Fast bike? She's fast enough for you, old man.

Lock up your daughters, dads! That's right. I purchased a bicycle yesterday. And soon, I will be terrorizing neighbourhoods again like I did when I was 10-years old.

As you can see from the pictures, it's not fancy. It's not pretty. But, it's got a lot of things going for it:

1. It's got two wheels - while looking for a bike I asked myself "what do I reeeeealy want?". And the answer that came up first was "two wheels". Fortunately, there are plenty of bikes available with this feature.
   
   
2. It's ugly - I don't want Dutch locals and perhaps unsavoury international students thinking that this bike would look better under their own ass. Therefore, I picked a bike for which almost no one could care. Think "Charlie Brown Christmas" and you'll get a better 3D mental picture in your head. Only those pitied by the desperate are going to want to steal this bike.
   
   
3. It's special - is it the mustard yellow colour? Maybe. Is it the "The Eagle" decal that's emblazoned on the bike's frame that exudes a quality best described as "awesomeness"? Getting closer. Is it because I look like a down-and-out rock star from an episode of VH1's "Where Are They Now?" when I ride it? Absolutely.

But seriously, the Dutch like to bike. It also helps that pretty much everywhere you go, there's a designated bike path. There's even traffic lights just for the bike lanes. It's so popular that I think there's probably TV shows on about bikes with people falling in love or crime dramas with cops on bikes ("Pacific Blue" would have killed out here).

Basically moving to Rotterdam and not owning a bike would be like... like moving to Montreal and chopping off my legs... actually, that's not a good analogy. I'll have to think about that one...

At least I feel like I belong now and not like one of those schleps walking. Haha!


Teeks