I'm Eco Friendly!
This shot was taken one afternoon while walking along the coast of Sitges, Spain.
My friend Mike: “That’s a nice shot. Were you tired?”
Me: “Um, I don’t’ think so. Why?”
My friend Mike: “I just thought you’d be tired after carrying that tree around in your backpack.”
Doh! It hadn’t even registered until that comment. Up until then I thought it was actually pretty decent picture of me for once.
Sitges, Spain
After spending the day relaxing on the sand at Sitges, we headed toward town to find something to eat before jumping on the train back to Barcelona. I turned around to get another view of the beach and saw this little girl looking over the wall, watching the people playing in the surf.
On this cold day in Chicago, I wish I were there right now holding her hand…but not in a pervy way.
Here are a few more Flickr photos from my day in Sitges.
No, this isn't the naked man I was referring to, it's a photo taken in the garden of the Miro Foundation
We had planned to spend some time in the afternoon wandering around Monjuic, southwest of the center of Barcelona. David and I had wanted to see the Miro Foundation and the 1992 Olympic Stadium, both of which are located on the hill. What we didn’t plan on seeing were two completely naked men walking casually through the street.
We had been walking around for a few hours in the July heat and had stopped to watch some divers practicing at the municipal pool; the site of the aquatic competitions of the 1992 Olympics. It’s a modest facility built on the side of the hill, with a great view of the city below.
The Municipal Pool, A Venue at the 1982 Olympic Games
After taking a few pictures I turned away from the divers and noticed another tourist, about ten feet away from me, looking wide-eyed over my left shoulder. His eyes met mine and he gave me a sort of, what-the-hell kind of a look. He grabbed his wife and pulled her closer and said something in German, then he nodded at me as if to say, “Okay, look now!” I slowly turned, trying to do that nonchalant thing we all are never successful with, and was shocked to see two completely naked men walking our way.
Now, I am by no means a prude. In fact, a day later you would have found me frolicking naked on the beach at Sitges. But c’mon, this was the middle of the city, and there were old ladies waiting at the bus stop just up the corner. It was just startling to see…for a couple of reasons, really.
Aside from the fact that they were naked, they were a very odd looking pair. There was a younger guy, maybe about 30ish, with dark hair, wearing sandles and carrying a man-bag. (He obviously needed a place for his gum and change). I think of him as the acolyte or apprentice because the other guy was truly the leader, the star of the show.
Much older, the Naked Man of Barcelona was maybe mid to late sixties with grey hair and a beard. His torso and thighs were covered in tattoos: little flying birds, suns, stars, and faces. After he passed me I realized that his entire ass was tattooed to look as if he was wearing a speedo.
"The Naked Man of Barcelona" doing a bit of shopping.
Both men were extremely tan, which of course happens when you are wandering around naked all day, and both of them were very well endowed. Sorry to be so blunt. I was definitely a little rattled when my eyes wandered down to their mid-sections. It was disturbing actually. Could that also happen because they were hanging out naked all day? Is that possible?
I looked over at David, who was completely oblivious to the scene, and gave him one of those jerky head with eyes darting to the left moves and said between gritted teeth, “Look over there, look over there.”
He caught sight of the two guys as they were passing by and looked just as shocked as the German man. He only caught the back end of them, so later I had to explain what they looked like from the front, “Okay, imagine a beer bottle…”.
This is the Acolyte, you can tell by his bag.
I pulled out my camera to take a picture. Again, I was going to be very nonchalant about it. “Hey David, let me take your picture,” I said. Smooth, right? How were they going to know I was really going to take a picture of them over David’s shoulder? And they were already walking away with their backs to us.
He looked at me with really serious eyes and whispered, “Put that away. You are NOT going to take a picture!” Okay, maybe he was right, it was a bit rude, but how were friends back home going to believe me without visual proof?
Later that evening David and I were back in our hotel room. I was showering before we headed back out to dinner and David was on my laptop, I assumed checking his email. “Oh my God,” he yelled to me. “The naked guy is pretty famous. There’re all sorts of photos and YouTube videos of him. I just Googled, ‘naked-man-of-Barcelona’ and all of this stuff showed up!”
I looked over his shoulder and we watched a few of the videos that other tourists had posted on YouTube. The reactions of people varied. Some of them were not phased, others looked horrified, and more than one young girl ran screaming from the sight of him.
I might not have gotten my own photo, but now I at least had proof to show people back home!
The photos of the Naked Man are from the Flickr collection of FaceMePls.
The photo of the Acolyte is from the Flickr collection of maubrowncow.
Here are some photos taken on our Fat Tire Bike Tour of Paris.
A week to wander around that amazing city. You might spend a day at the Louvre, touring its galleries, really taking the time to appreciate all of the masterpieces. Maybe you’d head over to the Eiffel tower and relax on the lawn as you watch other tourists gawking at the structure. Or maybe you’d just sit at that cute outdoor cafe near your hotel and enjoy a cafe au lait or two as you relax with that novel you started (but didn’t get very far with) on the plane ride over. You’re thinking to yourself that you should really get out to see Versailles, but hey, tomorrow is another day. There’s plenty of time for that. After all, you have a whole week in Paris!
You’ve worked hard and saved your money and by god you are going to actually take two of those three weeks of vacation time that you’ve earned and you are blowing them on one big trip. You are finally getting back to Europe after many years away and dammit, you are going to see as much of it as you possibly can! Life seems to be going by so fast and who knows when you are going to have the chance to go back again.
That’s the position I found myself in last year. After many years I was finally going back to Europe but I only had a limited amount of time to stay in Paris, basically, a day and a half. I know, a ridiculous amount of time to get anything done. It wasn’t on the original itinerary when my partner and I were planning the trip, but Paris got squeezed in when we found a cheap flight from Barcelona and a decent train fare from Paris to Amsterdam.
As we were planning the trip I came across a website for Paris bicycle tours: Fat Tire Bike Tours. For under $40 we could do a 4 hour evening bike ride through the streets of Paris with an English speaking guide. On the tour we’d pass by many of the the main “must see” attractions (important for us since David had never been to Paris) and then at the end of the ride we would wind up on a boat ride down the Seine at night.
I’m not a big biker. I don’t ride too regularly, and there was even a period of about ten years where I didn’t get on my bike once. These days I’ll pull out my ten speed a couple of times during the spring or summer and ride along Lake Michigan, but that’s about it. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, it’s just that I have a real fear of riding in traffic. For me to get to the lake I need to ride about a mile through the streets. Cars scare me when I’m not in the protective cocoon of my Mazda. The more I read about the bike tour though, the more it sounded like a good idea. (Good enough even to ignore my traffic fear).
The bike ride was one of the highlights of our trip to Europe.We met the tour leader, a sweet girl from the U.S., at the base of the Eiffel Tower late in the afternoon. From there she took our group of about 15 (mostly Americans with a few Canadians and a couple of english speaking Dutch) a few blocks away to the company headquarters where we were outfitted with our bikes. After a brief explanation of the rules and the route we would be taking we were off!
For the next few hours we rode through the streets of Paris passing the Eiffel Tower, the Academie Francaise, Notre Dame and other sites. We stopped on the Pont St. Louis and watched some street musicians perform while we enjoyed a scoop of ice cream from Berthillon’s. Throughout the tour our guide was always conscious of our safety and of making sure the entire group had a good time.
The crowds were all but gone and as we rode through the courtyard it felt as if we had it all to ourselves. Riding around the pyramid on my fat tire bike was an awesome experience. Then, at the end of the ride, when the sun had set, we all climbed onto a tour boat and road down the Seine. We toasted our group and our guide with a glass of wine as we approached the Eiffel Tower again, this time with all of it’s lights blazing.
If you only have a short period of time to spend in a city consider doing something like a bike tour. It’s a great way to see a lot of sites that you might have missed otherwise, and it can leave you with some really special memories.
If you are interested in seeing some of the photos from my Fat Tire Bike Tour, here is a link to the gallery.
