Does anyone else feel like time flies in this game?

Just in the process of buying/selling/doing inventory management/looking for trainers, it seems like I'll blink and everything will be closed. So I wait until dawn, start doing administrative junk again and all of the sudden it's 8 p.m. and everything is closed. Granted I'm new at the game, so I'm reading item descriptions and analyzing how I want to spend my early game gold and skill points, etc. Spend a lot of time wandering around looking for trainers. I pause as much as I can, but I've been shopping for three days now on my first visit to Sturmgard.

I feel like in MMVI-VIII you could do all your business in town and check the time and go, "Oh! Not even noon yet! Plenty of time to do some farming!"