56.

I didn't write yesterday, but only because I was writing something else, something serious. And I just didn't feel like writing anything more. Oh well, why am I even making excuses for myself?

Today I found out that it is illegal to cycle together on one bike in Belgium. As in: a second person sitting on the back of the bike, legs to one side. Maybe I'm ignorant, but I find this very weird. In the Netherlands, carring someone on your bike is the peak of romance. The most famous scene from the most famous Dutch movie is just two people riding on one bike. Many odes to this way of cycling have been written. People have gotten angry over bike sharing services offering bikes without a rack on the back. There's multiple well-known songs called bagagedrager (a good word to practice your Dutch!). So as a Dutch person, I'm naturally soaked in the culture of the bike rack, and a happy participant in the two-people-on-a-bike tradition. But our southern neighbors apparently don't look so kindly on this behaviour. And I don't really understand why. Is it really so dangerous that it should be made illegal? Or is there some other reason? In any case, I don't think that we're going to stop doing it. It's a comfortable and romantic mode of transport, it requires almost no equipment and is carbon neutral! What more do you want?

Also, I just now realized that I've been doing this writing during a period of no lectures. My lectures have just started, and I can already sense that this writing is going to get a whole lot more tiring from now on. My studies consist of approximately 100% reading, thinking and writing, so this extra writing suddenly seems a bit... excessive. Oh well.