Vacations are so good for us that there ought to be a rule that part of your vacation consists of a week after you return doing nothing other than remembering how much fun you had, To often it is right back to work and your vacation automatically becomes a thing of the past. Not fair. I can’t believe we have only been home two weeks and it seems like Sitges never happened.
It was so great to get away. It was our first mini vacation since Covid began, other than a few stolen weekends away seeing Ireland when the country was partially open. I love Ireland but I almost forgot what it is like to wake up everyday and know the sun will shine and I don’t have to wonder if it will be a shorts or a winter coat day. I could live the rest of my life perfectly happy knowing I only had to put on shorts and a t-shirt every day
Our great time was only made better by the fact that until we got our boarding passes at the airport we were never 100 percent sure we would be going as we never received our Covid Passports. When we finally got our boarding passes it was time to celebrate our hard work and retire to one of the lounges for a lot of bad food and good cocktails until it was time to board the plane.
It is so great being in Ireland and spitting distance away from so many countries. From New York it would have taken me about 7 hours to get to Barcelona as opposed to the 2 and ½ hours it took from Dublin. To be honest there are nicer airlines than Ryanair to fly but the price was right. Also beware if you are even thinking of playing a bit with your hubby or partner on the plane blankets are not provided.
Once in Barcelona we hopped a cab and were at our hotel, the Calipolis in 25 minutes. I’ve been in Sitges 4 times and as far as I’m concerned the Calipolis is the only place to stay.
Every morning we would wake up, sit out on our terrace and decide what we wanted to do for the day, while looking out at the ocean and town or I would be looking at Aaron and already know what I wanted to do all day. During lockdown I would be bored and started ordering bathing suits online for him as he loves them, unlike me. Everytime they came I would make him put them on for me. He would get me so fucking hot. Well, I have been waiting for the beach for so long now. I love seeing him all oiled up in his suit. All I can think about is dragging him back to the room, especially after a few cocktails on the beach. One of my favourite things about Sitges is there is literally nothing to do but enjoy the sun, the water, the food. and the good sex. The perfect place for a five or six day mini vacation. You never have to worry about not seeing everything. You see it all from your balcony.
The hotel is right across from the beach where you will most likely spend all your time. It is the best gay beach in town unless you are looking for the nudist cruising beach which is just a little further outside the main town. The hotel is also only a five minute walk to the town, restaurants, stores and bars. When you want to take a stroll the promenade in front of the hotel runs the length of the town. Early evening if you want to stroll in the opposite direction of town you will feel like you are going down the wrong way on a 5 lane highway. Aaron and I never seem to be in sync with everyone, just making life more fun.
The weather was perfect except for one night when it poured so hard I thought we would need a boat to get back to the hotel. Actually we were on our way to dinner when the rain started. It quickly became a downpour and got worse from there. We would have tried to make it to dinner but it was a bit uphill from the main street where we were and it would have been like we going the wrong way on the rapids, we would not have made it. So we inched our way back to the hotel in streets flooded with probably about 6 inches of water. Of course we woke up to sun the next morning.
One of my favourite activities when we would take a break from the beach was strolling through town mid afternoon licking ice cream cones while wondering the little streets looking for bathing suits or other little stuff. Aaron loves bathing suits so we had a great time finding ones for him. I’m more of a traditionalist when it comes to wearing them, but I get a big thrill when I see Aaron in his. Every day I would have to hide my excitement when he put a new one on. When were in Greece next month I’ll have to get some pics so all you guys can see how great he looks in them.
One of the more disappointing aspects of Covid is that all of the bars were closed inside. Aaron and I have still have not been inside of a bar or club since Covid began and I was really looking forward to a little , “dirty dancing,” and playing in some dark corners where not everyone could watch., I am a patient man though and will wait. Hopefully on Mykonos next month things will have eased up a bit.
All of the gay bars are located on a side street off the main drag. Since you were not allowed inside there was quite a crowd lining the street. Trying to get through the street was a feat in itself. Often you would feel like there were 500 sets of eyes on you and once in a while you might feel a pinch on your bum. All in good spirits. Also I suppose there is something that gets me horny being around all those hot guys, even though I have no interest in anyone but Aaron., don't even look. I guess somehow it just gets the hormones going.
Most of our time was spent just relaxing and playing in the water which was the perfect temperature. Be sure and get a ball and some paddles for the beach. Maybe even the card game Uno which a lot of people seemed to be playing. Aaron and I bought Uno but so far have not learned to play. Everytime we tried to learn we ended up in the water playing show and grab with each other or some other game we would make up that always seemed to involve. a lot of contact. We did have one big outing on the water, that was the day we decided to rent a boat. Mind you most people would have opted for a speed boat or something exciting, but Aaron wanted to rent a paddle boat with a slide. Arrested development I think. It was a blast though.
I loved that we were able to be as affectionate and loving with each other as we wanted in Sitges. In Dublin we are very loving with each other in public but to a limit. It is not because we are not comfortable but I believe you have to respect other people and it is not my wish to make other people feel uncomfortable. So how wonderful to be on the water and just be able to share a chaise on the beach without other people giving a hoot, including all the straight families. In fact I think most people wanted to see more. Including me. Sometimes I think there is a magnetic force that pulls us together and it was working in overtime as it was our first time really being away together on a real vacation. I was constantly holding down my excitement as I didn't want to disturb everybody.
One day we were in the elevator and Aaron was feeling a bit promiscuous. Aaron was practically kneeling on the floor and when the doors opened to let some guests in he jumped up so high he almost hit his head on the ceiling of the elevator. Mind you Aaron is pretty tall and the Spaniards not so tall, so the ceiling was a bit lower in our elevator.
Before we left for Spain I started making reservations at restaurants for us. For one reason or another I got derailed and forgot to finish. If any of you do go to Sitges and enjoy food and like to try good places, make reservations ahead of time and be sure to specify outdoors if you want to sit outside. Otherwise it most likely will not happen, no matter how nice you are to the host or hostess and believed me I gave it everything I could. Whenever I go away I try and save the places I think we will like best for the end of the vacation. What's worse than having your meals go downhill after the first dinner.
Remember the people of Spain love to eat late. I would say 9 or 9:30 so right after dinner you can stumble down to gay street for the clubs and hopefully by the time you get to Sitges the clubs will be open inside. Despite my poor job of making reservations we managed to get into a few good places for dinner. Unfortunately the night of the storm we missed our dinner at Nem which was rated the number 1 place for Tapas. We did make it to El Pou another tapas place. I really loved the sea bass ceviche and the Wagyu beef burgers, also good were the aubergines in some sort of honey. I was also surprised that since my last time in Sitges two Michelin star restaurants opened. We went to one of them, Fragata. Very good. Service might have been a bit better for the price but, whatever, the food was still good and Aaron and I could spend our time just looking at each other and smiling at what a good time we were having. We especially loved the fried prawns and the steak with fois gras. Also be sure and try the Spanish wines wherever you go. I don’t know that much about wine but they were inexpensive and we enjoyed them. One more recommendation is Factor V1 They must have had really good wine because I cannot recall anything we had for dinner.
Sadly we had to get ready to go back to Ireland. It was really the perfect amount of time in Sitges. I hated having to go home though as Aaron now has to go to the office everyday leaving me to work at home by myself. I miss all the time we had when we were both working at home.
As we did on our way to Spain we left ourselves plenty of time at the airport as we had no idea what the situation would be without our passports. In fact we left ourselves so much time that when we got to the airport they said we were too early to get our boarding passes and could not check in for a few hours. At this point Aaron was going to sit down and wait till we could check in. No way, I said to Aaron the lounges are on the other side and we are going to check in. I explained to Aaron that I have learned to never accept the first NO. So after being told no by three people the fourth person said, not a problem Being sweet and smiling did its charm this time. We made it to the empty lounge and after some cocktails and better food than we had in the Dublin lounge we were on our way.
Over the last 30 years I have seen Sitges grow from a small dingy gay resort to a much more upscale one. Despite this and the influx of families etc it still remains incredibly gay friendly. I wish the rest of the world could be more like Sitges. Can't wait for Greece next month.
