If Canadian towns were TV shows, the village of Victoria in Prince Edward Island would probably be Cheers -- stay there long enough and everybody knows your name.
And depending on where you stay, one of the village's 120 or so locals who will know your name is Stephen Hunter, a chef-turned-inn-keeper at the Victoria Village Inn.
"When I bought the place, I was a chef. Now I'm a chef who can do a little plumbing, a little carpentry and a little electrical, although I kind of leave the electrical alone because I don't want to burn the place down," jokes Hunter.
Hunter has owned the inn -- one of Victoria's two bed and breakfasts -- for the last 12 years but the building's history runs deeper than that.
Created 140 years ago, the inn is one of Victoria's first buildings, built by a sea captain who owned a fleet of schooners docked by the nearby harbour. Its history has earned it a designation as one of Canada's historic places, one of the building's definitive characteristics marked by a blue circular plaque adorned just outside of the entrance.
The designation is a source of pride for Hunter but it's not the village's main attraction. That would have to be the village's legacy as a whole.
"The feeling and the heart of the community is in the heritage. The identity of Victoria is in the buildings that have been here for generations. People come and go from the buildings but the heart of the village still feels the same and that hasn't changed."
Getting lost in Victoria, PEI is near impossible. It's laid out in a grid and to walk through all four of the village's blocks takes no more than 20 minutes.
"It's very culturally dense here and I know it is in other places, but all the things I love about Canada I can find in one little area, says Hunter. "I know it's hard to believe you can find that in four square blocks but people here are from other places across Canada and they bring their ideas and you get a little of everything."
The Huffington Post Canada Travel made the trip to Victoria by the Sea in PEI and chatted with Stephen over coffee. To see more of what makes the Victoria Village Inn special, check out the video above.
This series is part of the Great Canadian Road Trip. Road transportation made possible thanks to Nissan Canada.
Brian Trinh is the Huffington Post Canada's travel/ video editor. He's currently on a cross-Canada road trip with freelance journalist Talia Ricci. You can follow their adventures here or check out their Twitter and Instagram pages below.
