How to Get a Bike in Freiburg

I am not a huge fan of sarcasm...however, I was tempted to title this post "50 Easy Steps to Get a Bicycle"..hahah, this was an adventure that tested my patience (on an empty stomach!). Here goes! Just in case you give up hope, during reading these steps...I'll put the best part first. A picture of my bike :) I nerdily called Midnight.

1. Find directions to the place where the bicycle market is on google maps
2. Figure out if the bank across from my apartment Spardabank will let me take out money from their ATM as a non-spardabank customer.
3. Find a promising website, with an inconclusive answer
4. Decide to not risk getting slammed with a fee, go to your own bank Genevieve
5. Take S-Bahn into the city
6. Stand next to a guy with an orange and white cat on his shoulder (this makes me smile...to which the other local bus riders scowl at me questioningly and get shifty)
7. Get off at my station (almost get hit by a bicyclist) in the inner city
8. Take out money. How much? (There was a bike on ebay for $35, but I’m not sure if it needs brakes, has a working light (a german law all bikes must have) and if everything works....) Are you going to sell it again? Do you need anything else from the market? Maybe an eskimo suit because it is already so cold?

9. Take out phone and refresh google maps for step by step directions

10. „Google maps isn’t functioning at this time“
11. Go into a building that looks like the center, which turned out to be an opera house, get directions to the bicycle market.
12. Start walking towards a new bus stop....this wasn’t the address on the poster I saw for the bicycle market (the same one a friend also told me about)
13. Google „Bicycle Market Freiburg 10/17“ THERE ARE EIGHT.
14. Take a moment to recenter my focus, but not too long, because the bus is coming that you need! Get in? Wait for the next one? Will there be a next one?
15. Get in the bus and continue the google quest..
16. Ha yes, it was a different bicycle market. Google new directions (but not on google map app that isn’t working!)
17. Have a weird gut feeling that I am driving in the wrong direction, but I am not sure.
18. Yes, genevieve! You are driving in the wrong direction, decide to get out.
19. As we are approaching the bus stop an undercover bus ticket checker guy starts asking for tickets.....my bus stop!!! Can I hop out or will he chase me because he thinks I am trying to escape? I have to get out! It’s raining now and my dream bicycle might be getting sold out from underneath me!
20.  Get out my wallet and take out my student ID and the regional bus ticket (and bask for a moment how I organized my purse and wallet)
21. QUICK PRESS THE BUTTON TO GET OUT, NO ONE ELSE IS GETTING OFF AT THIS STOP AND HE’S STARTING TO DRIVE AWAY
22. By this time google maps on safari is working and gives me walking direction (1.5 miles away...which would not have been far for the rural country girl Genevieve in August ...but now the city diva thinks that is very far!)
23. Try to zoom so I can see where it is ultimately taking me, it looks like it wants me to turn around.....but navigate like a car and go down a street to the left then another left? Can’t I just literally turn 180 degrees?
24. Get a text that my 500MB data is almost empty
25. Just do what stupid google maps on safari is telling you to, no time to mess around! (Despise the fact that I'm at the mercy of following a blue line...as a blue dot!)
26. Go 50 M straight, 300 M left, then 50 M straight........GOOGLE MAPS MADE ME DO A HUGE U-TURN LIKE A CAR. Come out exactly at the bus stop where I just was...okay.
27. Slowly realize that I was indeed on the right bus. Rain. ( Directions from here aren’t bad, straight, left, over secluded bridge, raining..(my purse is getting on rained on! L ) )
28. Last directions, I can see the Hall! Google maps is telling me right...I don’t trust this...the main entrance looks to the left, I go right
29. YES! There is the Messe(Hall)!!!!!!! Here I come bicycle.  This is a very weird looking building....a HUGE cement box building with HUGE grey doors with HUGE numbers on each door 2, 3,5. I go into door 2 (winner, winner, winner!) Yes I am there! I made it.
30. See a kid my age sitting near the door with a pen and a notepad, get my wallet out to pay. „This isn’t the entrance, you have to go around“ he says. To which I replay in laughter, „no, I am not. I’m going to walk straight through, you can even come with me, I will pay, but I’m not going outside again“ to which he replays „no you can’t do that“, then I say „that is very silly, the main building was several football stadiums long) I get no response.
31. Go back out the door.

Ok, readers, you should probably take a break here. If these steps are getting boring to you, imagine doing them. Hahah, I started off this journey like this....

....and three hours, miles later, I looked like this...

....yes! Still doing great. One of my lessons is not having my joy be dependent on situation. Okay, maybe I wasn't still on the lamp post because I was quite hungry now, however I was still singing!...okay, back to the bike adventure..

32. Walk all the way down to the end (this takes 15 minutes), I see another huge parking lot and a lot of people! Great! They are walking towards the entrance.
33. Take a turn at the end of building to see a 20 ft tall iron fence separating the front from the back, separating me from my entrance.
34. Walk back to Door 2 (another 15 minutes) and back onto the street. Finally, find the real entrance (30 minutes more of walking), pay the fee, I AM INSIDE.
35. Look around at bicycles....starting at $55 going up to $450. How do you say „can I take it for a test drive“?? The only thing I know how to say is, „can I try it on?“
36. Notice there are many exchange students, notice a purple bike I like, I ask anyways in shame, „Can I try it on?“
37. Get the weird look I was expecting. „Ich brauche dein Ausweis (I need your ID)".
38. Take it out from the precarious position smushed between a dozen of bikes and head outside...the seat is too high. Whatever. It’s purple.
39. Start driving, HELP ME! I’m sure you know the crazy cart at the grocery store, yeah this was it. The wheel was not aligned to go forward rather 45 degrees RIGHT. But I already started pedaling and am moving forward fast
40. Squeeze the breaks (which makes an enormous noise in the quiet bustling of little german families, like a raptor screaming out in pain)
41. Navigate through a dozen of small children and people with french fries on a bike that only drives in circles with deafining brakes. I come to a stop.
42. Give the bike back and for a moment entertain the idea of giving up. Can’t someone just pick one out for me?
43. Call my host family and ask for advice. I am too tired to understand the dialect and remind my lovely host father to speak more slowly.
44. Take another bike for a spin that is 30 years old „but a good bike“, and it is, compared to one that rides in circles with raptor brakes. This one is $75.
45. Check my phone. 2 missed calls from an unknown number. Looks familiar...no desire to call back however.
46. Call back. It’s my host dad! Talking fast.
47. „I have a friend....known for a long time...selling bikes...go....his name..Ande....tatoos...piercings...black hair..quite a handsome man..tell him....me...then call me back, okay?“
48. Too tired to ask him to repeat all of the probably very important information, I respond „yep, got it!“ (You see I have this skill now where I hear the keywords and from the context, situation, and what it could possibly not mean...I connect the dots to get a meaning...)
49. Head back into the Hall and look for a handsome man with tattoos, piercings and black hair.... Old guy with white hair...italian guy that is pale with no piercings....lady....lady.....dude....then I see indeed a very handsome man with jet black hair and sparkling white teeth and I walk up to him only to realize....what was I going to say???? Hi, your name is Andy and I’m going to pick out a bike and have you talk to my host dad from four years ago.....?!?! Retreat, retreat! Translate what you are going to say first!!...Hi, is your name Andy? He says, yes with a half smile / half look of social terror...
50. See the bike of my dreams, 7 speed, black, a cute-but-i-mean-buisness bell, take it for a ride, take it home.... J


Except that really isn’t the end, because riding a bike here is FOR REAL. You are a vehicle. You ride side by side with cars doing 30 mph down hills, through lights...over train tracks..then onto sidewalks ..then onto „only bicycle zones“ then „bicycle and pedestrian zones“ then „only pedestrian zones“, back onto the road but the curb has no dip! And I’m going downhill, doing 30 mph, in the rain...how I got home is a whole other story....

I do however make it to the grocery store to get a much needed avocado, how I’ve missed those...only to see this. Not sure what an Avocado Bacon is, I grab one with a sigh and head home.