There's one big thing that separates Mama and me on holiday. I like to walk and she, unsurprisingly, doesn't. On top of everything, St Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm are pretty compact towns, so they're ideal for walking.

One reason why I like walking is because you can see everything from where you are to where you want to be. You can take your time, and detour whenever something takes your fancy. You can take pictures to your heart's content, and not have to rush to take one through a window. You are on holiday, after all - make the most of it.

Secondly, this is the only real exercise I'm getting at the moment. I'm not going for morning jogs, I'm not working out at the gym, I'm walking. At the moment, every week, I spend three or four days walking at least five kilometers, usually more.

Thirdly, I believe that only way you really get to know a place is to get lost a little in it and wander around, and you can't easily do this on public transport. But when you're walking, you can easily take a wrong turning on purpose just to see where it leads you.

Lastly, walking's free.

Actually, the truth is that once I know a place, walking to and fro kind of loses it's appeal a little, so if it wasn't for the fact that it's one way of saving money, I probably wouldn't do it so much.

Mama, on the other hand, has money, has shorter legs than me and is not good at walking long distances if she's not being distracted by something (like shopping). I'm terrible to her sometimes, and I feel bad for not trying harder with the public transport.

Lesson learnt: When travelling with somebody else, make sure that both arrange beforehand exactly how much walking we are going to do in a day.

Labels: big trip