Martí Gironell's best summer nights: meteor shower and swimming naked at the beach
"The things that are improvised sometimes surprise you and are the coolest," says the writer
For the writer Martí Gironell, summer nights have a special appeal. “It feels like in summer everything goes at a different pace and the nights are longer. There are things that you only feel like doing on summer nights, they are nights protected by this kind of halo that we have created among us and that makes everything seem possible. The temperature is good and there is a feeling of being free from obligations, free from everything. Summer nights are most conducive to the feeling of freedom,” he reflects.
Of all the ones he has experienced, there are two that have remained very marked for him. The first was about four or five years ago, the night of the Perseids, the most popular summer meteor shower. “We had been talking about it at home. We live in Vilablareix, a town next to Girona, and with the family we said: ‘Why don’t we go up to the hermitage of Sant Roc, where there is a clearing and enough darkness, and watch the tears fall?’ At first, as always happens with children, it was all complaints and grumbling,” recalls Gironell, amused, who finally convinced them.
They took the car and with his wife and two children, he ended up at the hermitage. “It was all dark, we lit our way with the mobile phone's flashlight and the little one was scared to death in case some animal came out. ‘Come on! You’ve been here a lot of times,’ we told him.” Finally, they reached the clearing of the hermitage and spread out some blankets on the ground. “As the minutes went by, the stars began to fall. It wasn't a particularly intense shower, but I remember that the children suddenly went quiet. ‘Look, one is falling! Look, another one!’ We had to be attentive, so each one took a section of the sky and was watching. It was a very simple night, a night of shooting stars, but very beautiful, because we went up in one way and returned fascinated, with the feeling of having shared something unique and special, and a moment of shared happiness that we will always remember.”
Gironell recalls a second summer night that was very special, this time without the children. "Eva and I went to have dinner at Rec beach in Sant Martí d'Empúries. It was a perfect night, without a breath of wind. After dinner, we approached the water: we were left alone in the dark. We undressed and went for a swim at midnight. It was divine. Whenever I pass by there and see the beach, I remember that night. Things that are improvised, unplanned, sometimes surprise you and are the most beautiful," concludes the writer.