Gay Prague

One of the joys of visiting new countries or new places is to explore new gay bars, new saunas, new cruising areas. Prague is famous for its buildings, its culture, its Mitteleuropa atmosphere. Is it famous for its gay life ? There were few addresses on my list : one bar, one café and one sauna. I don’t visit a place for sex reasons only and besides, smoke in bars or public places is a concern.

After many museums, many good concerts but so few encounters, I decided to go to a sauna. Hoping to find a nice guy, ready to talk about his town, ready to guide me in the tangled history of Prague. But it is not easy to meet in such a strange place. Most of the men were guests like me. Local men were mute, certainly not there to share, to speak or to carry on a brief encounter. They were just looking for sex and for the illusion of pleasure.

Gay Granada

Oh yes ! Spanish men, amor brujo, passion and fire danced on a flamenco music. I like clichés and I’m still young enough to believe there are partly true. On a cold rainy day, men of Granada don’t look particularly hot and attractive. So I visited one sauna, just to make sure anything could happen. The sauna was an old and narrow place located in a posh area. No tourists in sight which is rather promising. But no magician of passion either. I was dreaming of kisses, of cuddling, of wispering songs in my ear and in my blood, I was now facing bully and hairy men, too fat and too grey to my taste. One starts touching me, but his only obsession is his chest and his nipples. No kiss, no fire, no mystery. Another one is at the sauna to observe. “Please, don’t touch me ! ” he keeps saying. Another man, quite young, quite attractive, invites me in a dark room but he stinks… like the beast of the Apocalypse does or cows in India. Eventually the young man at the counter stares at me. I no longer need to look for anybody else : he is the magician I was expecting; he has deep black hair and his eye is like a fierce fire that tortures me. Flames of the Inquisition ! I’m too frightened to even look at him. I could have told him : “estoy esperando a ti”. I am contented to grin at him and my dream whispers for a while…

Rainy Andalucia

Can you believe it ? It was warm and sunny when I quit Switzerland last Monday ( April 9). It was cold and rainy when I arrived in Màlaga, Spain. Màlaga ? An harbour. A big and noisy town. Not a touristy place. But there is a nice pedestrian street, the cathedral is amazing. The most famous child of Màlaga is Picasso. The artist is now everywhere, his paintings hang on scaffoldings, words remind the visitor that Picasso was born there, lived around, went to school nearby, was baptized in an old church, which is locked mostly all day… And a new museum displays some significant works by the most famous artist of the 20st century.

Darjeeling

Where is Darjeeling ? In India of course… Not quite obvious. To reach it, it takes several hours on a windy and narrow road. Several hours squeezed in a Jeep or at the back of it. There is another option : take the train. You’re not sure you will ever reach Darjeeling. The first time I wanted to visit Darjeeling – the name rings like bells in a chapel – I expected to reach a small village surrounded by green and neat tea gardens. But no village there, instead of it, a big, noisy and crowdy town crowning some hills, lost in a thick and smelly fog.

England ? Scotland ? No, Darjeeling, India.

Tea time

Tea, thé, Tee, chai : it sounds familiar ? My grandma would hate it. Just know why : she only knew that bland flavour direct from England she believed, in a yellow bag – not a submarine.

Tea : I drank it with lots of sugar or some honey, with milk too or lemon. Until the day, that very day in a Japanese fast food, where they had only green tea. How tea can be green when you just think it is always black ? That cup of tea was bitter and quite … bitter. No greens please, I prefer blacks. Until the day when a friend – neither black nor green, made me discover green, green, grass of China teas. (Do you know this song : Green, green grass of home?) Actually it was like coming home in the realm of mysteriously tasty teas.

A world is in a cup of tea.

Today, my mother came back from shopping with a new invention to me : a tea filter. She doesn’t like my cup filled with tea leaves.