Let's Go to the Thrift Store! - with your tour guide, Tikiwahine!

Greetings!

Yesterday I decided to take all of you with me on my daily thrift store route. Via photographs, I will take you on a strange and mysterious journey three blocks to my thrift store, which normally brings forth a bevy of tiki treasure. Not today, unfortunately. Which is why this post is in 'beyond' tiki.

First off, This is the view from my office windows. For those that don't know, I run a mail order department and web site out of a small office in the classroom/gallery area of a quilt shop. It's located in an outdoor courtyard called Market Square.(my desk is located to the right of this photograph, behind a large quilted backdrop at the moment)

They are just setting up the main stage for the Latin Carribean Festival, 10 feet from my desk, which will run for the next week.

There's this great sign I spotted today, it reads "Market Square has a zero tolerance level for drugs(including marijuana)". That tells you a little about how relaxed people are up here, many don't even consider pot a drug.(it's a herb, man!)

Next we come to Goodfellas Cigar shop. Note 'Cuban cigars' on their sign, this place is right next door to the quilt shop, so anytime I have a hankering for the other type of fatty....

Right across the street is Swan's Pub, hotel and brewery. Great beers, great food. They always do their window boxes up so nicely in the summertime.

Looking back before I cross the street are some pretty Victorian buildings on the west side of Market Square.

Across from the pub in the other direction is the Janion Hotel, a creepy sort of place, it's been boarded up for a very long time.

A little further along we come to a shop selling scooters, man these things are hot right now!

Across the street again is the Street Link Emergency Shelter, all sorts of interesting people usually hang about over there.

Crossing the street I look up Fizgard to the Gates of Harmonious Interest, and Chinatown which flanks both sides. All sorts of neat stuff to see up there. Our Chinatown is the oldest in Canada, if not North America and is home to underground smuggling tunnels, former opium dens and the smallest alley in the world(seen in the movie 'Bird on a Wire')

Almost there, we come to Chintz and Company. Smack dab between the streetlink and Value Village, it's a super posh fancy schmancy furniture store where you can get leopard print or leather ANYTHING!

Right across from Value Village is a Rattan shop, I will be checking it out in further detail when I'm in need of some furniture for the home bar.

And here we are at the Value Village.

The only thing of interest today was a fabulous Conquistador print, I could not leave without photographing it.

I hope you've enjoyed my little tour of Victoria(or three blocks of it anyhow) Here's hoping your daily trips are full of mugs and goodies!

That was like a day in the life of Tikiwahine! Great fun! This is the first time I recall anyone documenting their surroundings in such detail!

our pals at Conquistador Central will be saddened you didnt pick up that painting to trade.

pretty island you got there TW...

Alas, I cannot tell a lie. Fish took some great shots of an adventure of hers last winter, streets buildings and such, it was neat to see!

JEEZEE! wish you'd posted these sooner! I walked right by your store when I was in victoria a couple months ago! (probably on more than one occasion...) If I had only know a TC'er was only steps away....

oh well.. I guess I'll just have to make due with meeting you tomorrow.. :wink:

Cool post wahine. Now if I ever wake up in your office in a drunken stupor, I will at least be able to stumble to the thrift store and buy a conquistador painting, and then ride home on my new scooter when i sober up. Cool. Thanks the post babe.

More posts like these, Journeys into the land of thrift.

That Janion Hotel looks awesome! I can't believe nobody's turned that into a loft.

My uncle had that same conquistador painting!! He also had a rockin' tiki basement bar, the "junk" contents of which he left to me, so I guess it was worth looking at orange and yellow conquistadores for!

Those window boxes and hanging flowers totally give it away as Victoria, so beautiful.

I'll bet the big fat purple cat store next to Value Village isn't as exciting as it may seem. The next time I'm in Victoria, I'm definitely going to the 'Anything in leopard print' store! Thanks for the mini tour!

I'm dying to explore Janion Hotel!

Come on Wahine! Go inside and take pics.....!

You know, Tangaroa, there could be ghosts in there.

High Quality post.

Thank You

Tang, one of my brothers has been inside while on a special heritage assignment, but it's very hard to get in to. If it's ever fixed up I'll post an 'after' shot. Homeless like to break in, but I think it's pretty secure these days.

An elderly lady owns the place and she won't sell it, however I believe it was for lease recently.

It's prime waterfront property, worth millions. It's on one side of our Johnson Street Bridge, on the other side of the bridge is an equally cool boarded up building.

Wahine - you need to study this site thoroughly:
http://www.infiltration.org/

Memorize it, break in & get back to me....

In specific reference to the Janion building and the woman who owns it:

"As for Victoria, I've heard stories that tunnel entrances are located throughout the city, and some of these are to be found in old abandoned buildings. Three of these are owned by the same woman (a bit crazy after all these years, so the story goes). Apparently, her husband was a major developer during the early years of the last century. He was denied a business license by the city, and so decided to spite council by leaving the buildings to his wife with strict instructions that they remain boarded up and inaccessible after his death. That was over 50 years ago, and everyone I know who has grown up in Victoria says that the buildings have been sealed for as long as they can remember. They are beautiful structures and are of great historical significance"

From the Infiltration Forums: Under the Garden City: Victoria B.C. secret tunnels.

From a web site I worked on:

"Here, behind dark, dreary stores are darker, drearier rooms where crowds of Chinese can be accommodated at night; and behind these again are shacks and hovels... the theater is a large, barrack-like place, reached through several alleys... The police raid these haunts (gambling dens) periodically; and quite recently they were led throughout the length of an entire block in pursuit of a number of flying queues whose owners had not been quite quick enough in making their escapes.
Underneath Chinatown is a perfect maze of secret passages designed for the escape of the white and yellow gamblers... Since the Chinese own all the land on which they build, the authorities can do nothing to prevent this burrowing, with all its dangerous possibilities."

Source: "The Chinatown in British Columbia," Chamber's Journal, June 10, 1911. 440-441.

Pardon my ramblings, I just spotted this!(in the same post thread mentioned above) It refers to a building across the street from the quilt shop. This building caught fire last night, flames lept 40' above the roofline, we were quite concerned about the rest of Chinatown.(not to mention smoke damage to the fabric and quilts)

"Then there's the newly exposed building next to the old parking lot besides Swans Hotel. Apparently, this building is used as a squat and shooting gallery (beware of contaminated hypodermics!!! wear steel-toed boots) is filled with secret escape holes. The building is very old...one of the city's earliest brick structures, and that some of the walls have false doors or hidden doors that lead to escape routes that connect to other parts of the building. I met a guy who's been in this building (only during the daylight hours as the place scares this shit out of him at night) and he might be willing to lead an expedition through the parts with which he is familiar."

Thanks MM, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Ohhhhhh! Now you GOTTA go, Wahine!!!!!!!

I must see the inside! Do it at night - with infared goggles if possible......

I'm serious!

Thanks for showing us your hood. I swear though if we had a rattan store ANYWHERE near us we would be in there so much that they would think we were squatters. You lucky lady.
GO on a photo shoot inside there too!