camps bay

camps bay

and here’s my sad attempt at piecing together two photos.

camps bay has a beautiful beach. the atlantic is too cold to swim in now but you can still sunbathe — that is, until the strong wind which they affectionately call the “cape town doctor” starts blowing sand in your face.

fremantle

fremantle, originally uploaded by suddenly.

hot day in perth = lounging on the beach. this one’s a small obscure strip in fremantle which was blessedly uncrowded. it was just us, the indian ocean, and the seabirds.

coogee beach

coogee beach rock pool, originally uploaded by suddenly.

just when you thought it was safe to go into the water…

shark, originally uploaded by suddenly.

summer in sydney sounds so appealing until you realize that most places don’t have A.C. the high today was 36 degrees celsius which, in fahrenheit, is the equivalent of a constant pool of sweat in your ass crack. this entire week has been hot, hot, hot and we’ve been trying to find relief from the ozone-less stratosphere that hovers over these parts, threatening to sear the first three layers of our epidermis.

we thought one chill place would be the aquarium. ideally, it would’ve been cooler if it weren’t for the hundred or so rugrats violating my personal space and sucking away what faint A.C. was available. still, the aquarium was worth the trip. the best part is the glass tunnel you walk through to see the fish swimming next to, below, and above you. the star attraction is the shark but the stingrays deserve center stage, too. temperature-wise, the aquarium wasn’t so cool but it does have lots of cool stuff. see more photos of aquatic life here.

yesterday, we went to manly beach where the sunbathers are even better-looking than the ones at bondi. the water was ice cold and strongly currented but felt amazing after near broiling in the sun. and if you’re wondering how the soles of my feet are doing after strolling on the sand without flip flops, well, the blisters are healing nicely, thank you.

all i gotta say is, thank god for popsicles.

the beach in tenerife

sunbathers, originally uploaded by suddenly.

we hit the beach a few times, mostly for breezy strolls and surfer watching and once for swimming. the beach in las galletas is a pebbly affair with black volcanic sand and gynormous waves that’ll knock your trunks off. we left our towels and bags along the far end of a wall before we dove into the atlantic. after swimming for a white, we noticed that a kind lady moved our belongings further away because the tide had come in beyond that point already.

we spent a relaxing month in tenerife and that concluded the european portion of our tour (at least for now). we have three weddings to attend in north america and that’s the next leg of our tour. the first stop: NYC back in the U.S. of A.

a day at the beach

gorliz beach, plentzia

you gotta love a city where you can ride the subway to the beach. urban jungle on one end, hop on a train, and you get sand and water on the other end. we picked a warm, sunny day to go to gorliz beach in plentzia, about 30 minutes outside of bilbao. it’s a sleepy town with eerily stumpy trees and very few restaurants. we stopped at the local watering hole for lunch. i had fried rabbit with fries. i always order rabbit when i see it on the menu.

the water was still too cold for swimming but it was hot enough to sunbathe. it was just us and some local elderly folks on the beach.

see the pho-tos on my flickr photostream.

almost paradise – how suddenly susan got her tan back

doctor’s cave beach, montego bay

i left paradise and stayed a couple of more weeks in a low-rent flat in the outer limits of montego bay in what would be considered “the projects” in other cities. according to the owner and web site, this place was “5 minutes” to the beach but when i got there he told me, “oh, that beach is closed for construction.” and therefore, the nearest beach is 25 minutes away by car. oookay, how much is a taxi there? “about $25 each way or you can rent a car for $50 a day.” excuse me?? anyway, i worked out a more affordable arrangement with the owner’s friend, a sketchy jamaican dude, who arrived an hour or so late each time to chauffeur me to and from the beach. he blared the radio at volume 11 in his run-down jalopy with broken doors. his barely-legal mute girlfriend sat in the front, giving me dirty looks in the rear view mirror. not quite the lovely experience of our driver at “destiny.” sigh. alas, this was not my destiny.

that was how i got to doctor’s cave beach every day, which by the way, costs $5 to enter each time. i realized that with all the extra money i had to fork over, i could’ve stayed at a hotel right on the beach for roughly the same price. things in jamaica are more expensive than you’d think. stores and restaurants tack on a 16.5% “general consumption tax” on everything you buy. and of course, you get charged the “tourist price” for everything.

in the end, i suppose it was worth it. doctor’s cave is a beautiful beach. it’s hot but not too hot on the sand and the water is set to a perfect temperature by the glorious sun. you can swim out six feet into the caribbean and still see straight down to the sandy bottom.

see all my photos from doctor’s cave.

i cannes goes there?

hands down, it’s sharon stone in cannes

i took a day trip to cannes. it’s just an hour away from nice on the city bus but right away it seems to be wealthier and a little more refined. a look at all the yachts on the marina will give you a clue of how moneyed the locals are. even the beach is nicer.

cannes hosts an international film festival and you can see vestiges of all the celebrities who’ve come through this city. get a glimpse of some in these photos:

nice is very nice

the beach in nice

everything you’ve heard about nice is true; it’s sunny, the food is amazing and the people are friendly. i’m not sure why more people don’t live here. any place where you can lay on the beach staring at the mediterranean sea in the winter is paradise, in my book. and there’s something about seeing palm trees everywhere that puts me in a good mood.

i immediately noticed that the locals look different in the south of france. of course, they are much tanner than people up north but the woman are shorter for some reason. the ladies’ fashion is different too. the older women love showing their cleavage and going topless at the beach. in fact, all the boobs on the beach are pretty much bronzed, saggy and reminiscent of catcher’s mitts. downtown, there are gaggles of tiny teenage girls dressed like avril lavigne. incidentally, her song “when you’re gone” is constantly on the radio here.

my apartment is in vieux nice or “old nice” where restaurants, bakeries and produce vendors line the narrow alleyways. there’s one shop that sells just olives and another that just has tablecloths and sunny provençale fabrics. i discovered a weekend flea market that sells vintage prints and posters. i couldn’t resist picking up two vintage ad posters – one from the 60s and the other dating back to the 40s. i can’t wait to hang them up as a reminder of my trip. that is, when i have a real home – whenever that may be.

some more pictures here:

bulgaria

golden sands beach in varna, bulgaria – the black sea coast

i’m in bulgaria now. yeah, that’s right, i said bulgaria. it’s not the most obvious choice as a tourist destination but that’s what i was looking for. someplace completely foreign and unknown to me. the only inkling i had about this country is that it recently joined the EU and that it’s famous for its weightlifters. other than that, i was clueless.

my first stop: varna or more specifically golden sands beach, a resort on the black sea coast. just gorgeous, actually beyond gorgeous. i don’t know why it’s called the black sea because the water is the purest azure and there ain’t a black person in sight. apparently this is a tourist hot spot for germans. all the signs and menus are in german and every restaurant seems to offer a schnitzel special. and boy, i’ve never seen folks as pasty white as the deutsch. their kids are practically albino. i can say this smugly now because i am getting bronzer by the day.

hoi an

i’ve been relaxing in hoi an for the last nine days. it’s a pretty little city about an hour south of danang. i’ve been riding to cua dai beach on a motorbike, swimming in the warm waters of the south china sea, and eating crab for lunch at the beachfront seafood shack. life is good in vietnam.

at haeundae. this is the beach. i was shocked to see how clean it is. i’d just assumed it’d be littered with cigarette butts and soju bottles but busan-ites seem to be a fairly conscientious bunch.