Finding my Way Around!

 Being in a new town has it's challenges, if its far from where you used to live. You don't have any bearings. If you don't drive, like me, you have to learn how to use public transportation.

I'm not complaining, it's actually been kind of fun. First, seeing new places, and figuring out how to get where you want to go. And there are lots of places to go around here!

The town kind of reminds me of Waltham back home. There are lots of big buildings and triple decker houses in the city area.  There are churches everywhere you look, and they are huge beautiful structures.

I'm impressed by the number of malls they have around here, and how the bus system can take to to almost every place you would want to shop. You just have to learn how to transfer. The buses don't always overlap in a way that you can transfer without waiting too long, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard. The fare is only $1.25, instead of $2.00 back home. I finally got my hands on a hard-copy schedule, and it's so informative and detailed I'd have to be an idiot to screw up my trips now! I do rely on Google a lot to see how to get to places, but often the directions part that says when the next bus is coming doesn't work.  At home I used to have apps that told when my MBTA bus was coming in real time. I don't think they have that here, but I haven't really looked yet. For the most part, the buses are on time, which is great!

The other benefit is I'm lucky I can catch the bus going in either direction just by crossing the street from our new home. You can't get much more convenient than that. You can flag it down and it stops, as long as you aren't too close to an intersection. They don't have that many "official" stops, so when you use Google directions, you have to punch in the closest stop as your current location instead of where you really are and do the math.

The only bad thing I can say is, I must look old with my mask and cap on. They keep thinking I should be paying the senior citizen fare! Not that I'm offended, but I don't think I look that old!!

This is a view of across the street from my porch. I stand a little further down, and hopefully the neighbors don't come out and offer me a ride, or I don't annoy someone's dog. So far, so good! I still want to pursue my driver's license, but until I do, at least I'm savvy!