ok, terrified might be exaggerated but it's true.. I'm scared to cycle.
I mean, when I was a kid, I cycled around in the neighborhood and I was happy about it, in fact I love to cycle in the neighbor.. in the park. However in Europe, people cycle to reach from one point to another - Unlike in middle-east where we use cars for everything.. even the neighbor supermarket sometimes!
When I came to the Netherlands, and knew that my moving around options were : walking, cycling, or taking the bus I thought hey, this is not hard I could take the bus.. But buses have different timings and sometimes it doesn't help since I end up having to wait. So I thought okay I'll walk... but let's face it I'm kinda lazy.. so the only option left is to cycle.
The thought of cycling on the road where there are cars and buses scares me somehow, I'm not used to this. I panic most of time.
I've tried cycling; once I cycled from Esncede (Netherlands) to Gronau (Germany) it was a pleasant adventure. I figured as long as I cycle with friends around me it's okay but then again.. they won't be around me all the time.
I decided I'll just walk!
Then we had this school-trip to Paris, where we had a task to cycle in Paris and listen to the Audio tour guide we have made within our groups, and there was no way I could ditch it.
The thing about Paris is that the roads are always busy -DUH!- and the drivers are crazy. No one somehow cares about the signs on road, and everyone drive as they please, I've seen it.
What's worse -Unlike Netherlands- they don't kinda have special road for cycles and that's even more than terrifying.
I'd like to thank my group members, and other friends whom I cycled with later on for being so patient with me as I was so scared and they took so much care of me .. Felt like a baby but it was good haha.
I SURVIVED!! Thank god. Although I almost bumped into cars and people maybe 5 times or more?
It was so intimidating at the moment, but now that it is over, I think it was fun. It was an adventure and looking back to it, I think deep down I was enjoying it.
We cycled almost the whole day - literally!- to the point where my blood glucose went hypo and I had to stop and get my sugar dose.
Now that I'm back to the Netherlands I think cycling will never be scary anymore, you can't even compare the safety of cycling here and cycling in Paris.
Ima cycle like a baws!!
11-11-2014
