I am walking in sunshine (after working)

Yesterday it was a sunny break between rainy days in Kristiansand, and I headed downtown to say "hello" to the sea.

On my way I see traffic jams for the first time here. This must be because I finally learned to leave work at 3.30 PM, like many Norwegians do. I am surprised how lively the city is at 4-5 PM. Many people are sitting in the sun eating Kroneis, which was half-price(only 10 NOK)yesterday. The benches are all occupied, and the cafes are packed as well. From where I go, the only strangely "dying" place seems to be H&M, which for some reason is removing clothes from the shelves and packing them into boxes.

There is a lot of action going on at the seaside. Loud music tempts me to come closer, and I see nearly 100 people in lycra jumping around someone, who looks like a coach. From the posters next to them it appears that this is a free summer training, organised in Kristiansand by Friskis&Svettis for 10 years already. The training takes place every Monday and Thursday at 7 PM, regardless of the weather. It seems really fun, especially in the sunshine, so I plan to join next time for some "participatory observation." An interesting fact, though, is that an absolute majority of participants are women. In addition to the coach, there is only one extra man taking part.

Maybe men in Kristiansand prefer more independent physical activities? I come up to such a hypothesis when I see around 10 young men playing frisbee on another green patch. Hmm... probably the independent men are the ones I should join after all?

There are many more people at the seaside, who are not doing sports, but just hanging out together, talking, smoking, or having barbecues. Feeling quite hungry, I move further from these ones.

I sit on the stairs leading to the sea, and start looking through a free magazine I picked up in one shop. It is called Absolutt and claims to be about culture. The main topic of this issue is that Kristiansand is a city of possibilities, and that everything is getting better and better here. Decide to check what's on in the coming weeks, but when I get to the section, it appears that the magazine is for the months of February, March and April... It feels annoying to find out that the information you are looking at is out of date already.

Distributing a magazine about city's cultural life seems a good idea to me. Both local people and newcomers can pick it up and have a brief introduction of what's going on. However, it seems essential to keep information up to date. What is more, the magazine is only in Norwegian, which seems very tourist-unfriendly.

After ten minutes of sitting in one place I find myself surrounded by four kinds of birds: swans, seagulls, sparrows and pigeons. Not only I don't have any food for them, but I am starving myself. Time to leave the sunshine and get some dinner.

On the way home I have to pass Shalams Brukthandel and, as I already wrote before, you can buy the most amazing things in that shop. This time in the window I see a statuette of a dead seagull! I can't believe my own eyes, so I have to stop and look more closely. No doubt! It is laying on its back, the wings are spread and the legs are convulsively pressed to the stomach. Only 45 NOK - if interested, it may still be there today.