Beach Days
You can hate me, it’s OK 😎. The beach is right there and the temperatures are still in mid 20s so I really have no choice but go. If it makes you feel better, I don’t go every day, honest. I could though! And this is pretty much why I’m here right now and not somewhere in the north of Spain or Madrid, or anywhere else for that matter. If you’re going to spend autumn anywhere, it should really be in València. October is already my favourite month and being able to wear dresses and summer pants every day is the best way to spend it.
That said, I do miss the colours, of course: West Coast autumns are beautiful and nothing here comes even close to the gamut of yellows, oranges, and reds we see every year. I just have to comfort myself by enjoying the blue skies then … sigh …
I won’t torture you with too much talk about beaches and sun and all that good stuff. But I will make a quick comment about the Spanish attitude to sunbathing and sunbathing attire, or lack thereof. I already mentioned that all beaches in Spain are basically topless and full nudist ones are not infrequent as well. What I did not expect, however, was the body-positivity I witnessed at the beaches I have been to so far. Please, don’t think I’m a prude; I most definitely am not. I am simply not used to the freedom with which women, primarily, go about the business of sunbathing here. Don’t forget that where I’m from such freedom may exist in law but definitely not in practice. Here, it is not only the young nubile women who take off their tops to tan, women of all shapes and sizes, and, most importantly, of all ages, let “the girls” go free. And they do so lying down AND walking about. As a matter of fact, I saw many middle-aged (and older) women, proudly strolling down the shore, sometimes alone, sometimes with a partner, letting it all hang out. The only men who stared at the bare chests were clearly tourists; I am sure the locals never even noticed. I say that because I caught very few men staring and those who did had that unhealthy white patina so typical of Brits who somehow managed to escape their Covid-ridden isles and probably contributed to the rising numbers here … but I digress. Bottom line is: I love the Spanish attitude towards the female body, at least at the beach, and hope that one day I will have enough nerve to follow suit.
Usually the waves are pretty small for a sea this size, but on one particular day there was definitely more wind and the sea was a little angrier than usual, resulting in actual waves … It was also a good day to go fishing, as I found out. I had always wondered if the men who fished from the beach ever caught anything, and there always seem to be some trying to. One way to find out is to spend a little time close by and observe. As the photo proves, it is definitely possible to catch fish, though by what method I still have no clue. It is very counterintuitive to see the fishing lines being cast into water that is at most a couple, maybe a meter deep for about 50 metres or more from the shore. Whatever method they use, however, clearly works!
