BEACHES IN SPAIN: MINIMAL CLOTHING REQUIRED
Every beach in Spain is a topless beach. Either that, or I get dragged to only topless ones.
So, I have this hang up. I am a firm believer in "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." For example, I eat lunch at 2 like the Spaniards do, I speak Spanish and occasionally utter a phrase in Catalan, so on and so forth.
Yet I have this other firm believe: "When in public, wear clothes." I dunno. Maybe I'm just being a stubborn American in that regard.
So, I get to the beach and feel overdressed in a swimsuit (yes, it IS possible to feel overdressed in a swimsuit. I know, crazy, right?) Mostly because women of all ages, regardless of how they look with or without a swimsuit, have a tendency to not wear bikini tops. The little kids have a habit of just not wearing clothes. It's a very... liberal culture.
That's really all I have to say on the matter. I don't disapprove of them not wearing bikini tops, it just came as a shock...a repeated shock which happens over and over again.
Speaking of shocking:
EXPLOSIVES REVISITED
Terrassa had a huge festival this weekend. Which I didn't know about. Actually, let me rephrase. I didn't know about it BEFORE I got off the train in Terrassa on Monday, but I would have to have been blind, deaf and completely oblivious to miss the floats, huge crowds, and random reenactments of medieval Spanish life, complete with firing of guns right next to my ear without warning. Oh, and gymnasts. How the gymnasts plays into it isn't clear to me, but that's okay.
Point being, once again, Spain had an excuse to blow things up. Yeah, you thought Americans were big on fireworks. No. If America is big on fireworks, Spain is the crack cocaine addict of fireworks.
And they take about as many precautions with fireworks as crack addicts do with the object of their addiction. Now, call me a stickler, but I believe that fireworks can be dangerous. I mean, they explode. Do I really need more justification than that?
Thus, I think there should be some regulations aroung them. Don't get me wrong, Spain has lovely fireworks, and I love looking at them, but they should consider changing some things regarding safety. Like, I probably shouldn't be able to feel the shockwave reverberations of the firework explosions on my skin. Cars right next to me probably shouldn't have their alarms go off as a result of the fireworks. Smoke probably shouldn't permeate the streets of the town for the rest of the night. The fireworks probably shouldn't be RIGHT over my head. I mean, it was gorgeous. But I spent half the time being like...am I gonna die?! I mean, these were huge. And RIGHT THERE. Being fired like 500 feet away. I dunno. Kinda dubious to me.
I took some pictures of the fireworks. It looks like I zoomed in to get a better photo. I didn't. These are just me pulling out my camera and taking a picture. Yeah, they were THAT close.
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| From 2009-07-10 Barcelona (2) |
Other than that, all I have to say is I'm coming home in 11 days! Which makes me sad but also super excited. Bittersweet.
On a side note, Spain was one of the first countries to legalize gay marriage, which I know from my work in social innovation (because homosexuality is innovative? I have no idea. It comes up a lot though.) But it really sunk in when I went into a bakery, and this is what I see:
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| From 2009-07-10 Barcelona (2) |
Yes, there are indeed two men on that wedding cake topper. But don't worry, they had women covered too:
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| From 2009-07-10 Barcelona (2) |
and lets not forget the heterosexual couples now:
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| From 2009-07-10 Barcelona (2) |
Super adorable. I was like, if Barcelona and San Francisco were people, they should meet.
Also, another slide show! These are photos I took at the Terrassa Technology Museum, photos from the coast off of Mataro or la Range, something like that...near Llavaneres. Yeah, it's all Greek to me too (or rather, Spanish/Catalan...whatever). Very beautiful. And some other photos of fireworks, food, etc.
