Taking the long-winded route

So it might not be surprising, but walking will not be my commute method of choice. The walk across the bridge wasn’t bad, about 20 minutes from my door to touching land on the other side, but the walk to the office was still a 20 minute or so walk from there, and while I don’t mind the walk, I think I would mind leaving early enough every morning to still get into work on time. I think it’ll still be a nice walk for some weekends.

The journey actually went something like this: safely arriving at the other side and then: “Well, that wasn’t bad! 20 minutes. So now… where the hell am I?? Oh, street names that aren’t on my map. That’s great.” So I chose a direction to walk in by instinct and knowing vaguely where I was and vaguely the direction of the office, ended up going down some random little streets before I was somewhere recognizable. Also, it is extremely windy today. Nice sunny day, but very windy. Here’s how windy:

And those narrow little streets formed some crazy wind tunnels, the kind that if I was walking against the wind it could literally stop me in my tracks, and at one point I was about to head down a staircase and I had this feeling like “if I lift up one foot to take the first step, I will lose all stability and the wind will knock me headfirst down this staircase” so I had to scooch over so I could be holding onto the wall before I started walking down.

Anyway, once I got to the office I figured that the whole walk of about 45 minutes was probably longer than it would have been if I’d known where I was going, so I tried to time myself from scratch on the way back deciding to head straight along the road from work to the harbour and then along the harbour to the bridge, rather than taking random roads. Well, that ended up being even longer, and I should have realized that because the bridge touches ground much farther inland than the harbour, so I would have had to backtrack anyway, and because the closest point of the harbour from the office involves walking around a whole bay to get back near the bridge. So once I got to the harbour and had walked along it for awhile (total tourist trap, by the way), I decided walking was not going to be my usual option and I’d already walked much farther than planned today, so I headed inland to take the bus back. And actually, on my way back I got my bearings enough to realize that while I hadn’t really known where I was going on the way to the office, I’d actually headed in about as much of a direct route as I could have so there probably wouldn’t be a shorter route. I also passed by the ferry stop which was almost a 20 minute walk from work, which means the train is still the most efficient means of travel.

And I’d been told that the Botannical Gardens are just a block from my office, and coming to the office from a different direction means I saw a bit more of its perimeter, and it looks really pretty. I was on a mission to time myself at the time, though, so I didn’t stop to really look in them, but that’ll mean more pictures for another day, and probably a nice place for me to eat my lunch most days.

Just some more photos from my walk across the bridge and a bit from the harbour on the other side:

This one just made me laugh - Sionna, if you by chance decide to visit me, you may have trouble getting around ;) (I also had to crop out the guy to the right of the sign who was looking at me like "Why the hell are you pointing that camera this way?" I thought he might not like his likeness published on the internet.)