ongelukken

Just one month into the new year in Amsterdam, and I've already suffered a handful of mishaps on the bicycle. A two-bike collision on one rainy evening... turning too quickly on an icy corner... a 25 euro ticket for riding at night without lights... a painful collision with my knee and a parked car. Belachelijk. Ridiculous.

It's hard to get back up and keep riding after so many accidents. My pride is wounded, and so is my body. Three weeks after the fact, my knee still recollects the pain of my clumsy foolishness.

I realize that it's a part of life in Amsterdam. With so many hours on the bicycle, so many kilometers covered through so many adverse conditions, it's practically inevitable that mistakes will occur and equally inevitable that pain will result... But it's not very much fun, not very fulfilling, not very rewarding.

Still, I continue. If I can't continue after the accidents, I am doomed to a life of walking or riding the tram (at least until I would suffer some kind of mishap in these forms of transit). And nobody wants that either. So I continue.