La Bicicleta

I successfully rode a bike through the city of sevilla today! The walk to and from my residence to school is about 40 minutes, and if I go home for a siesta and then meet friends in the city later, that means a 40 minute walk 4 times a day. So I decided that I wanted to try the bikes that the city has out to rent. A friend, laura gave me all the info and helped with the first rental. You go to a kiosk and the first time, put your credit card in and they give you a paper with a code and you set up a secret pin. Then whenever you go back you just use the code and pin to rent a bike. The hard thing is that there is just a little time from when you enter the bike # that you want to rent and when it locks up again. You have to run over to it and press a button to unlock it completely. The second time i rented one today it took me 4 times until i successfully unlocked a bike. I now know that before selecting a bike i need to check that the button still looks intact. The bikes are hard to unlock so some people jam a poker that is attached to the bike (for the button) into the button, and it looks like over time the button becomes even more difficult to use. Anyways, the bike ride is about 15 minutes i think (took me 20 because i had to try 4 different times to get a bike), and much easier than walking in the heat. I also didn´t run into any people, and if you saw these streets you would know that is quite an accomplishment... people everywhere! and they definately do not stay out of the bike lane. So most of the time you have to ride pretty slow, but that is ok bc the bikes are like 3 speed beach cruisers so it would be hard to go fast. Here is a picture of the bikes in