Apart from sun-bathing on the beach (see Adventure 2 – Benidorm Part 1), Meeting Boyfriend-W (see Adventure 2 – Benidorm Part 2) I also spent lots of my time in the Old Town and New Town in pubs and clubs.

The Old Town – Gay Guide
The old town with it’s narrow streets and traditional architecture hosts a selection of gay pubs & clubs. It is difficult to find a decent online gay guide (as I tried before I went away) for Benidorm, but if you go in to Queens Bar & Hotel they have a locally produced printed gay guide with a map. The only criticism of this gay guide is that it doesn’t give you any information about the pubs & clubs. So here’s my thoughts and opinions:

Queens Bar & Hotel – friendly staff, excellent food, the famous Levi on in the evening show that starts at 10:30-ish. In addition to this, it’s a great place to stay. If I wasn’t staying with Boyfriend-W next time I’m in Benidorm, I’d definitely be staying here.

Peppermint Bar – a good bar for a few drinks. I describe this bar in Adventure 2 – Benidorm Part 2. Apparently it can get raunchy towards the end of evening as the alcohol flows and the men get horny. I can’t vouch for this as I always deliberately moved on from here before it gets too late in to the evening/early morning.

Chaplins – another good bar, opens in the evenings. It had mirrored walls, is well lite and always seems to have plenty of people in (which is always a good sign).

Company Bar – Ok for a drink early on in the evening, it is mainly a chatting bar really. It’s a tiny place with bar stools and little thin circular tables crammed in.

Mercury – a club with dance music. Love it. On my last night with Boyfriend-W we ended up in there. The as the alcohol kicked in we drunkenly danced to Bad Romance by Lady Ga Ga (which we’d heard for like the ninth time that night).

Lovers Bar – you have to buzz to get in, so there’s no telling whether it’s busy or not. When you get in it’s a bar but with dance music. The owner is a local Spanish guy who was touching and rubbing his cock with his hand in his jeans pocket when I ordered a drink. Apparently I’m his type. It wouldn’t have been so bad apart from I was the only person in the place, so I couldn’t really not sit at the bar. Needless to say I downed my drink and left, sharpish.

Men Only – I didn’t really go in this bar as every time I passed it the older crowd seemed to inhabit the place. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just not my scene personally.

According to the Gay Guide there’s plenty of more places there. Some I walked past and where empty so didn’t go in and some I never found. The Old Town also boosts a gay sauna, a bears bar and a sex shop, but I never went in to any of these. Not my scene.

New Town – Straight Ville
I explored the new town on my own one of my first evenings there. My initial impressions weren’t good when on walking around the bars and clubs (a lot of which were closed due to the time of year) and was offered drugs by a Spanish local.

However Boyfriend-W took me down to the new town and we went in to Cafe Benidorm and The Red Dog. The music was camper than in the Old town! And even though it was out of season, it was still reasonably busy. Both of these pubs/clubs are good places to go.

One night I was invited by Boyfriend-W to see Levi the fantastic drag queen at a bar called Sandra’s (Levi also works at the Queens Bar & Hotel). Unfortunately I was knackard in the early evening and fell asleep. I got up too late and had missed the show. Will have to go next time when I go back to visit Boyfriend-W in Benidorm.

So that’s it the final installment of my holiday to Benidorm. So next time your due a holiday, get yourself to Benidorm. I had an ace time and will definitely be going back.

Antony

“That’s it I’ve had enough” I said a few weeks ago. And I wasn’t joking, so I went and booked a holiday to Benidorm.

I fly out a week today and the excitement is starting to fill me as it gets closer. Got my flight tickets and hotel confirmation from the travel agent today. I must say that although the last minute holiday was cheap, us in the land of singledom are discriminated against – I had to pay what worked out to about £100 more because I’m going on my own, rather than as a couple.

It is going to be a week of relaxation. Catching some sun, reading some books, eating, and hopefully making a friend or two along the way. I hope to explore the famous old town that apparently has lots of gay bars/clubs/restaurants etc. as well as making good use of the beach.

Will of course blog about it when I get back. I’m not sure if there are any pre-written blog posts scheduled to publish while I’m away – so you may still have some reading, you may not. Your guess is as good as mine.

Adiós para ahora, bloguea pronto (translated to Spanish via Free Translation)

Antony

Adam Lambert for those of us in the UK who might not know about him is the runner up in American Idol (the American equivilant of xfactor). Tia a fellow blogger has blogged about him on several occasions. Well according to Daily Dose of Queer has caused a storm in America for his raunchy act on The American Music Awards and for kissing another man on television.

Adam Lambert is gay and the words in his song are indeed raunchy, so shouldn’t his act be? See the video of his performance below:

(Edit: Unfortunately the video’s been removed on youtube, but I’ve found it here: http://littleglitterlittleglam.blogspot.com/2009/11/adam-lambert-ama-performance-video-for.html have a loook. I don’t know why people are trying to supress it by claiming copyright.)

I quite like the song, actually. And my rebelious side loves the act and the gay kiss. Time to grow up American audience, we are now in the 21st centry. Would the same reaction of occured if Rihanna did a hetrosexual version of the song and performance? He comments on this performance:

So I’ve decided that I like Adam Lambert, especially with his boundary pushing. What do you think? Leave a comment.

Antony

I recently finished reading Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self. Celebrities have written letters to their sixteen year old selfs in aid of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. For each book sold a minimum of £1 goes to the charity.

Contributers include: Will Young, Sir Elton John, Alan Carr, Jonathan Ross, Peter Kay, Jackie Collis, Annie Lennox, Stephen Fry, Liz Smith, Emma Thompson, John Barrowman, Paul O’Grady and many more.

The hard-back book with glossy pages contained hand written letters, typed letters and photos of some the contributers at the age of sixteen. Their messages to themselves included: words of warning, regretts, messages of hope, reassurance that things would be ok, a need to conquer their fears and worries. The book made me laugh, cry and think about myself as a sixteen year old.

Interestingly a friend who knew me at sixteen CS recently got back in touch via Facebook. We had a long phone conversation (over two and a half hours) and are planning to meet for a coffee.

After a lot of thought about myself at sixteen and after speaking to CS I decided to write my own letter to my sixteen year old self. I have wrote my own letter to myself at sixteen (there a a few missed words – must start checking all my writing and edit it properly), here it is:

I would highly recommend you buy Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self for yourself and possibly for a Christmas / Yule present for some of your family or friends. I promise you and them will love it.

Blog soon,

Antony

A few weeks ago it seemed like I was unable to escape from Derren Brown. He was on Channel 4 and I was facinated by his show which included an audience of both celebs and ordinary people from a variety of backgrounds. Since he has predicted correctly the lotto numbers.

I heard his prediction in the news (see Telegraph, Daily Mail) he had correctly predicted the correct lotto numbers. I was suitably impressed to say the least. But then I read the story on Pink News and was shocked to learn that Derren is gay. He apparently came out two years ago, I had no idea.

See gay people are everywere. In every job, role and part of society.

They say the statistic is 1 in 10 people are gay, lesbian or bisexual. I think it’s probably much higher. What do you think? Leave a comment.

Antony