Carol Bontekoe

This blog has been keeping track of my adventures since 2004. The stories and the adventures have come from my college dorm room to Uganda, Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, learning Dutch in the Netherlands to living in the wilds of Homer, Alaska. I went back to school in Amsterdam to study Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Science) at University of Amsterdam. And now my adventures as a Fruit Fly, a Sexy Unicorn, and creating a movement with Team Sparkle in Chicago.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

I'll pay ya...

By the time I rolled into the nearest city it was Saturday night. The bike shops would be closed on Sunday. I didn't want to go any further without having someone properly fix my bike. There was a bike shop and than right across the road a nice hotel. A little out of my budget but it looked like it might have English speaking channels(had 3, which was awesome) and it was right across from the bike shop. It seemed like fate. I spent all day sunday lounging around, avoiding the sun so my sunburn and rash could have a chance to come down a little bit. I watched everything on CNN international, twice. I also watched a lot of Clint Eastwood movies. I have to admit I had never seen one before..mmmmm he used to be CUTE! Those eyes... that voice....errrr.... I have a lot of time to think on the bike.....and no one to talk to...
anyways....
At nine in the morning on Monday I was chilling outside waiting for the shop to be opened. The guy was late, but I didn't complain. Once he did show up he informed me that he doesn't fix bikes he just sells them. There was a place up the road where I could get it fixed.
errrr...ummmm... okay.
So I went up the road to the other bike shop. he also "opened" at nine....so of course the shop was still closed. Once he decided he could come and open up his shop he looked at my bike for a while and said sure he had a guy who came to fix bikes on Thursdays. Wait til Thursday? No! I was already getting way behind schedule. I asked where I could get it fixed today. Across town there was a place.
I went on. Not only was this shop not open, it looked like it hadn't been open in months.
I decided I would keep riding and hopefully in one of the villages I would pass through there would be someone who could look at my bike.
After about 50, very slow, kilometers I got to kind of a touristy town. I found the local bike shop and asked the guy to fix it. Sure, sure... what's wrong with it? Well, I have all these extra parts for the back wheel and I would like the back wheel to have all of it's parts on the bike with it. How far did you come? 50kms. oh, than your fine. What? I'll pay you! No, your fine if you can ride it that far without them you don't need them.
There was a wall near by listing out how far other major cities were. Amsterdam was 1200 km away... geez....no one would help me... or take my money... seemed like AMsterdam was a lot farther than that...
What could I do? I rode on. I figured eventaully it would break so bad someone would have to help me.

1 comments :

  1. Anonymous said...

    Just one more reason to always ride a tandem bicycle! 2 times to try!