Venice Trip - Bella Veneeeziaaa!

All right, my dear followers and readers, here I go again!

My life runs so fast and I have almost no time to share my little barefoot experiences, what a shame!
so let me catch up, because I have something to say... :)

Yes, indeed I still do travel, though in this time a bit less.
Anyway, I went to Venice for a few days and I had a great time there!
The funniest highlights?

There's a bridge called The Bridge of Barefooters (Ponte dei Scalzi), just a few meters from the train station Venice Santa Maria Lucia.
Well, I wonder how many barefooters this bridge have seen in it's whole existence. IMHO not many. This time I was the only one - why do people wonder that there's a barefooting girl crossing The Barefooters' Bridge with no shoes on?!? ;)

The pavements in the city are pretty nice, clean. Though I do not recommend going to the fish market - a lot of small pieces of broken glass (and smelly slippery flor, especially if you happen to be there when the market is over).

I saw three more barefooters!

I can only guess where were they from.... any my guess is: Germany! But who knows.

I've received many agitated comments along the way. I'm just having fun listening to them. The range was from "Look at her, she's barefoot!" through "How dirty!" and "She's gonna get many diseases!" (mother explaining to a kid) to "That's incredibly insane!" and "Disgusting!"...

Well, the funny thing is that the most disgusted people were the once dressed up according to the latest fashion and businessmen with ties and shiny shoes... No comment, they don't know what they miss! :D

Something to recommend:
Go with no shoes on in the middle of the San Marco's Square, get surounded by pigeons and throw around you some crumbs... Even better is to leave some crumbs on your toes and let them be pecked by pigeons... Unforgettable feeling! ;)
 

Well, in general: thumbs up, very barefooting friendly city (with barefoting unfriendly citizens).

And as a final pic-gift here comes the only official venetian barefooter (he was actually accompagnied by a personal security guide!) overlooking the city from the opposite bank:

Well, not only barefooter, but also naturist - well, you can do both in Venice.. as long as you are a piece of marble! ;)

Stay tuned, more stories are coming. And...
Enjoy the life barefooting!

First London barefoot walk

Heya hey my dear readers,

I'm back to share with you more adventures, more trips, more stories of 2011  - of course everything strictly NO SHOES related! ;))

There are also some upcoming news like the blog name changement, but it'll take some time - stay tuned!

Well, so what's going on? We've just come back from London!
A wonderful city deserves some wonderful no shoes teasing! Well, actually that wasn't my point, I just felt like finaly trying to hit the road barefoot, for the first time in this 2011 spring.. and it was a success!

London, Trafalgar Square, early spring afternoon.
The sun was shining and I could finally take off my shoes, what a relief!
A few minutes later I stopped by to see some street performer (he wasn't particulary good, but quite funny). A young English man standing next to me was probably deeply impressed to see me - a question came almost immediately:

"What happened with your shoes?!?" 

"Aaaah, they are over there, I'm just relaxing my feet a bit. :)"

"That's a strange way to relax!!" 

(Maybe I should add a little description so you can picture the situation: he was well dressed, as almost every English man, including apparently pretty expensive very shining brown leather shoes. I'd say from the latest fashion collection, but I can not be sure (since I don't care about either shoes or fashion).

"Actually it's very pleasant, really!"

Suspicious, but interested look. I've probably "inserted a bug to his head", as we Czechs say.

"Where are you from by the way?"

"Czech republic."

"Oh." 

And that was the end of our "very sophisticated" conversation.
I'm quite sure I turned his way of thinking upside down... or maybe he just thought I went completely crazy, who knows.
I continued watching the performance and when I turned he was gone. He didn't even say goodbye! And I thought English men are well educated... Maybe this rule doesn't apply to barefoot people, hahaha! :)

What about your first spring walks? Any interesting stories?
Feel free to comment and don't forget to enjoy your life barefooting! :)

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!

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!

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! ;)