Hellnar, it’s not bad.
ByGD
Biscoitos Beach
This rocky beach facing the Atlantic on the north side of Terceira Island looked pretty threatening when I visited it in November. But Biscoitos is a favorite swimming spot in the summertime. Summer temperatures in Terceira aren’t much different from winter temperatures, but maybe the wind and waves are friendlier in the summer. In Portuguese, Biscoitos means cookies (or biscuits, if you’re English). That seems a friendly name for a beach, albeit a bit unusual. Perhaps in summer people lie on the rocks and bake their biscuits?
ByGD
Waterfront Property
I don’t know what this building across the street from the beach in Qingdao is. Is it a fancy hotel? A fancy mall? A fancy government building? We were too sweaty and dirty from playing at the beach to check it out up close. But in my imagination, it’s the private villa of a Bond villain who spends his days scheming to turn the city’s best public beach into a private one.
ByGD
Multi-Use Public Space
Here in America, we have a hard time with sharing, even in public spaces. Americans have an idea of parks as passive recreation spaces, and beaches for swimming, and so on. We get mad when cyclists ride the trails we’re hiking, when people set up a sports game on the grass where we wanted to lie and read a book. We pass laws against bringing the family dog to a ball field or playground.
The Chinese have no such qualms. I guess that crowded conditions breed a certain flexibility. This man was fishing at Qingdao’s most popular beach, surrounded by swimmers and speedboats and kite-surfers and I was the only person who batted an eye.