The Wheels on the Bus

As a Midwest American, I drive my car EVERYWHERE. Basically, if I can't see it from where I am, I'm driving there. With that set-up, I'd like to explain how I get around now.

Before I'd left the States, I'd looked at the bus schedule from Stuttgart Airport to Tübingen and found out that there's a bus that will get me here (the 828, if you're dying to know). I never thought to check when it left, how much it cost, where in this monstrous airport it left from, or which stop I was supposed to get off at. So, once I got to the Stuttgart Airport, I asked tourist information all that jazz. She knew where it left from, that was it. Now, I've never ridden a bus before; I dont know, where you pay, whom you pay, or any of the other finer points of public transit. After much frightened indecision, I decide to just get on the bus and hope for the best. Once I'm there, I talk to the driver (who looks EXACTLY like Burt Reynolds), and he mutters in his cantankterous Schwäbian-accented German that the bus costs €5.30. As the bus drives, it hits me that I don't know where Tübingen is relative to Stuttgart, south I thought. Then I remember my tattoo, and think, it's kind of ironic that you have a tattoo of the uncertainty principle and you're freaking out about which bus stop you're going to take. That calmed me a little bit. As luck would have it the Tübingen Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) is the last stop, and I was forced to get out there.

On a day-to-day basis, I use the TüBus, whose name I love. I'm getting farily good with knowing which lines go where, but it's still a 'new thing' for me to ride the bus. I've decided that this whole German Eco-Friendly thing is pretty cool and that once I'm back in the States, I want to keep it up. I've already been looking at the Des Moines Bus Schedule to see where I can go, and I looked into taking a greyhound bus from Des Moines to Topeka, but that turns out to be more expensive than driving, plus when I drive I can pee whenever I want. But I digress.

The only bad thing about the bus is that since my dorm is in the middle of nowhere Germany, the bus doesn't run on weekends or after 8 pm. The walk to the Hauptbahnhof is actually quite pleasant, but still a little annoying when you just want to get a döner-kebab at 1am. So, when I saw the poster for the Fahrrad Flohmarkt (Bicycle Fleamarket) in Derendingen, it got me thinking. Derendingen by the way is the next suburb/town south, conveniently located within walking distance of my middle of nowhere dorm. I've run though Derendingen (it takes like 7 minutes) and it's quite pretty. So last Saturday, I decided that I was gonna get me a bike at this Flohmarkt. I had, by the way, already checked Kaufland (German Wal-mart) and their bikes were like 170€，so I tossed out a big "fuck that" and decided that walking is easier. But a used bike, now that sounds more in my price range. At the Flohmarkt, I found a bike for 25€. I tested it out and it seemed great. The guy I bought it from had no hands (I took this as the reason from his selling the bike so cheap). After the exchange I drove off a happy little camper. I went to buy a chain for the bike, which cost half as much as the bike itself. And now I have this great sense of freedom; I can go anywhere anytime. More recently Evelina (Jake named the bike) has had some problems. Her back tire is rubbing on the frame. I found this out on my way to the Asian Market (I just wanted to go somewhere). I think after I finish writing this and eating my nutella toast, I might try to fix her.

Oh Evelina is red