Day two - ouch

So, like any big city around the world, if the public transportation infrastructure works, there's no need for a car. Jan lives in the city, his walk to work takes 10 minutes. He walks everywhere and when he needs to go further, he takes a bus/train/taxi.

I'm spoiled. I don't walk anywhere, I jump in my car and go wherever I need to. I don't think about distance, I just go. So when he said we could easily walk to downtown Oslo, I really should've thought about that little fact.

If you ask him, I complained the whole way. If you ask me, I didn't complain nearly as much as I could've. :p

Like I said to him, keep in mind I'm coming off of a flyball tournament (sore), am fat, old and out of shape and I'm used to walking to the next room or to the car. Sad but true.

We walked to what they call downtown and saw a few famous sites. We walked up to the King's castle (Norwegian castles aren't like what you see in movies apparently - get rid of the old Irish or English stone architecture with lots of turrets and stuff mental image - it's a big rectangular building. Think business building with a few touches of grandeur. We walked to a pier, saw a few ferries, saw lots of people having lunch at outdoor cafes, saw lots of stores.

BTW, they don't have stores like Walmart here. If you need food, you go to the food store. If you need towels, you go to a housewares store, clothes, a clothes store, etc., etc. To run errands that we would normally go to a Walmart/Target/etc. and do one stop shopping doesn't exist here.

I think that would totally tax my planning capabilities to the max. No one stop shopping?!?! Ugh. I'm so spoiled.

All in all we had a really good day - spent a lot of time walking around in the warm spring weather (3 hours to be precise, not a short jaunt), looking around, did a tiny bit of shopping, people watched and if you ask him, complained. :p

D