After about a month now, I've found that on foot it takes 7 minutes to the COOP, 10 minutes to our Cafe Spoon, and 15 minutes to Jimmy's Marina Restaurant.
I have never walked as much or have never rode public transit as much as I have in the last month here in Sweden than in my twenty-nine years at home in Canada. It's one thing to go for a walk to end up at a grocery store or a cafe or a restaurant, but to use transit when I know I have a vehicle or two waiting for me at home, just plain blows.
The tram and train are tolerable. Since one station is close to our current home, it's convenient and pleasant enough as it doesn't smell as much as the Skytrain. The buses are incorrigible, however, with its routes in code and drivers unhelpful, to say the least. It's squishy, sometimes stinky, with frozen zombie passengers. What happened to good humor and plain old fashion sense?
Thankfully, God placed our new home where Miss C-Jaz and I can enjoy our daily walks, weather permitting, along the canal passing several playgrounds. We easily find ourselves ending up at the COOP or our cafe or the marina restaurant.
I get that many people don't have a choice and for some transit is the most cost-effective option. I'm not spoiled, but I've been privileged to have two parents who sacrificed so much and who did all they could to give me the opportunity to be able to drive.
It's a new week, with the weekend behind us. I'm a smidge closer to going home where I can drive 7 mintues to Safeway, 2 minutes to Starbucks, and 20 minutes to the Boathouse.
