Bicycles

I have had some unforgetful experiences in Salzburg. Anytime I hear people back in America talk about biking or cycling, here are the flashbacks and thoughts that I will have:

Tip: Fasten your bike lock onto your bike, otherwise it will fall off while you are riding and then you will attempt, unsuccessfully, to retrace your ride to find the lock.

We'll see how much my bike is worth, or if it looks valuable. A friend said that no one would want to steal my bike. I won't risk it for too long. After the holiday tomorrow I will go buy a new lock.

I felt completely unathletic aka lazy today. Usually I don't mind when people pass me on the bike path. I just think, well these older men and women have ridden bikes their entire lives, so their muscles are already strong. And the adults who pass me wearing the typical bike gear clearly spend a lot of time riding. BUT tonight I was passed by a guy who had is girlfriend riding on the front of his bike. AND I had passed them earlier, so he was clearly faster than me. Even when I passed him again 2 minutes later, it didn't count because he was biking two people.

The wind around here is pretty terrible. I don't notice, of course, when the wind is helping me bike, but oh my goodness when I am biking alongside the river... 9 times out of 10, the wind is against me and I feel so pathetic or pitiful trying to bike. I could probably run faster. Then I think well at least this is kind of a work out.

Countdown for coming home begins. 3 weeks from today (Wed July 1) I will be coming home. I will have to find a way to get rid of the bike aka sell it for more than 20 Euros even though I bought it for 50 Euros.

Well feel free to share your bike stories. Maybe I will have more stories in Ohio, if I decide to buy a bike again there.

... three days later...

Of course as soon as wrote this post more bike stuff happened. I hit a person while biking. I was following my roommate and the girl passed behind her without seeing me coming as well. I shouldn't have been biking on the pedestrian friendly street. For all I know there could be a law against biking on these roads downtown, but I was doing it. Since I began riding I've become more bold in using my bell around people. So I figured I could just ring at people so they knew I would be approaching to pass them. Apparently she didn't see me coming. So I hit her accidentally, kind lost of control and came off my bike and swerved to get back on. No one was harmed so all I could after was be annoyed and laugh it off.