We are now full-time bus riders. After looking at all the options and deciding it wasn't worth the cost of shipping our car, and not wanting to pay for a Norwegian car if we do happen to only be here a year, the bus became our commuting option. Here is us on our first bus ride.
If you ever happen to be bus riders as we are don't ever make the mistake of looking up your route on google maps and comparing how long it takes to get to your destination in a car versus how long it will take you to get there on a bus. I hadn't thought much about how long places would take to get to in a car, just knew the time on a bus. Well one time I forgot to switch it to the bus option and noticed that, if we were in a car, it would take 20 minutes to get to the store we needed, but in reality it was going to take us 53 minutes on the bus! However, once you get past the initial planning of how early you need to leave and the total time it will take to go somewhere, it is actually quite enjoyable to ride the bus. You don't have to worry about traffic or turning on the wrong street. The view is beautiful and you get to see lots of different parts of the city. And it is quite relaxing when you're compelled to take time to just sit. Plus Lily doesn't mind the bus and sits still very well. (And most the time you can we just drive the stroller into the designated stroller section and sit down on the seats next to it while she rides in the stroller.)
On our way to church for the first time. We found it ironic that in Baltimore we drove people who didn't have cars to church almost every week, and now we are the ones on the bus or asking for rides.
Just one good story before I finish. Now it would be boring to talk about the successful bus trips we've had, which is 98% of the time. We did make it to Ikea and back in the rain with a large amount of stuff and although long, it worked out flawlessly. Well, one day we decided to make the journey to Coop obs! since everyone told us that is the closest thing we would find to Wal-mart and where we could probably get the final things on our list we hadn't been able to find anywhere else. So we looked up what bus stop to get off on and found that it was right across the street from the stop and not too far of a ride. Just before the bus stop we passed a Coop obs Bygg and assumed that was it. We had been warned that there were all types of Coops (they do that a lot here) and the different names meant a different store. Coop prix: mini market, Coop Bygg: hardware store, Coop Mega: bigger food store, etc. Anyway, we walk to the store and it was just the hardware store. I was really confused since we had both separately looked up the location and it said "obs" in the title! And since we don't have phone service right now we couldn't look at our GPS or the website. I was pretty frustrated! We decided to just get back on the bus and ride 35 minutes back home. We immediately looked at the route when we got home and we had been right next to the correct Coop! We had walked the wrong direction and just assumed we had the wrong one rather than looking around for a different store. And we should have just asked the clerks... but we still had Norwegian anxiety, ha ha. Later that night I told my mom the story and she asked, "Didn't you have a map of the city and the address with you to make sure you got there?" Ha ha, well no. I guess our digital generation forgets that we can find places without our phones! Duh! Mom, thanks for the lesson on how you should really get around the city, ha ha.
Luckily, people in the ward are very helpful and although it was a week and half after I wanted our stuff, I eventually got a ride to the Coop Obs! we had been right next to and was able to load up on a ton of stuff because we had a car! Wahoo!
In Norway everyone looks at you like you're crazy when you buy half this much stuff, but in America this would be a normal Costco shopping day. Needless to say, I felt SO much more settled when this big trip was done. And extra happy we didn't have to carry it on the bus.
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