Remember Victoria? | July 2021 #Shorts

Every so often we go digging through our old camera roll and stumble on a clip that stops us mid-scroll — and that's exactly what happened with this one. "Remember Victoria?" wasn't even supposed to be a real post, more like a caption we texted each other, but the second we watched the footage back we knew we had to share it properly. July 2021 feels like a lifetime ago now, but this little short brought all of it rushing back.

If you've been following us for a while, you know British Columbia holds a special place in our travel story. We'd already fallen hard for Vancouver and Stanley Park, and honestly, we thought nothing on that trip could top biking along the seawall with the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. Then we hopped on the ferry to Vancouver Island, and Victoria completely rewrote our expectations.

There's something about Victoria that feels like stepping into a different country altogether. The architecture leans heavily British — think the Empress Hotel, the Parliament Buildings lit up at dusk, afternoon tea services that make you sit up a little straighter — but it's wrapped in that unmistakable West Coast Canadian ease. Samantha kept saying it reminded her of a smaller, quieter version of a European old town, while Amir was more interested in tracking down the best fish and chips near the Inner Harbour (he found one, and it did not disappoint).

What this Short doesn't fully capture is just how much we packed into those couple of days. If you want the full story — the whale watching, the orcas breaching close enough to soak our jackets, the walk through Butchart Gardens that neither of us were prepared to be that moved by — we actually documented the whole thing in our Victoria Island and Orca Adventure vlog. Watching these two clips side by side is a good reminder of how differently a 30-second Short and a full travel video can tell the same story.

Looking back at July 2021 specifically also just hits different. That was a strange, cautious summer for a lot of people, and travel meant something different than it does now. We remember feeling almost giddy just to be somewhere new, masks in our pockets, checking local guidelines before every restaurant stop. There was a kind of gratitude baked into that trip that maybe we didn't fully appreciate until we rewatched the footage years later. It's funny how a single vertical clip can carry that much context if you know where to look for it.

A few practical notes for anyone inspired to plan their own Victoria trip: the ferry ride over from the mainland (either from Tsawwassen or via Swartz Bay depending on your route) is worth treating as part of the experience, not just a means to an end — grab a coffee, stand out on the deck, and watch for eagles. Downtown Victoria is extremely walkable, so you honestly don't need a car if you're staying central. And if you're the kind of couple who likes documenting your trips the way we do, the light around the Inner Harbour in the early evening is unbeatable for photos — we still have a soft spot for how our shots turned out compared to some of the other cities we've tried to capture, including our attempts back in Toronto and beyond.

We also can't talk about revisiting old travel footage without acknowledging how much our approach to trip planning has evolved as an interracial, cross-cultural couple. Some of what we've learned about compromising on itineraries, food choices, and pacing when you're blending two very different backgrounds is something we go into more in Traveling as an Interracial Couple — What We've Learned. Victoria was actually an easy trip in that regard — turns out we both agree that a good seafood dinner and a slow morning walk beat a jam-packed itinerary every time.

Re-watching this Short reminded us why we started documenting our travels in the first place. It's not really about the views, though Victoria has plenty of those — it's about having a way to time-travel back into a version of a trip, and a version of us, that we don't want to forget. Five years from now we'll probably be making a "Remember [insert 2026 trip here]?" Short about whatever we're doing today, and that's kind of the whole point.

If you haven't already, go watch the full clip on YouTube here: Remember Victoria? | July 2021 #Shorts

Thanks so much for reading and watching along with us. If you enjoyed this throwback, we'd love for you to join the KhelaMeetsWorld family:

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