Tuesday 17 July 2007

My bike exploded on the Reeperbahn

Lucky I had Fritz-Kola!

For the uninitiated, it´s kind of Hamburg´s local beverage. The non-alcoholic one, that is. Their beer, Astra, is also tops. Anyway to get to the point, I have been in Hamburg for four days now, it was supposed to be two, but as I cycled out of the city on Sunday, the first day of perfect weather, my rear derailleur got tangled in my back spoke and sheared right off, completely redering the bike immovable.

Back to the hostel I was. Of course all bike shops in the city are shut on Sundays, so I loitered neither here nor there for a whole day. As we speak, the bike, Malik, (yes it has a name, proof that I´m losing my marbles) is in the repair shop getting some new parts. I scavenged a Shimano 105 to replace the Deore XT rear derailleur (technical talk) and my wallet came out 60 Euros lighter. Not too bad, dear boy. On the plus side of all this fracas, I chased a guy down the road (literally) and learned that Stevie was riding his bicycle from Hamburg to Prague and Vienna, leaving on Wednesday, so I will consider going the complete opposite direction to my original plan, and forming a fellowship with the Brit.

Hamburg Hostellers




Hostel Common Room



Regula my Hamburg helper and coffee in the Morn´



Shulterblatt


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that you have named your bike, after all it is your companion. Sounds like things are going well, like maybe your bike breaking down was meant to happen so you could chase Stevie down the road and now you maybe heading in a completely different direction. After all thats what its all about.

Unknown said...

ah jus found out i can leave my shit here too hehehe. really cool your website man. hehe funny to read all those things bout last two days. feels like readin a script of a film i've seen especially that chasin down stevie part is very very clear in my memory hahahahaha. g'day cobber

denim a said...

trying again to use my google blogger name,I think I've succeeded