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Apart from the obvious (easy way to get more exercise and time outside, cheap, good for the environment), something I really value is the different view of your city that it gives you.
You aren’t bound to avoiding traffic, and it’s usually safer to go avoid main roads, so you end up on some lovely backstreets that you never would have otherwise seen. You also get routed through parks and along the water. Because it’s so easy to pull over and park anywhere, you stop to enjoy things more often too.
I find I interact with and feel way more connected to my city as a cyclist. I‘ve found so many cool spots from having biked by them.
This is a photo from my bike commute before I moved🥲
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because of the specific type of wind that passes me by when biking, and the views I get to see in perfect speed (plus the ability to stop whenever), all from the impeccably-maintained public biking system Taipei implements. I feel so lucky to live here.
Feb 14, 2025
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it’s the best way to get around!!!
May 24, 2024
One time I went on a bike ride from Boston to Newport, RI, and it was honestly one of the best times of my life. I remember setting out and being nervous about whether or not I'd be able to make it the whole way. I was pretty new to biking in general and had never created my own route before, so I ended up riding along a lot of highways and paths that definitely weren't made for my bike.
I wrote a new journal entry each time I went through a new town and stopped to take a picture of everything that I thought was pretty, which was nice because you can't always stop to do that in a car, and I feel like it made me take closer note of everything that was going on around me and everything going through my mind. No detour had to "make sense." I was just biking.
I met so many different people who I still think about every so often. My two battery packs and my phone died multiple times, so I had to pivot and find somewhere to stop. I met a woman at the CVS who let me use their picture station because they have all the cords you need and her daughter ended up being one of my classmates. She told me to make sure to call my mom and let her know where I was, and we had a really nice conversation.
It kind of felt like I was in the Truman Show because I don't think I ran into a single person who wasn't nice to me, and we always had something to talk about because everyone wanted to know why I was biking 80 miles. It was mostly because I was bored, but I also wanted to visit a friend. It was pretty spontaneous, and I was underprepared, but I have so many good memories from that trip.
My friend's girlfriend was working on getting her sailing license, and she took us on a sunset cruise that was hosting a bachelorette party and a golf club and we all drank so much champagne and just talked. We went to his local bar and talked to every single person in there. I met a guy who would only let us play darts if we threw them while his hand was on the board, and he ended up getting us drinks the whole night.
Before then, I had never been around that many people who were just genuinely interested in getting to know each other. I had always fallen into just having a specific group of people that I'd open up to and be myself around (which is fine and valid), but it wasn't really until then that it kind of clicked that I was kind of hiding "myself" or all the versions of "myself" that I could be and closing myself off from meeting people who I could get along with or share things in common with, and I carried that feeling the entire way back and met even more people. I stopped at more restaurant's and food trucks to eat alone, and I felt comfortable; it wasn't lonely, and I wasn't afraid to ask someone to take a picture of me or to ask where they were from and just talk.
This post started as something completely different in my head, but I said all of this to say that biking definitely changed my life for the better. I want to bike further, and I want to bike with my friends, and I want to see more things on my bike. Some of my favorite memories from the past 5 years happened while biking. My mom thought it was crazy to spend $450 on a bike, but if you take good care of it, it can last for years and I'm gonna use the same bike to plan a trip cross-country with an Amtrak rail pass this summer.
If you've been considering it, I HIGHLY suggest buying a bike.
Mar 30, 2024
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I keep lists of -
every city I’ve visited,
book I’ve read,
favourite memories of each year,
art that has touched me,
etc etc
save everything
1d ago
if you live in melbourne (aus), find a nice spot in yarra bend park, watch the sunset, and stay a little longer to watch the bats making their nightly trek to get food. there are thousands & thousands of them right overhead. so insanely beautiful. bonus points right now cause the babies have just gotten old enough to join along and they are just the sweetest things.
Feb 10, 2024
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smell is such a powerful way to connect to memories. I like to have a perfume that I use in each place I live/go on a longer holiday to; after leaving the place, I keep the perfume and smell it whenever I’m feeling nostalgic.
one perfume to one place to create a really strong connection.
for example, I got a cheap little cypressy perfume for a three week trip to greece and now I can just feel myself back there whenever I want. same thing for when I lived in denmark for a year, and different houses I’ve lived in in melbourne. really just so lovely
Mar 11, 2024