City of bikes

Amsterdam is bike city. In fact, there are almost as many bikes as inhabitants in Amsterdam; a total of 600.000! It's probably because with all these narrow streets, bridges, canals and one way streets it's the fastest form of transport withing the city centre. So the first thing you should buy in Amsterdam is a bicycle. But once you've been in New York for a while, you get used to walking long, very long distances. So I did that in any other city I lived in afterwards. Even in Amsterdam. I got used to that and I never really felt the need to buy a bike.

On Saturday we were on the way to a party and I had to sit on the back of a bike because I still haven't got one. My friend Remco was complaining about it. To him it's unthinkable that I haven't bought a bicycle in the half year since I've lived here. Then something sheer coincidental happened. A black guy at the corner heard his complaints and decided on the spot to offer his bike for sale. He assured us that it was in good state because he had it for years. Remco impulsively bought the bike for me. And not a minute later I was kicking the pedals of my new bike. The only problem with it is that the former owner broke the lock by accident but that's probably why he sold it for so cheap.

All these events were so coincidental, that it probably had to be that way. You could say that destiny talked me into buying a bike. Well, actually Remco talked me into it, but that doesn't matter.