Bicycle Postcard From My Hometown

I almost never take photo's. There's not one post you can find with a photograph taken by myself. Sure, there's lots of screenshots and some light editing in GIMP by my hand, but somehow I almost never feel the urge or need to shoot a picture of life.

_{Fishing for Bikes in the canals of Groningen | The Netherlands
source: Skitterphoto}

Sometimes I regret that, especially knowing how the human memory tends to re-shape images stored there from the past. I think I know the faces of my friends from long ago, but I know that when I see a picture from someone I haven't seen for decades, what I see is almost never exactly what I remember; my mental image doesn't correspond with reality as made eternal on photo-sensitive paper. I should make more photos really.

_{One small bike-stand of three levels high - Picture by @zyx066}

So last week I took some photos at work and I discovered something funny: when you take pictures with a camera (I used the one on my mobile as I don't own a real camera), you look at things differently! First I thought "why take a photo when I see this every day", but then I saw how stupid that thought is; it's normal to me and it's normal now. I change every second, as does everybody, so tomorrow I'm not the same man as I am today. There's been so much changes in the world during my life; the neighborhood where I grew up still has the same streets, houses and gardens, but I don't recognize it anymore. It is I that has changed.

_{It says on the yellow banner that bicycles can be parked here for free (there is surveillance personel checking on the vehicles regularly) for up to 12 days, after which you'll have to pay 25 euro to get it back.
Picture by @zyx066}

Photos don't only keep track of the changes in the world you're part of, it keeps track of the changes in yourself too, and I don't mean the self-portraits :-) The pictures are from my hometown of Groningen, the Netherlands, at the place where I work near the central train station. I don't know where you come from, dear reader, but here the main mode of transport is the bicycle. There is more place for parking bicycles then there if for cars; on these pictures there's only the small bicycle parking lot as the really big one is underground. The Netherlands is a real bicyclist's heaven; a lot of the infrastructure and city-logistics are aimed specifically at the two-wheeled pedal-machines.

_{You can barely see the small moon in the night sky - Picture by @zyx066}

It's still light and daytime when I start working, but when I go home it's almost midnight; that's why my posts get here 3 or 4AM my time ;-) I took two pictures from the 9^th floor and again looking at the OLED preview on my mobile I saw the trainstation with different eyes. It looks quite beautiful like this. But I was also reminded of how much this artificial light traps us in our own little world; you can barely see the moon in the distance and the sky should be full of stars... Come to think of it; people who never leave the city will never be able to gaze into the distance of millions of light-years and see the true majesty of the surrounding universe. That must have such a profound effect on peoples's "mindsets"...

_{Too much artificial light? - Picture by @zyx066}

Well, that's it for today my friends; I can't stay up as late as usual because I have an early morning appointment, in a couple of hours. I can't leave without expressing my gratitude to you however; I thank you for stopping by my blog today and hope to see you back here tomorrow as I try to keep up my schedule of one post per day. Until then, feel the change in yourself as well as in the universe, and keep steeming!

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