On the fly

It didn't take much, but I realised the other day that I've had quite the exciting past week. Granted, I suppose I've had a pretty exciting past few months, but that's not the issue here. In just under two weeks, I've been in 6 countries, including (of course) the two smallest sovereign nations in the world, Monaco and The Vatican City and including the country of Andorra, which many people have not even ever heard of. Pretty cool, I reckon. But overall, this tour of homelessness that I've been running around on seems to have one central theme, which is this week's travel topic:

BEACH TIME

Note: Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, this post will not include photos, though being on the beach is definitely enhanced by having a nice view, so that I could actually show you, the audience, how nice the beaches just actually are. But here's a recap of the big beach stays that I've had over the duration of my time in Europe to this point.

La Rochelle, France
This is a historical port town, boasting three main beaches, but mostly surrounded by large rocks and constructed walls. The main point of the town is the two towers that lead to the main port, where not so expensive boats are housed. This is not to say, of course, that I wouldn't want any of these boats, because I would, and we contemplated pirating many-a-vessel while we were eating canned tuna and bread near the main area of the port. The beaches in La Rochelle are small, artificial and fairly difficult to get to by foot, but since we were walking everywhere at the time in an attempt to be cool and economical, we found no problem in it.

Biarritz, France
Say Biarritz and most french people will say something along the lines of 'Oh, vous faites du surf?' and we say, 'Yeah, maybe a little'. People come from all over France and the world (including European Surf Championships which are held there every year in late summer) to hang out on the long, rugged beaches. The sand is soft, the beaches picturesque and often given the extra bonus of a few massive rocks to give you something to look at while basking in the sun. The only unfortunate part about the beach is that it doesn't actually run all the way down from the south beaches to the main casino beach in the centre of town. The other unfortunate part (which also plagues the rest of Atlantic Europe)...COLD WATER.

Random Beaches between Biarritz and San Sebastian. Nice.

San Sebastian, Spain
Probably the most picturesque city on the nothern coast of Spain (that we saw), with three huge and constantly packed beaches. Hot Spanish women, and a big hill that you can climb up to and see the whole town, with a big statue of the virgin mary that seems to float in the night as they light it up.


Bilbao, Spain.
Contrary to popular belief, there are no beaches here. Sorry, folks. They DO have a Gugenheim Museum which we didn't see though.

Finisterre, Spain
Most people don't go here, so, as you might expect, the beaches are not busy. Nearly private beaches with beautiful weather and good friends. Good times.

Porto, Portugal
There are not actually beaches IN TOWN, but take a bus for 20 minutes and you've got 6km of sweetness. We did nearly a week soaking up the sun here in Madalena Sur, but if you don't make it out of town, make sure to try some Port, right from the source.

Lisbon, Portugal
Once again, though it would seem so on the map and contrary to popular belief, there are no beaches here. Nice city, but not as appealing to me as everyone would make you believe. As you go further south, the Atlantic, though cold, gets just a little more tolerable...enough so that you can probably swim for 3-4 minutes before it was just too damn cold.

Lagos, Portugal
Beautiful. Excellent. Can't say enough good things about this town. The campground is a skip away from the town, the town is confusing, and all you hear are English and Australians. But, that's the price you pay to go out and party all night, booze cruise on Saturdays and recover the next day on a beach surrounded by really really really cool grottos.

Tangier, Morocco
Weird. This was my first ever time in an Arab country and the differences compared to Spain and Portugal were vast. Coming from Spain it is uncommon to not see topless women making sure they get evenly dispursed tan across everywhere and doing everything in their power not to have nasty tan lines. In Morocco, however, you would be hardpressed to even SEE a woman on the beach, let alone in anything revealing. Soft sand though.

Tarifa, Spain
The windsurfing and kitesurfing capital of Spain. Tons of people stay here for weeks, I was there just for a day, but you better believe I liked it. With over 10km of beach just 100m from the centre of town, pretty cool place to make a stop in for.

Barcelona, Spain
I didn't, as you would call it 'hit' the beach in Barcelona, since my main goal was to not have my camera or wallet stolen, but I DID walk along it and unfortunately for the people of Barcelona, it was a stinky one. But it looked nice and the sun was hot. The water was a little rough, but most people looked as though they were having a pretty good time splashing around.

Cote D'Azur, France
I don't want to sound too cliche and say something stupid like 'Nice is nice', but I can understand why someone would. Though the beach is made completely of rocks, pebbles, I suppose, it's where most people head right away and it's where you'd better bet that I did the same. Tons of families, tons of couples and just as many singles. I made it to do some beach time in all of Monaco, Nice, Cannes and the lesser stopped in town of Antibes, all of which were sand, save for Nice. But we're not really sure if the sand was brought in, or if it's actually supposed to be like that naturally. And there's no way to know...

Rome, Italy
Yes, there are beaches here, but no, I did not go, nor will I. Crazy bus system here in this city.

Headed from here to check out some more beaches in beautiful Croatia, so we'll see if they can stand up to their reputation. Fingers crossed. But, even if they're not, one thing's for sure. They will all be warmer than the Atlantic.