You know that type of person who is so into something that it becomes contagious? Well, Cristina is just like that. She's 28 years old, she's from Chisinau and for about 6 months now since I met her (at JCI Cluj and also as a workmate), she keeps talking enthusiastically about bicycles.
For example, we go to lunch together and I ask her what has she been up to. She suddenly stops eating and pulls out her smartphone to show me how many km has she done with her "Butterfly" (that would be the name of her bike), how much has the bike-lovers community grown, she tells me about innovative bike-sharing systems that are about to be implemented in other countries and on and on she goes. There comes Adrian (you really can't help hearing Cristina when she talks about bicycles) who tells us that he has a friend who's developing a bike app in Amsterdam. In short - she got us all hooked up.
Just to have a feel of how passionate are these bike-lovers who set up the whole initiative - Ride2Work, I have to say a few words about their kick-off event. It all started on the 2nd of June, 8 AM, heavy rain (I'm not kidding). The whole team: Camelia, Cristina, Diana, Andrei, Călin, Tudor, Radu together with the volunteers from OSUT and some other 100 riders, set off from home to get to work by bike and they've been doing it every Thursday since, getting new people along. At the second "edition" as well as at the party they threw at the end of the first month, bike-lovers in Cluj had the chance to try out a different type of bike that works conunterintuitively from what we're all used to. This is where they came together woth the project: "Find out how your brain works". Everybody got excited when somebody finally managed to outsmart it and got it moving for a few meters.
One my favourite parts of the whole Ride2Work experience was at the second edition when I saw Camelia, the PM of the project (who's also a PM at her daily job) holding a meeting with her work-team right at the location of Ride2Work pit stop that day. She really is a role-model for her team in this sense.
On top of it all, guess what Cristina did on her holiday? At a quick glance over their Facebook page, looks like she had a lot of fun in London, on a bike of course. She tells me that she tested the bike sharing system in London to get a 360 degrees experience of the city. By getting a bike she was able to stop whenever she wanted and do her sightseeing, something that no other means of transport can provide.
Eventually, while serving the desert, she takes a break and asks me about my day.
Me: - " Well, I'm trying to get you an interview but I haven't found a time to cut in while you were speaking." We both burst out laughing.
Funny as it may seem, I have never met a more enthusiastic person about bikes than Cristina.
PS: I also asked her: " When did you take up cycling?"
Cristina: " Well, on a nice sunny day, I got totally into it and it has grown on me ever since"
Track: Zorilor - Mărăști (and yes, she does ride her bike fearlessly, uphill on Calea Turzii every day)
by Ovidiu Mățan
by Diana Costa
by István Nagy
