Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Jerusalem tall bike!
Today was successful and unsuccessful. I did not do any of the things I set out to do today mainly because I was nausous the whole day from eating Krembo's last night (see posting below).
Tthis morning I was going to go meet some old friends and visit a gravesite of personal importance but somehow I missed my bus even though I was standing right there. Since I was feeling sick anyways, I decided to come back home and sleep for another couple hours. On my walk home from the central bus station, and only a couple blocks from the place I'm staying at, I came across not only a bike shop, but a bike shop with a freak bike outside!!
I went inside all excited to talk to the owner of the bike shop and find out about the tall bike and I saw a photo of the same peice of graffiti that I took a photo of the last time I was in Israel almost four years ago.
The graffiti was an addition to a 'no parking' sign. Someone had added a question mark to the no parking sign, painted a big bicycle and added the words "Ride a Bike!" in Hebrew. Simple. No parking? Ride a bike!
Yesterday I walked past the spot where that graffiti used to be (near the old Jerusalem train station) in the hopes that it might still be there but of course it was gone.
I asked Ilan (the bike shop owner) about the tall chopper bike outside, and the photo. He said he built the bike last winter when he was bored and showed me another recumbant freak bike in the shop (that he also built). This one was adorned with a styrofoam head in he front. The kind that religious women use to sit their wigs on when they're not wearing them. It was awsome!
He was excited that I knew about the bike graffit and told me it took him years to find out who did it. Turns out it was this girl and her brother. He said that they painted it one crazy night while drunk or stoned or something. He said now she's religious and doesn't ride bikes anymore.
He gave me a flyer for Critical Mass in Jerusalem. Last Fri of the month at noon. Maybe I'll postpone my stay by a couple days so I can ride with them...
I told him I'd come back tomorrow and talk more.. he said he has more bikes to show me... and I want to take more pictures of him and his shop.
