Adventures
Dec. 16th, 2009 03:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhyllYesterday I went to visit my family, which is one of the last trips I make that usually involves a car. So after some negotiation with my grandparents, it was decided that:
a) I could cycle to the train station from my place, catch the train up to joondalup, then cycle from joondalup station to their place instead of getting picked up, and
b) I was mad.
Family visits were nice, and it was good to meet Visiting Greek Cousin, although my Greek is still not up to conversation. Happily my grandparents are speaking to me in Greek more and more often, so I'm getting better.
Cycling back, I got up to the turn-off for "cycle to Perth" and suddenly decided that I would give it a go.
Highlights:
* I remembered to put on sunscreen!
* Asking directions from some Aimless Youth, one of whom was trying to hide his can of spraypaint behind his back. When I said I was cycling to Perth he was horrified.
* There is a path that mostly goes along the highway, but it takes all these weird deviations through suburban streets. They have a strange, quiet feel to them. I would have started to worry that I was lost, except that people in lycra kept racing past on shiny bicycles. One of these deviations went past an area that still had a few market gardens scattered around, and I ate some figs from an abandoned block full of fruit trees.
* I helped some strangers catch their puppy.
* When I was close to H's house, the next stop on my itinerary, an old Greek woman stopped me to tell me to be careful in the area. I spoke Greek for a bit, which was fun, and she told me that I should come to her house for dinner. (I declined.)
* I saw Lisa!
All in all, I am very proud of myself. After fiddling around with whereis.com a bit I worked out that I cycled around 47.5km yesterday, which seems like a lot. And it was, I felt, unnecessarily windy. And I'm fine today! Now I want to cycle everywhere, even more than I did before.
a) I could cycle to the train station from my place, catch the train up to joondalup, then cycle from joondalup station to their place instead of getting picked up, and
b) I was mad.
Family visits were nice, and it was good to meet Visiting Greek Cousin, although my Greek is still not up to conversation. Happily my grandparents are speaking to me in Greek more and more often, so I'm getting better.
Cycling back, I got up to the turn-off for "cycle to Perth" and suddenly decided that I would give it a go.
Highlights:
* I remembered to put on sunscreen!
* Asking directions from some Aimless Youth, one of whom was trying to hide his can of spraypaint behind his back. When I said I was cycling to Perth he was horrified.
* There is a path that mostly goes along the highway, but it takes all these weird deviations through suburban streets. They have a strange, quiet feel to them. I would have started to worry that I was lost, except that people in lycra kept racing past on shiny bicycles. One of these deviations went past an area that still had a few market gardens scattered around, and I ate some figs from an abandoned block full of fruit trees.
* I helped some strangers catch their puppy.
* When I was close to H's house, the next stop on my itinerary, an old Greek woman stopped me to tell me to be careful in the area. I spoke Greek for a bit, which was fun, and she told me that I should come to her house for dinner. (I declined.)
* I saw Lisa!
All in all, I am very proud of myself. After fiddling around with whereis.com a bit I worked out that I cycled around 47.5km yesterday, which seems like a lot. And it was, I felt, unnecessarily windy. And I'm fine today! Now I want to cycle everywhere, even more than I did before.