On our second day in Lisbon, I had the chance to ride a segway while touring some of the city's ancient historical quarters! I wanted to try something else other than a bike tour, and the segway was the perfect contender. I've seen a couple of those two-wheeled vehicle type things before, but I never really knew what exactly they were.
Our three experienced "segway-ists" walked us through how to properly ride and maneuver a segway. All we had to do was get both our feet up on the platform, hold the handle bars, and tilt the bars either right or left to switch sides. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Only it isn't.
Leaning forward accelerates the segway, and leaning back will slow it down. Note that I wrote "slow it down" and not "brake". There is no brake on a segway. GASP! At least, not the kind you would find on a bike where you can just squeeze the handles and you immediately come to a stop. Nope, the movement of a segway fully depends on the rider's body movements.
You lean too far forward, you zoom away. You lean too far back, the segway will slow down, but will start heading backwards. So if you want to stay still or pause for a bit, you would have to strike a balance between leaning forward and leaning back to get your segway to be in a stationary position. That said, one of the most essential rules when riding a segway: YOU CAN'T FREAK OUT. If you do, your segway will freak out too trying to match your movements!
When I first hopped on my segway, I was so nervous!! I was gripping the handle bars so tight and froze for a bit trying to get a balance to stay still. My guide felt my tension, so he told me to relax and said that as long as I get my balance, I won't topple over because the segway is not built to be able to do so. Phew!
Of course, as luck would have it, it instantly poured rain as soon as we got to our starting point of the tour. And with rain came strong winds. And strong winds affect segway movements since like what I've said, there are no brakes. So the other challenge aside from trying to perfect a balance is battling those strong winds!
At one point, it started blowing intensely to my left, causing my segway to turn right without me doing anything! So I had to fight that off and manually turn my segway to the left to balance myself. Thankfully, the rain and wind decided to give me a less hassling experience, and after about 15 minutes, the sun was out! Yay!
Once I felt my way around working with the segway, I started to get pretty comfortable with it and finally got the hang of it! I think the best part for me was whenever we would go uphill!! It was amazing because all you had to do was lean forward and the segway will automatically climb however steep it was! I felt as if I was levitating, since I was going up a hill in an upright position!
Then there's that thrill of going downhill. Now you had to lean back, careful not to roll all the way down hahaha. It was just so much fun going around the city in those things! I felt legit cool, too, because people would be taking our photos while we passed by the streets. There's something about a group of people all on segways in one long line that capture the people's interest and attention, I guess!
And the views we got to see.. wow. The tour took us through Alfama's labyrinth like streets (and often narrow), archways, and beldeveres. I enjoyed going through the cobblestoned streets and seeing the marketplace, the cafes, and the locals just waving and saying hello. And since Lisbon is built on hills, there were a lot of those uphills and downhills which made segway riding that much more exciting!
This was definitely one of my favorite experiences in Europe!
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| Our segways parked at a nearby church in Lisbon |
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