An Italian barefooter? Incredible!

Being turist in Italy brings some surprises too!
I met a real, true Italian barefooter on the streets in Pisa. I got so shocked! ;)
Not because I saw him (that cannot shock me, right), but because in Italy it's such a rare thing! Not talking about the fact that we are in late October and people there were mostly wrapped in jackets, long trousers, some of them also winter boots!!

Well, he actually didn't look like "a real" Italian man. I mean no Dolce & Gabana clothes and glasses, he didn't even wear a bag or backpack. His long hair and simple sweatshirt showed pretty alternative way of life. That's why I think he was living there - a real Pisan guy!

To have them or not to have them? That's a question! :)

Well, it's easier to get out of your house, have a little walk around, maybe buy something, relax your feet on the grass in front of The Leaning Tower and then get back home.
Easier than travelling from far away in cold early morning, wandering around the whole day and going back home by train in late evening. To be sincere, I start getting used to some shoes already. :( I am not happy about that, but my recent illness has weakened me and I'm trying not to get too cold.

I hit the city of Florence barefoot though, on the sunny surfaces it was fun, but in the shadowed paving was freaking cold. Unbelievable differences.
But I made a huge discovery! Taking off my shoes helped me from tooth pain! :) Really! How incredible!

So, stay on the wave, when you are in trouble (physical discomfort I mean), consider getting rid of your shoes and enjoy the life barefooting!

Being back soon!

Summer is over.. but barefooting season is still on!

All right, after quite a long break I logged in again and I´m keeping this blog alive! Yupiiii! :)
Though it's a bit demotivating to hear no feedback (I got one e-mail, wohoooo!), but you cannot have everything instantely, right? :)

So, the promotion of The Barefoot book by prof. Howell is over, he's back teaching at his university that forces him to wear shoes. Too bad...

Anyway, if you are interested, you might like to read an article about him and his life, published recently.

I'll be back soon with some adventures, stay tuned and:

Enjoy the life (barefooting)!

A gift for a barefooter

I sent out an information about this project and I'm really into it, I just like it, I feel it's the right thing to do at the moment. I feel the creative energy flowing!

But I have also "normal" life, not only in front of my computer, so I got off this afternoon to go downtown with some friends of ours. Pretty big event is happening these days - a kind of medieval festival with street artists, handcrafts and performances.. Well, it has become more commercial during past years, but you can still see many alternative people around.

Me and friend of mine headed to the market.
Do I have to mention I had no shoes on? ;)

We stopped by a stand with a guy juggling with devil sticks. I got interested and so I gave it a try - it wasn't particulary hard, but it would take some time to learn. When I was giving him devilsticks back after a while, he asked me: "Don't you want to learn it?"
I said uncertainly: "Well, I already have poi and diabolo, I think it's enough.."
He repeated his question.
"No, it's ok, I would have to buy it..."
He passed me a pair of devilstick and he said: "Take them. It's a present for you." 
I got surprised. "Really?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you are barefoot."

I would never expected anything like that. A gift just for being barefoot. I thanked him and accepted his present.
Talking to him later during one and half hour of "workshop" I've discovered he was barefooter too, but he had to keep his crocs on for business reasons (selling devilstics and other stuff).
Here in Italy people care much about those things. :(

So enjoy the life barefooting... you never know what might occur!

Last stops in Spain..

Well, as  promised, I am back with some more traveller's notes! :) And there's much to talk about.

Granada
Amazing place, very international, but also traditional. We met people from Italy, Great Britain, France, Germany, Mexico, all of them apparently happily living in Granada.
I took a very special photo there - man's foot with six toes! Too bad the sandal around! ;)

 

Albaicin, the oldest part of the city has very similar, stony surface, like I encountered in Altea - perfect foot massage!

Alhambra, the monumental ensemble, an ex-residence for Nasrid Sultans is worth visiting (reserve a whole day!:) There I saw an official anti-barefooting rule, for the first time in my life. It said: "During the stay in the monument it is not allowed to undress nor to walk or be bare feet." 
Well, but as everywhere in Spain, nobody really controles you, so... a little bit of provocation? ;)

 

And finally we got out of the city and headed to national park Sierra Nevada. That was a real experience! The aim was to see waterfalls, but we happened to see much more! Sky-touching red mountains, humid cave, cold river, bridge over the warterfalls...

Unfortunately in the end my damn operated knee started to swell and hurt, so I just hobbled back. But I guess in shoes it would be even worse. ;)

On that day Spain won one of the football matches - I hadn´t seen so few people making so much noise until that night. :)

Next destination: Madrid!

Enjoy the life (and especially summer) barefooting!:)

And the trip goes on...

After a little gap I am back with all those "barefooting stories" which are happening to me and observations and today for the first time I'll share some pics too, since we have already arrived home and I could finally download them! :)

Altea 
Altea was supposed to be a real "hippie" place. Well, historical part of the city is gorgeous, I felt like in a heaven, surounded by mountains, sea, blue sky..

For the rest I have to say that the new part of the town (beaches included) was pretty commercial and sea was not really clean and swimming-friendly, maybe also due to a strong wind. Let's go straight to the point: surface. A real foot massage.
Middle-sized stones in a steep streets were stimulating bare feet so much that they got pretty tired after a while.  Check this out:

No hippies around, but we've found one really nice tearoom called The Cave (Coveta). There's also a pic of us on their page. :)

Benidorm
An artificially created city full of skyscrapers and other "rabbit-cages", living only during the summer thanks to tourists. There's really NOTHING to see. You might enjoy the sand beach, but it was so crowded and so hot, that it was just impossible to stay there. At least you can guess which foot was with no shoes on (that means it was mine ;)) and which was strictly wearing flip-flops:

That's the only pic from ten hours spent there. :)
And then we left.

Destination: Granada! Stay tuned and..

Enjoy the life barefooting!

Kids in Barcelona are so spontaneous!

Well, keeping on with Catalan city, I had the possibility to go a bit around and enjoy some more of the town.
Also the comments about me being around with no shoes on are big fun... well, in generally I like to see peoples' reactions.
The most expressive are kids - no prejudices I gues.. underground tram: "Daddy, daddy, that lady is barefoot!!!" Unfortunately daddy talk too quietly for me to hear the answer. Poor girl was 10, maybe 11, with black polished toe nails in a very fancy sandals..

Another couple of kids were so spontaneously surprised when we met in different quarters of the city (Gracia mostly)... I was just able to decipher spanish (or catalan?) "descalza!" (which is similar to italian "scalza").. means barefoot.

Anyway. The same quarter, they have a pretty unique speciality there - asphalted street with little red stones (diameter 2 - 4 cm) popping out - not really comfortable, I saw also a dificulty for bikers... well, just wondering what the meaning might be.

Park Güell is so worth to see and pretty natural too, perfect massage for your feet after flat streets of the city! Up the hill, get ready to climb up a bit, but u get everything there: stones, sand, grass, walking paths... only water missing. :)

For the hostel story - the guy doesn't talk to me at all and goes everywhere I go here and checks everything I do here! :)
Funny thing is that my boyfriend wears black flip flops and his feet are even more dark than mine! Yesterday he took a shower and made a lot of imprints around with his shoes... But I'm sure the suspicious guy wouldn't believe it wasn't me! ;)

This is our last day in Barcelona. 
Oh, I saw two "barefoot beggers" (wrapped up females, I guess with gipsy origins) around Sagrada Familia.. it's sad enough for us, real barefooters, but they just use the immagine of somebody with no shoes as somebody who desperately need help, they try to evoke sorriness to get some coins.. One of them had even her shoes behind her!

Don't forget to ... Enjoy the life barefooting!

Europe barefoot trip

Ok, I am just travelling around, I have been to Nice and Marseille so far and for the moment we have stopped in Barcelona for a few days.

Just a brief notes:

Nice
Very posh city, super clean and super "pointy-shoe", nobody really alternative, not talking about being barefoot! People kind of disgusted, but nothing special.

Marseille
Big harbour, so many nationalities - Arabics, Pakistanees and many more... felt kind of weird. We happen to be there on one very windy Sunday so every little shop in the old, historic part of city was closed and in general the place was empty - nobody would have cared about me being barefoot, but I put my flip-flops on cause so much broken glass and trash everywhere on the streets! Crazy! So I didn't feel like risking so much.

Barcelona
A real must for all alternative people, barefooters included! My first 100% no shoes city on this trip. Multicultural, huge city offering so many different possibilities! At the moment they are rebuilding the streets, so I've found some noise, dirt and water in few streets. The city-center is pretty safe (not talking about pick-pocketers, but you find this everywhere, right?) and surprisingly pretty clean too! Catalan (this part of Spain) people are just so accustomed to see anything that they mostly don't even realize you go around barefoot. I've met 2 more barefoot girls around, cool, the style is spreading around!:)
Unfortunately I speak nor Spanish neither Catalan so I miss all possible comments (ok, few people did look at my feet kind of weirdly, especially), but so far the "greatest" (?) story happened surprisingly at the hostel we are actually staying in... Which is by the way called "alternative creative ...", what a coincidence!
The staff guy came to me yesterday evening telling me that he saw me entering the place from outside with no shoes on and that he did't know how much healthy it was and that later I would go to the bed... He just didn't know how to express himself, basically he was concerned (as far as I understood) about me messing up the blankets. I told him I had just taken the shower and he left, pretty pissed. So far he doesn't talk to me. :)

In general my soles are slowly getting used to walk also on a hot, midday blacktop (since there's much of that stuff around).. It burns but we should overcome the limits, right? :)

That's it for the moment, getting back with some news later!

Enjoy the life barefooting! ;)

The Barefoot Book!

Vydána kniha století pro všechny, kdo ještě nejsou stoprocentně rozhodnuti pro styl života bosky!

Profesor David Howell, jeden z propagátorů boskochodectví, napsal odbornou knihu (už z následujícího traileru ke knize se dá vyrozumět, že nudná vědecká fakta to nebudou) na téma jak nám boty škodí a co vše lze získat tím, že je zujeme a prostě budeme bez nich.

Více informací na webu ke knize The Barefoot Book nebo na Danielových osobních webových stránkách.

Takže vivat barefoot a doufejme, že je poklidné vody nezačnou hýbat jen v Americe, ale i u nás!