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I was woken up by some construction that was taking place across the street. Some sort of new complex was being put up and this pile driver just kept droning on, and on, and on..
The time change also factored in as well. Since I was moving from EDT to PST, my internal clock was four hours off, so when I woke up at half-past seven, I actually was waking up at half-past eleven. So that was actually quite normal for me.
Registration for the tournament wasn't until six in the afternoon, so I had the entire day to myself seeing as nobody from the team was supposed to arrive until later in the day. Seeing as Victoria is a small city, and our hotel was situated near the downtown core, I decided to go for a walk around town.
I wanted to look for an internet café and some place for breakfast since the buffet food in the restaurant at the inn didn't look all too palatable. I headed out, and eventually had breakfast at a little restaurant downtown by the name of Growlies. Along the way, I passed by Chinatown (which was tiny) and noticed that there were a lot of stores that were selling fireworks. There was even one store devoted to just fireworks! I was quite surprised since the next firework legal event here in Canada is Victoria day, half a year away (Canada day and Labour day are the other two legal days).
Maybe they were catering to the American tourists? Perhaps BC has their own special firework day? *shurg* I never did ask.
One of the main reasons I wanted to wander around downtown was to check out the Russian sub that they had docked by the wharf. It was a Foxtrot class attack sub code named: Cobra. It took me a while to find it. It was tucked in a tiny nook where one would not normally pass by. The tour of the sub was self guided. They gave you a map of the thing and sent you in. There were prerecorded messages in each part of the sub which had this guy speaking with a Russian accent guuiding you through the ship. The sub was stripped of course, although I was a little dissapointed that they cut off access to a fair number of the ship's compartments (namely the lower deck). Oh well, it was only ten bucks, and I spent the better part of an hour in there. Man, subs are definitely not designed for tall (or normal sized) people. *rubs sore forehead*
I was also to grab some cheap postcards and stamps to send off to people. In the same store, I saw that they were selling some Tilley hats. Curious, I checked the price. Eighty-five bucks? For a hat?!? Holy crap! I wonder how much a coat would cost? I put the hat down very quickly.
I wandered around the rather quiet downtown and checked out some of the sights, the chimes (I forgot the name), the parliament buildings, and the museum. I figured that I would have more time later to explore so I only make a cursory check of these tourist spots.
The last part of my mission (after making a phone call home) was to find an internet café. I had asked the waitress at Growlies if she knew of one and she told me that there was one nearby and gave me directions. I couldn't find it. After the Russian sub experience, I looked up the café in the phone book and went to that address. The place was tiny! (It was actually only a stairwell that you could see from the street. The café itself was located down in the basement. Unfortunately, it was closed. For good. There was no sign out front, and the gate was locked (which would explain why I couldn't find it the first time). How unfortunate.
I decided to head back after that. I wanted to fill out those post cards and see if anyone had arrived yet. I did notice that the city at this time of year was very quiet. Even the downtown core was much like one of those northern Ontario cities where (the thirteen) people (all named Frank) never seem to be in a rush, and one can walk around and enjoy the (usually cloudy) weather. It was quite relaxing actually. No wonder why it's suh a touristy/retiremently sort of town.
I passed by a small animé store by the name of.. Wacky Willies? There wasn't much in there. Well, they had the usual Sailor Moon, DBZ, and Eva stuff. They even had RK stuff there too! Not too much interesting unfortunately except for the Eva models.
After I made it back to the hotel, I found out that some of the team had already arrived. We went out for drinks and wings before heading out to get registered. GM, who's our coach, asked me if I had any insurance since you needed insurance before you were allowed to sign up. Uhh.. insurance? *looks around* Fortunately, they seemed to overlook it when I was signing the waiver forms..
I bumped into Mr. Broomball at the armoury (where we were being registered) and introduced him to some of my teammates. They didn't seem all too interested in him. (Remember this for later.)
While we were filling out our registration forms (signing our life away and such), I took a peek at the birthdates of some of my teammates. 1961? 1966?!? Oi, these guys are old! Geez, and they're still playing broomball? (I thought I was starting to get old.) Oh well, they told me that they were good, so why shouldn't I believe them? (Besides, Mr. Broomball is good, and he's getting up there..)
Oh yeah, I was warned by a couple of the team members that they were a party team. I didn't realize exactly what they meant until later..
Afterward, I think I went to sleep.
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