Andrei and I celebrated 3 years of marriage yesterday! Life has definitely changed a lot, especially thanks to a certain little person.
For a fun "adventure," we took the bus into nearby Amherst, MA. It is actually a lot like my hometown, similar enough that I never go there, which at the same time means I've barely explored it at all.
Since we don't drive, we decided to use public transportation. In St. Petersburg there are a multitude of transportation options and they come every 10-20 minutes (more or less). And in this case it was one bus that came once an hour, though that might be just the summer schedule. Anyway, while we like public transportation, we would have to be pretty organized to use it around here, in order to be at the bus stop on the hour. When we were ready to go back we had just missed a bus, so had to wait about 40 minutes, and then the trip back took about 90 minutes. We didn't mind because we are used to a commute, and it was pretty comfortable to be able to just sit and read (or nap in one person's case) while in traffic. In St. Petersburg there aren't usually seats available, especially during rush hour, so it can be pretty tiring.
After lunch at a "Mediterranean" place, we explored a local bookstore and even made a few purchases. It is nice to support a local business even though I mostly read on my Kindle. And it earned Andrei's seal of approval. :) It was fun to be in a college town again after living in a big city where everything is so impersonal and spread out. Sometimes I miss the small town "character," if you know what I mean.
We still have some more adventures up our sleeve, even being halfway through our summer travels.
Happy Anniversary again! Sounds like a lovely day - we celebrated in a similar fashion with lunch and then hunted through huge shelves of books at a second hand shop :)
ReplyDelete:) I bought something just for fun, but suitcase space is limited! I do love having hard copies, though.
DeleteHere in Michigan public transportation is absolutely hopeless. We'd moved from Portland Oregon where the public transportation is tremendous! So, we just presumed Craig could ride the bus to work when we first moved here....but to be extra careful, his first day he left maybe an hour and a half earlier than he thought he'd need to. He still got to work two hours late! Suffice to say, we worked out use of the car for both of us after that!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Amherst must have a lot of history! Sounds wonderful!
I'm impressed that you read on your Kindle. I thought I might read on my tablet, but frankly, I've been hesitant....too hesitant to actually purchase a book. I did try downloading some obscure Victorian novel that was free, but I couldn't get into it. I guess I should really try reading a book I want to read before I judge.
Amherst hosts the Emily Dickinson Homestead, among other things! And it is a college town, like ours.
DeleteI wish the U.S. would focus more on public transportation, with all our concerns about the environment! But I know the infrastructure would need to be redone. I also wish St. Petersburg would have a better tram line and things like that.
I'm pretty frugal and download free books a lot for Kindle. Some are trash but you can also get a lot of the classics, have you checked that out? Many wonderful books.
in large cities, travel by local bus can be very tedious
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