What defines a city? Is it the buildings, or the monuments? Should a city be known by the trees in its parks and gardens or by the birds and animals that welcome every morning? What is it that represents all that a city is? Ask the poets, the writers, the artists and they’ll say it’s the experiences unique to each city that give it an identity. Every city is known by its people, its places, its look, feel and smell, and all of them combined make up its experiences. And inside every city, leading to every one of those experiences, are millions of paths, lanes and roads.
Somehow, when someone talks about the experiences in a city, they fail to talk enough about these paths. These paths aren’t just straight lines whose sole purpose is to run between origins and destinations. These paths often hide secrets or magical spots, untouched by the masses that otherwise throng all that is popular. You may assume that by its very nature, a city has nothing left to explore but it takes a different kind of explorer to make new discoveries in a city, to turn over old earth and find something fresh.
Cities have been carved into existence by centuries worth of conquerors and kings, sages and god men and they’ve left behind traces of their lives everywhere. They now await modern day explorers, those who’ll find the edifices fashioned by those that came before.
But not all places within cities are ancient, some are new, exciting, full of things alive and electric, and like the others, they may only be a short distance away. To explore these places, you need something that’s agile, something that motivates you to go out and prospect rather than stay indoors or trudge to the same old places. What you use during your explorations should be so convenient that it almost feels like an extension of yourself as you take in the splendour of a fireworks display at a small fair or go insane photographing every type of flower at the orchid exhibition.
There are thousands of experiences that every city has in store for you but really, there are only a couple of things you need- a desire to venture out of your house and the means to do it. And what better means than a bicycle that’s light, easy to handle, doesn’t cost a bomb and looks great!
So, hop on your bike, tighten your helmet, and find out what defines your city.
