My dear ladies and gentlemen, I, Ms. Anna Demyanik, am one step closer to being Dutch.
I have a bike!
Last night, after enjoying the Man U game and the company of international students, I was walking home with Maria and Hans, when a homely-looking man on a bike approached us coughing something at us. Hans, bless his heart and as you know, speaks Dutch and translated that the man was selling the bike. He offered the bike for 20 Euro; a price far too high for any savvy student to actually accept, we got 10. But first I wanted to try it.
Now, while the Dutch are beautiful, especially with their amazing height, but that means that their bikes have that extra little bit and this particular bike was a guy's bike to boot. I tried. I was too short. We told the man, sorry, but the bike doesn't work.
How does this man respond? By telling us, wait, wait, I'll be back in within a quarter of an hour. Thus, we agree and stand, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the street. All of a sudden Hans shouts out that he wants a bike too and runs down the street the man rode off on. Maria and I wait some more--and within five minutes, the man shows up--with a decent women's bike! 10 Euro!
The seat's pure old plastic, the brakes work, the speed shifter doesn't, yet I have elastic rope to hold packages in the back and a little seat to transport people--which I did right away. (Sorry Maria my skills aren't up to par just yet)
It's the most magical piece of welded metal ever!
Lastly, I wanted you all to really understand the crazy bike culture here and here is a close substitute, so check out this blog:
http://copenhagengirlsonbikes.blogspot.com/
3 comments:
That's great that you finally have a bike! You must feel proud. But I must say that a guy stolling down the street in the middle of the night, while selling a bike, is quite odd. Then again, you are in the Netherlands. It is Europe.
-Sasha
Alex is totally right. I would have been a little freaked out to have someone come up to me in the middle of the night and offer a bike. Alright, on the other hand, now you fit in. the web site is really cool, I enjoyed it! And it was really nice to see you, even on a bike, at least seeing your face, was really a blessing. Enjoy the bike, and we’ll need to go biking when you get back, that will be a little out of character for you, at least as far as people know you here, but change is good, and this’ll be fun (wink). Sending you my love!!!
I know! Me biking! Ha. That's alright, I still do it in heels and a dress. Please, nothing keeps me down.
Post a Comment