Wheels

Those of you who knew me in New York City know that my bicycle was more or less my livelihood. It was my commute to work, my way downtown and even sometimes to the bars, and my saving grace when I wanted to escape the craziness of Manhattan and spend a day riding the Palisades. Korea, as a rule, doesn't seem to be as dependent on or designed for bikes as some other Asian countries, but I still see a lot of them around. Everyone from delivery men to old ladies collecting cardboard more than likely has two wheels of some sort. So needless to say, I feel quite lost and helpless without one here. I'm expected to get everywhere by walking? It's going to take me how long to get there?

Luckily, last week one of my co-workers came across a website advertising bike rentals at certain subway stops here in Daegu. This sounds pretty normal...many cities in the States have bike rental points for tourists and locals, but get this, these rentals were completely free! The only thing you need is a driver's license, and they were kind enough to give even Tom's expired and crumpled university license a pass. So Lisa, Tom, and I hopped on a bus to the closest subway stop and spent the morning cruising along the river in eastern Daegu.

You can see the nice bike path following the river to the right below. How glad I am to have a riverside bike path in my neighborhood again!

We also stumbled across the Eastern Gate of the city (destroyed by the Japanese but rebuilt a few decades ago). It is a gate only in the most historical, traditional sense, in that the city stretches for miles and miles beyond it. Let's hope the Japanese don't invade again, or those poor suburbanites are in for a rough time.

And here's another thing to add to the "That's-really-cool-why-don't-we-have-that-in-the-U.S." List. Each subway station has a little track down every staircase for you to push your bike up and down so you don't have to carry it over your shoulder. How convenient!

So of course I am now even more anxious to buy a bike for myself. There goes the bulk of my next paycheck...


That's it for now, and remember, feel free to request a blog post on any topic that you're curious about. I could always use more ideas!