather was. There were lots of little shops all around this smallish square where u only assume they would have market stalls, at that time there were just people sitting around and enjoying the sun. We bought some fudge, yummy.. and I bought some cinder toffee too at which point the lady behind the counter proceeded to tell us the name for this that visitors from all over the world call it on a little piece of paper she had tucked away. So cute. After that we walked around taking in the cute little shops and the people who were coming in and out of them, was so nice. Eventually we ended up on the water front, which is their downtown.. can you imagine having your city centre next to the water? subhanallah.. amazing. We went to the underwater aquarium to see a lovely selection of fishes and underwater creatures. There was even a display at the end with a guy diving into the water and showing you all the different creatures down there, some were really ugly looking but it was nice to see... I remember when I went scuba diving at turtle island in Turkey, subhallah the world under the sea is amazing, the colours, the varieties, the feelings, I will never forget that insha'allah. So this was a nice sight to see... Afterwards we started to get a little hungry so I pointed out a chain restaurant 'the old spaghetti factory' not far from where we were cause I had been in the mood for italian since the night before. We got a seat eventually and had a really nice meal, soups, salads, main meal, ice cream & tea for like $30 between us... so we were equally impressed with that too. Then afte rthat we met up with Alixianna :) which was fun.. we had coffee together, then when it closed she took us on a little 'things the toursits dont see' tour of the nearby area. She showed us the parliament buildings all lit up, which we would have missed if she hadnt shown us, she took us into some hotel that she knew where you could walk up to the top and take in the views.. we were just amazed at this little petite figure taking us through the hotel without blinking an eye, that girl has had some life masha'allah.. was all very amusing though and we had so much fun, thanks alixianna for showing us a little of your world. Shame you couldnt make it Aalia :( We dropped her off on the bus (thanks for the present ;p) and walked back down to the hotel, was a long and tiring day, especially with all the walking.. but still Aminah found time to shower.. I was pooped and nodded off as soon as my head touched the pillow alhamdulillah.

Next day we were late for the ferry again and ended up taking the 12pm ferry back over, I slept all the way back I think hehee. We had intended on doing a few things in vancouver before our booked habour tour.. but it never happened unfortunately. We practically had to go straight to the boat after getting off the ferry, but it was ok... still taking everything in alhamdulillah. The tour was about an hour long.. it took us just out of the inner harbour and back again, there were 2 ladies sitting inside with us who actually slept for the majority of the journey, we were gobsmacked :) The sights were nice, although I have to say Im not really impressed with the skyline of Vancouver, toronto is much nicer masha'allah... on the tour we saw a bald eagle, and some little seals.. too cute masha'allah. This is me when we came off the boat... very tired :) but relaxed alhamdulillah. We drove over to our evening meal booking deciding what to do afterwards as we drove over, eventually found somewhere to park and walked over. We were super early so we stood inside a cinema and watched the world go by, was nice and amusing at the same time :) Time was there for food, which was really nice masha'allah and afterwards we drove over to Waves for just one more London fog (well for me anyways) before residing ourselves to going back to Ontario :( We dropped off the car and got a taxi to the airport... then it was time to say farewell to BC, we will miss you... insha'allah I would like to go back there, there was still so much stuff that I didnt get to see. Maybe Ill take hubby :) Allahu alim. Bye bye BC... and I slept the whole of the journey home cause the breakfast pancakes were disgusting!!!

So thats the end of my trip to Vancouver... insha'allah you enjoyed reading about some of the things I did as much as I enjoyed doing them. I look forward to my future trips around the world and about blogging about them afterwards insha'allah. Im going to pick up my developed film tomorrow (although I had the all put on discs) so maybe Ill post a few more after that insha'allah.
Peace and salams, Ammena