as free as the wind blows

This is my bike. I named it Blå (blue). 

This week I joined the ranks of Copenhagen cyclists. For a couple of weeks now I've had a bike sitting outside in the courtyard but either the weather's been too bad (by my standards - nothing stops the Danes) or I haven't had any place to go that I can't just walk to (gotta love my house's prime city-center location). And because the cyclists here have been riding a bike since before they could walk, I admit to being slightly intimidated at first to bike amongst them. But everyone's gotta start sometime - though at the rate I was going my "sometime" was never gonna come. So first came a couple of short test-drives (meaning that I took it out and rode straight for a while before getting off, walking across the street to turn, and riding straight back again - yeah, I'm a bit lame). Then came my first opportunities of biking to places I actually needed to go:  Østerbro to see my visiting family and Frederiksberg for a Jim Carrey film night with some of my new friends (both of these areas are sort of like suburbs to center-city Copenhagen). Success rate: 2 for 2.

Things I've learned from biking:
- I really love feeling free and independent - I feel both when I bike. I like feeling the wind in my face and hair and taking deep breaths of fresh, cold air - that happens when I bike, too. And I like having to be fully "in the moment," being slightly challenged, and having to use all my senses and navigation skills - yup, biking provides that as well. In the words of positive psychology, it's a "flow experience" for me.
- Letting people know if you're turning and/or stopping is extremely necessary to avoiding a painful and embarrassing bike-on-bike accident. So stretch your arms and use those signals.
- Turning left on a busy street is a complicated endeavor I have yet to master. Straight and right are more my cup o' tea. The left will come, though...
- Park at a bike rack if there's one around, but there's so many bikes in Copenhagen that everyone's used to having bikes parked up and down sidewalks. No biggie, then, if you have to do that, too.
- Contrary to what I thought, you won't be shunned by going slow if you have to. As with cars, stay to the right and you'll be fine. Sometimes you might even find people who are going even slower than you, in which case you can get a morale boost by passing them to the left.
- Biking gets you places a lot faster than walking. Go figure. What would've taken me 40 minutes to walk took about 20 minutes to bike. So I saved time and had a good time in the fresh air while doing it.
- If for any reason you get off your bike and walk with it down the sidewalk for a bit, you probably won't get any weird looks and may even pass someone else doing the same thing. But occasionally you might pass an old lady who makes a snide remark to you in Danish that you don't understand. Just keep walking.
- If you see policemen directing traffic, don't be alarmed. There just might be Royal Guards marching down the street you were supposed to turn on to. Forget about being on time to where you're going and whip out your camera to capture the moment.