One last morning at the beach was in order before we traveled into the big city. We purchased entirely too many apple pastries and were on the beach before another soul. I swear people here sleep until noon, wake up, work until 3, take a two hour siesta, go back to work until midnight, party until 3, then do it all again the next day. Work hours seem really lax as several stores have failed to be open during their “open hours.”
Everyone was out last night watching the football game. By football I mean American soccer, but it really makes more sense being called football to be honest. Every table at the cool bars was taken by people yelling at the big-screens. We had wanted to watch the game with us, but our prospects were quite low as everyone else must have had the idea long before we did. Instead, we went to a bar names Parrots and got mint mojitos. They were, hands down, the best mojitos I’ve ever had in my life. They were full of fresh limes, mint leaves and raw sugar that crunched in our mouthes when we sipped it.
Since we were the only ones on the beach this morning, we decided to liberate the nipple. Apparently all beaches in Europe are optional topless? Europe is considered really “progressive” because of their views on public nudity. Yet somehow, they still allow smoking inside all restaurants… The latter really makes no sense to me. I really enjoy eating your cigarette smoke while my food is looking me in the eye, thank you.
We figured that we should try the whole topless thing at least once while staying here. If everyone else is doing it, you probably should too. 😉 While we were undressing we sang along to Sting, “free, free, set them free.” However, the moment we heard the sound of other people arriving on the beach we got nervous that people would see our lady parts. We collectively decided that nipples are weird and that there is no such thing as “normal” nipples. Having them out for all to see was too big of a move for us. You’ve really gotta start small when making such a drastic change to your cultural norms. Quickly, we put our tops on and erased any evidence of indecent exposure.
Thank god we clothed ourselves because five minutes later, four fluffy wet dogs decided to enter a wrestling match in the center of our beach blanket. We were flailing our arms and rolling around like sardines while drippy, sandy dogs pretended they had no idea we were there. I can’t even imagine the sight people would have seen had we not been wearing our bathing suits. An entire wet hairy tail made its way into my mouth. I panicked and somehow ended up biting off a mouthful of fur–not the best pairing with this morning’s pastry selection.
Speaking of Spain’s love of soccer, there was a little baby on the beach that must have watched many games while baking in the oven. He was not old enough to walk or talk, yet somehow he was crawling around, hoisting himself up, and kicking a ball around the beach. He’s probably the next soccer superstar in the flesh and I’ve seen his little naked butt! 😉 Have you ever seen a naked hermit crab switching shells? They’re hilarious, awkward, and adorable and for some reason little naked babies remind me of them.
Men on the beach carrying coolers came around chanting in a sing-song fashion, “cervesa, sangria, mojito, limonada, jugo de naranja, coca cola!” One walked right up to us and asked if we wanted a mojito. When we said “no gracias,” he said “muy guapo,” smiled, and walked away. Aria stood up and said, “oh my god did that guy just call us fat because we didn’t buy from him?!” I assured her no, but we checked the Spanish dictionary because she made me second-guess myself. It all ended well because we found that “gordo” means fat and “guapo” means handsome. We got a good laugh out of her confusion.
