I have a bicycle!

It's official! I truly live in Europe. I have a bicycle! It's probably total crap, but I don't care, it's mine!

I woke up early this morning (on a Saturday too) to take the tram to the other side of the city where a major bike shop was having their monthly used bike sale. Sellers bring their used bikes before 8AM, the bike repairmen inspect them and price them and from 8-1PM they sell the bikes.

I got there around 8:45 and started looking around. I had tried to do some research on the internet, but truth is, it seemed like Greek. I just want to ride to work every day, not climb a mountain or win a race. I researched a few good brands, but everyone on the internet said brand didn't matter, it was the parts. Well, how the heck do you find out the parts?

Anyway, there were a lot of bikes to try out and so I started in on two in particular. They were city bikes (think Sound of Music with the guitar and the basket) and were okay, but I wanted to try out my options. I found two trekking bikes in my price range although one was kind of funky and the other was boring looking, but had these huge packs on the back that came with the bike. I noticed no one really tried out the pack bike so I didn't know if that was a sign that something was wrong. The tag didn't mention anything and it wasn't rusted.

I was being indecisive, but also trying to learn how to ride a bike again in a parking lot of people who are also riding bikes around including small children. AAAA!!! I liked one of the city bikes, but it was a bit springy. I went to try another one and when I came back a lady had bought the blue one. Darn. I tried the other city bike, but didn't like it as much. Went to the look at a bike a nun had tried out (yes, she was looking for a bike too) and when I came back, someone had bought the other city bike. Nuts.

So I was down to a very small selection including the two trekking bikes, a weird assortment of multicolored, funky bikes and mountain bikes. Hm...I tried the trekking bike that was funky and rode it around the block, but it didn't "drive" right, if that makes any sense. Out of pure desperation since almost everything was gone (even the nun had found a bike), I tried the one with the big packs on the back. I rode it down the road and it...was...wonderful! The brakes worked great and were much better than the city bikes'. It has separate front and back brakes whereas the city bikes just had front brakes.

My budget as 150 euros (which is about as cheap as they come) and sure enough the trekking bike was 150 euros! I looked over and over trying to find something wrong with it, but it seemed just fine. I took it to the sales tent, handed in my cash and suddenly, I owned the bike! When I started thinking about it, I was stunned. It had everything I needed. A place to put things, a light, a bell, mud flaps, lots of gears, front and back brakes...God is so good.

Now, the fun part: getting home. I knew if I just followed the tram line eventually I'd end up at home so I took off. It was amazing! I felt freed to actually go places. What had taken me 10 minutes by foot was now taking me 1. I rode all the way back to my tram line, up to the Rauthausplatz and back to my apartment. I quickly grabbed something to drink and took off to the grocery store. I was there so fast it was incredible!

So here is my boring looking, but super fun new bike!