I haven’t had the opportunities to travel much in my life, but there are a few amazing trips that I’ve been fortunate to go on. The fist being a beautiful week long vacation that my girlfriend and I took to Victoria in the fall of 2019. It was my first time ever to Victoria and I absolutely loved everything about it. We stayed in a hotel in the heart of downtown, explored the beautiful coastline, the amazing pieces of nature and parks around the city, and the various shops and cafes that spotted the downtown core. But the greatest part for me was the rich beautiful history that the city holds, every inch of the city was steeped in beautiful amounts of history and culture. As a history major and a lover of Victorian history getting to explore such scenic and historically rich areas of the city was absolutely amazing.
The one that stuck out to me the most was our tour of Craig Darroch, a Victorian-era Scottish Baronial mansion built by Robert Dunsmuir, a canadian politician and industrialist. The site was rich with history telling about the castle’s uses since it was built as a mansion, a staple of wealth, a school, a hospital, and finally a historic site. As well as the history of the ever evolving Victoria, BC and Canada itself. The castle also offered an amazon view of the city and the sprawling ocean side views. We also got the chance to experience the Royal BC Museum, which was a beautiful experience! Though I know there has been a lot of controversy around the museum’s representation and connections with the indigenous communities. Overall I absolutely loved visiting Victoria and seeing all the amazing historical and important sites to Canada’s history. It is definitely a place that I would love to visit again in the future, and who knows perhaps one day I will take a class of budding historians to visit our province’s capital for their first adventure there!