Today was a pretty laid back Sunday. Ended up getting a late start, hitting the beaten path. One of the things I absolutely love about the city of Oslo, is that when you stand and look around you, it appears that you are in the heart of a huge city. But quite frankly, the city is really quaint and easy to navigate on foot to most of everything. We decided we would grab a quick bite, before heading towards the port.

Sundays in Olso, are pretty blah. Most stores and restaurants are closed. Although, it's not the best arrangement for the tourist, it's actually a great thing that the city does. The city shuts down and gives households time to be with their families. Now, obviously this could be a good or a bad thing, preferably good if you love your family (smile). I inquired about when most people shop and I was told, typically during the week after work, given most peole only work 7.5 hours and on Saturdays. Talk about cultural differences!

Despite my efforts in finding a nice vegan lunch, my failed attemps landing me at McDonald's eating French Fries (blank stare). My goal is to NEVER eat at American restaurants whenever I travel... honestly why would anyone eat that fast food stuff. So after realizing that I wasn't going to get anything decent before dinner, we proceeded to the port. The goal for the day was to catch a ferry and visit some of the local islands and see how the Norwegian's live in, around, and beyond the city limits.

To our surpise, the islands were beautiful. They were in prestine shape, I would probably say that was due to them being so small (some with less than 30 homes), that trasport infrastructure, outside of marine docks, were not present. Everyone walked the island to visit each other, attend the church and stop by the tiny stores on the island. The photo taken is of one of the larger islands. Wanted to show just how nice the island was with the nicely painted/themed homes. Now that appears to be life!

Typically, when people need to access the city, they will catch the ferry and cross the water (20 mins) to get into the city. I think I can dig the non-hustle and bustle of the city life and enjoy the seclusion of a small semi-private islands. Well unless I had a bad neighbor and then that was just be bad.