Monday 14 September 2009

I bike CPH

 

photo courtesy of Elisabeth Plank
text by Adrian Iacomi

I bike CPH, you bike CPH, we all bike in Copenhagen, because here this is the verb to conjugate at the present as simple as possible tense. If I were to describe my adoptive city with one single one word (except the beer), that is bike. Bike to work, bike to school, bike to the beach, bike in the sun (this one not to often), bike.. In the rain, to the pub, crawling on two wheels back from the pub, to your fist date, to the airport to pick up your lady, to take the kids to kindergarden and back from high school and so on.

In Copenhagen, BIKE is the word. Which even if you don’t like in the beginning, you’ll have to endure it or get used to it. To put it in different way ... if you’re danish and you don’t have a bike you’re weird, or well.. filthy rich so you can afford using the public transportation.

As a foreigner you will be struck by the number of bikes in circulation all over the place. And if you’re still used to the urban biking concept and you’re coming from Berlin or even better .. Amsterdam, you’ll find an awkward over-organized bike road system, and.. Yes.. When people are raising their hand it doesn’t mean they’re friendly or that they want to wave. No No No ... and don’t laugh.. They just signal that they want to stop :).
Probably this is the most striking difference between CPH and the other Top 10 biking cities => in Copenhagen people obey the driving rules and are very peaceful bike drivers, even if they definitely lack some genuine skills, but in their own special way they survive by obeying in a almost boring way the rules. And if you see a danish blonde tall girl just crossing on the red light, she’s dutch.

Still what makes people use the bikes? I mean it’s raining almost all the year, it’s pretty cold and mostly windy. If you’re biking in the city or to one of the secret beaches, you’ll notice that this is the famous (for sailors at least) Baltic sea wind. Which as any demon wind will most likely blow in your face, and buy no means from behind.
So, for now there are not too many reasons to bike around here.
But let’s look deeper into this subject:
Car taxes.. Yes.. These are HUGE, so for the money you’re buying in Germany a new Passat, here you’ll get a forth hand Polo with no genuine leather. And the parking costs a lot, and the gas.. and you got the picture. You’re not very encouraged to get a car around here.
Second reason, and a very painful one, it’s the price of public transport, which is a type of luxury. As in Denmark you have buy far the most expensive public transport from all UE.
Not so many cool reasons to bike until now :(



But, there are a lot of people that are having cars and still they bike, and well .. This is the main reason.. Biking is cool :) yes it is, danes love to bike, it’s healthy and there are plenty of nice bike roads around here. So you’ll start to ride to kindergarden in the seat of your mother’s bike.. and soon you’ll be on your way to work wearing a loose tie and the cute slim MacBook on your back. And yes.. You’ll love it, or at least I do :).
Don’t be afraid of flat tires, rain, cold and the bloody wind ... These will just make you enjoy more all the other days ;)

This what I think and feel about biking in CPH after one year of using the bike almost daily, despite the friendly weather, as friendly as huge noisy fly, blown of course in your face by the warm and cosy wind ;)  

romanian version on portocalamecanica.ro

Wednesday 9 September 2009

The cycle


 
The birth

 
The search

 
The friendship

 
The love

 
The fall 
photos by Adrian Iacomi
show by cOLÉOMuR in Copenhagen

Monday 7 September 2009

Chasing the dragons

The red dragonfly -
In some way or another
He likes the evening too.
haiku by Issa
 
If you have few hours in the Danube Delta, what can be better than to chase after huge dragonflies?
  
Stillness of a pond.
Dragonfly leaves lily pad.
To become the Dragon
haiku by Marc Andersen
In Japan dragonflies symbolize "martial success," due to similarity in the sound of the word "dragonfly" and "victory" in Japanese.[citation needed] As a seasonal symbol, the dragonfly is associated with late summer and early autumn.[10]
More generally, in Japan dragonflies are symbols of courage, strength, and happiness, and they often appear in art and literature, especially haiku. In ancient mythology, Japan was known as Akitsushima, which means "Land of the Dragonflies".[citation needed] The love for dragonflies is reflected by the fact that there are traditional names for almost all of the 200 species of dragonflies found in and around Japan.[11] Japanese children catch large dragonflies as a game, using a hair with a small pebble tied to each end, which they throw into the air. The dragonfly mistakes the pebbles for prey, gets tangled in the hair, and is dragged to the ground by the weight.[12] 
(Source: Wikipedia)
photos by Adrian Iacomi

Sunday 6 September 2009

A rider’s summer dream

photos by Adrian Iacomi

It’s pretty hot. 35 degrees.. Pfiu.. 40 and raising, cuba libre and a hammock on a secluded beach. You get some pancakes with chocolate and rum, hmm, this is definitely good. And than you get one more beer. It’s a cold one, as it has to be and.. hmm.. cold, that’s a familiar keyword. You start to think and look more careful at the metal can.. suddenly it pops to you! MOUNTAINS.. With snow, yes yes.. That is what is drawn on the can. THIS is what you have forgotten for the past few months. A sweet chilly breeze that just started to sing around you cap makes you think of a soft, creamy blizzard on a Tux peak.

Yup, this was it, this is what you were missing without even knowing for far to long time. :D A huge and satisfied grin starts to crack open on you tanned face. The sea is nice, and so is the turkish coffee, and the cold beer and of course the huge pancakes with chocolate, and.. well.. let’s not forget about the swimming top dropped by a pure and wonderful accident on the towel by your tent-mate. BUT, and this is the big but .. You, and your towel mate were starting to miss something. Now you finally got it.. The winter.

And.. You know.. I’m not talking about Santa Claus, Rudolph, a lot of pork meat, hot wine and the holiday in Egypt for New Years Eve, even if these are by no means bad or to be avoided (except too much pork). I was grinning thinking about snow, pow pow, fresh powder to shred. Come on ;) you know what I’m blabbing about.
Last ride in Tux, stretching the time to get one more descent, one more line before going to the car .. still persist, but I believe it’s time for something new, new fresh memories and snow.

Bzzz bzz.. Bzz.. What the f**. Aham. The wind isn’t blowing anymore. It’s cold just from the air conditioning. I start to get a grip on reality. I’m at work and I’m looking at a long row of grayish glass & steel building filled with overconfident horizontally-challenged people with proud magnetic cards hanging from their necks, and these are not ski-lift cards of course.
No worries, soon it will be 5 and I’ll go home, take a look at For right or wrong, probably I’ll fix some holes in my board done somewhere off-piste in Chamonix, and I’ll adjust my bindings.. This season I would change the angle of my back foot. Should I try a more wide stance to jump better or not, I’ll see.

Tomorrow is Saturday, so I’ll take my DH bike and give it a ride to stretch my back a little. Well, biking is cool, and so is kiteboarding, but I ride, if you get my point, and I’m sure you do :)

The winter is coming back, as does Arnold in Terminator, but hopefully with more style. In New Zeeland is already snowing, so.. just a little more patience is needed. So, forget about pizza and beer, start saving money, cause soon we will ride. 


Ps. 1 Now I’m passing over the mountains and I can see some tempting traces of snow on the Alps. There’s not enough to enjoy it, but soon, very soon..  
Ps. 2 This was written in mid-august so, the winter is even closer now :D 


romanian version on www.snowboard.ro