“When I arrived in the Delft two years ago I bought a new, traditional omafiets, but a couple of months ago it got stolen. When I bought this bike I just wanted something cheap to get me from A to B, but ultimately it turned out to be quite good because unlike my old bike this one has three gears. This wasn’t something I had thought of in the beginning – I thought ‘flat country: who needs gears?’ but I had overlooked how strong the wind can be here,” she says, laughing. Cuschieri says biking isn’t as popular in Malta as here: “I do own a bike back home but it’s the one I used to ride until I was 12 years old. In Malta, not many people own bike let alone use them. In the Netherlands, I honestly don’t think I’d have survived without one. I almost feel like it’s become an extension of my own legs.”
“I don’t have many good memories with this bike unfortunately,” she explains. “It happens to have hand breaks and my old one had pedalbreaks, so whenever it’s raining I always end up nearly crashing into someone or falling. My latest fall happened while I was waiting at the lights: all of a sudden I just lost balance and before I knew it was making love to the tarmac.”
When it comes to fixing her bike, Cuschieri has a special tactic. “I usually try to fix it myself, and if I don’t manage I give my boyfriend a puppy look and ask him to do it for me,” she says, grinning. Cuschieri plans to keep her bike: “I might buy a better one in future but I’d still keep this one. I get very attached to these things and giving it away would feel like giving away a part of me.”
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