Faith in Belgians = RESTORED

Today was very unusual.

This morning I was riding my bike when I heard a clicking coming from the back wheel. I tried to turn and see what it was but couldn’t see anything and carried on. Then all of a sudden, a horrible crunching, cracking noise started and my bike just stopped. I got off and saw that a CARDIGAN was wrapped tightly inside the gear casing. Even weirder is it was the cardigan I was wearing yesterday, that I’d definitely left lying on the sofa as I’d left this morning. The bike wouldn’t move at all, and when I tried to pull the cardigan out, it wouldn’t come. It was wound so many times and so tightly it was impossible to do anything. I was in a rush so I had to lock the bike where it was and run to get my lift into work.

All day I dreaded having to carry it home in the evening and was worried because the casing had cracked and broken and it wouldn’t be easy to fix even if I did get the cardigan out. When I got back into Antwerp, I walked to where I’d left it and sat down on the pavement to see if there was something I could do. No amount of pulling helped. 

It was then that a man of about 50 passed by and sat down next to me. He only spoke Dutch but immediately got stuck in trying to pull out the cardigan. He picked my bike up and turned it upside down, and slowly we managed to unravel a little bit. By this time another man walked past and tried to help us too but it wasn’t coming out. THEN, an old mediterranean woman walked up to us and pulled a pair of scissors out of her bag! Between us all, we slowly cut up the cardigan whilst spinning the wheel, digging in and pulling out, our hands getting covered in black grease.

Finally, we managed to pull the last bit out and we all cheered and high-fived each other. I shook all of their hands and said "Dank uw wel! Heel gut!!" Which is about all the Dutch I could remember. They all walked off whilst I tried to put the chain back on, but the broken plastic casing was in the way and I couldn’t manage it. Now that it was free of the cardigan, I was able to wheel it down the road, where I spotted a bike shop. I wheeled it inside and told the guy in there that I couldn’t put the chain back on. 

He sort of tutted and rolled his eyes whilst smiling, as if to say "This problem is so easy to fix!". Then he saw the casing and shook his head. 

"It’s gonna be difficult with the case. You will have to pay to repair this!" I sighed, and looked at the bike.

"Is there no way we can try just putting the chain on without taking it all apart?" I asked. He bent down and fiddled around, then just about managed to slip the chain on. The casing kept knocking it off though, so I asked him for some cellotape and together we taped up the plastic until it was clear of the chain.

"DANK UW WEL!!" I said enthusiatically, so glad I didn’t have to pay for it to be taken away for a few days while they fixed it. He smiled, and I told him to have a nice day, wheeled it out the shop and rode the fixed bike all the way home!

I know I moan about Belgians a lot but the fact that 4 people all helped me just to be nice really restores my faith in them. They’re a good bunch when they see someone in trouble. I remember the time I fell off my bike horribly, so many people rushed over to help.

Good times!