Sitges Beaches - empty the stresses and fill the senses

My travels today brought me to a beach in a small touristy beach town called Sitges, where old men wear Speedos and young women swim topless. Food peddlers and immigrants trying to make a euro off incessant tourism flock to the beaches like seagulls to stale bread.

Back home I know the last thing people want to see is more water, but here I am basking in the sun and listening to the lull of the Mediterranean while my fellow Houstonians retreat from fire-ant infested sewage.

Gay men gather on the shoreline like washed up starfish, but all is the better because there’s less of a reason to be worried about weird Europeans trying to be flirtatious.

My roommate has choosen to go topless (a feat I have yet the courage to attempt) and bounce around in the salty waves. The water is frigid at first and reminds me much of the spring-fed San Marcos river.

Strangely, here there are no seagulls so the only sounds are the singing of the ocean, the sing-song conversations of the Spaniards and the soft hawking of immigrants. The calm here is much what you’d find elsewhere in España – a relaxed, quiet space to empty your stresses and flood the senses.

My mind continues to revert back to our conversation with Anna last night. In case I haven’t explained (which I’m sure I haven’t yet), Anna is our host mom, a short, curly-haired, delicate artist of a woman who creates and sells lamp fixtures out of her store called Fingerprints. Her face is a crisscross of very gentle laugh lines surrounded by a bush of brownish gray poodle-like curls. Her eyes are the color of black coffee but light up with every smile, kiss and laugh. She has a smile like the sun, laughs with every breath and sees the beauty of everything in life. But back to the discussion. We conversed in Spanish for nearly three hours about the existence of God, evil and destiny. I didn’t agree with too much that was said, but continued to nod my head and grin to show that I understood.

Intermixed with the philosophy Anna exposed some of the innermost levels of her thinking. She mentioned much of an artists life is “sola,” always trying to be different. But that still made me think that in some way, everything is an art and life is nothing but a canvas.