Okay, so when the alarm went off I was NOT a happy camper. Stupid guy, talking to me and keeping me up. We went through the arduous process of getting to Victoria. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, found on Vancouver Island. It took an hour and a half to get to the ferry, an hour and a half on the ferry and then another hour on another bus into the city of Victoria. We had a great time talking about travelling in Victoria and confusing people.
Anyway...we only had 4 hours in Victoria so we had to get crackin'! We walked through Chinatown and took a few snaps, and then went to Market Square, a building containing various shops and nooks and crannies. Unfortunately this put us into a browsing mood and so we spent far too much of our very limited time wandering and browsing through shops. One shop in particular was very, very cool. In it were all the t-shirts we could think of. Teenage mutant ninja turtles, care bears, astroboy....STRONG BAD!!!! It was awesome! They had The Cheat, Homestar Runner, Little Brudda and even Teen Girl Squad!! Sorry to those who don't know what I'm talking about, but just accept that these are very cool. Consequently I had to purchase two of these said shirts. You'll just have to figure out through photos which ones.
We walked around the city for a while, had a look at the Parliament Buildings and a cool set of stairs for people to ring bells at special time.
Next, we went off to the Bug Zoo. They had loads of really cool bugs and we spent quite a while in there, looking at stick insects, butterflies, mantids, millipedes, scorpions....and even tarantulas. There was a huge bird eating spider in a tank which I squatted down next to for a photo (shitting myself though). Then a chick came through to do a tour. What does she do? She pulls out one of the freaking tarantulas and holds it in her hand. I start perspiring and having palpitations. Then.....she asked if anybody wanted to hold her (her name is Nora). I vaguely heard myself say that I would. Here I was, staring my biggest fear in the face.
I instantly started sweating at a furious rate and started shaking. The girl looked at me and asked if I was sure. I wanted to back out, my body was screaming at me to back out, but I applied the regret test and knew that I couldn't.
*For those that don't know the regret test: Ask yourself two questions: 'Am I going to regret doing this?' Then, 'am I going to regret NOT doing this?' Best way to decide something you're uncertain about*
My hands were unsteady and the girl had to help spread out my hands so that the tarantula would be comfortable. COMFORTABLE??? Well, I guess I don't want it to be upset....
She placed it in my hands and it was like everything was in slow motion. My hands were shaking, my heart was pounding and I was slowly being overcome by a vicious feeling of nausea. Sarah snapped a couple of shots, and then the girl took the spider off me because I was shaking too much.
I instantly started to cry and couldn't breathe. I had to sit down because I was hyperventilating, and it took all my concentration to slow my breathing down - mind you, this took a couple of minutes. Sarah was so wonderful, she cried with me because she could see what a life-defining moment this was for me. All the other people were staring at me, partly baffled that I was experiencing such a strong reaction (and put myself in the situation), but also telling me that I was really brave, and partly shielding their children from me.
After I calmed down they passed around a scorpion, which I thought was MUCH nicer to hold. This COMPLETELY baffled the others, because nobody else wanted to hold the scorpion. This completely baffled me. As if a scorpion is scarier!!
So....just typing about this is making my palms sweat, but I am so glad that I did it. I know that many of you will have a good appreciation to just how huge this step was for me, at least the fam will - you've put up with my screaming panic attacks over the smallest spiders. I did it. I held a freaking tarantula.
After we did that I really had to have some chocolate. We essentially got back onto the ferry and I tried to relax. Got back into Vancouver, and had to have a quick shower because I was meeting up with Kinga. Or should I say, James. I went to college with James, and I hadn't seen him in well over 5 years. He has been in Vancouver the past few weeks, so we met up for a few drinks.
I had a really nice night, just chatting with James and his brother Mick. Had a few cocktails, and watched Ash Grunwald for $8. Nice night. However, this unfortunately meant that I, yet again, was going to get less than 4 hours sleep (incoherent grumbling). I was just hoping that Seattle was going to be worth the trouble!
Vancouver Island photos
