Bikes & Deadly Stairs

The biggest culture shock after moving here must've been the amount of bikes this small city has. You cannot NOT own a bike, unacceptable. You bike to university, you bike to do the groceries, you bike to the movies or to the pub. It's incredible, but yet so weird. You easily see hundreds of bikes everyday, all shapes and sizes. With weird little ornaments hanging off of them or just a stolen bike spray painted in neon anything. To me it's unbelievable partly because while living in Dubai the only bikes I saw were those used by the gardeners or houseboys, but also because I don't think any other country has such a large scale biking culture.

 But don't get me wrong, biking in this city is dangerous. Let me repeat that again, dangerous. You've got to be all eyes and ears while you're on top of the thing or it is very likely that you'll be rammed over by a little kid or an old man on his bike. Oh the amount of times I've had near heart attack moments... dangerous.

 Second shock factor.. the stairs. I understand they are designed to save space, but only if you are a 3 year old child will your foot actually fit on the entire stair without you having to balance yourself/hold onto anything near by. The worst case scenario they'll be about 10cm wide, good luck hauling your drunk ass home on those things. Or carry up furniture, this from experience has possibly been one of the most hardest things I've had to do, and therefore, I refuse to move again.

And this has been a semi long post about stairs and bikes, but why not. Learn something new everyday.