sometimes i hate capitalism and consumer societies
~end of june i went to a bike trip with a few buddies and i realized after not biking for like 30 years that it's actually fun lol. i just wanted a cheap simple bike to ride the nearby mountains. a simple cross country hardtail mtb. it should be easy, right? apparently it's not. i went down to this rabbit hole of specs, doubled, then tripled my original budget, then said to myself "you're nuts, just get something cheap to see how much you used the bike", then went to see a local dealer who knows all the buddies, got a list of good offers and after a few days of checking specs, comparing the shit out of the complete bike market, i settled with a specific bike. i told the local dealer that i want that model in that size, he said fine, he instantly called the wholesaler in front of me, reply: "the last item of that bike in that size just sold this morning". so i started to find either the same bike elsewhere, or find an other good bike with similar specs, because - listen to this lol - i didn't want to DOWNGRADE ON A BIKE I NEVER HAD lol. yeah i'm an idiot.
then i just found the same bike in germany at a great price. but they don't ship it to hungary. i asked all package forwarders i knew, but the package is either likely to be oversized, simply banned with them, or extremely expensive. so i'm now genuinely thinking about asking a buddy to come with me and drive to germany just to pick up a bike. yeah i'm an idiot, confirmed twice