Hi from Croatia!

I left Basel, the Swiss city where the highest-ever temperature on the northern side of the Alps was recorded this year – 39.7 degrees Celsius.

With places like Lugano experiencing 50 tropical nights (lows above 20 degrees), this is officially becoming the hottest summer ever.

All of Europe is warming up, raising the heat death toll to 25,000, with Germany making up almost half of this sad number.

One of the worst droughts emptied Lake Brenets on the Swiss-French border, and the once-mighty Danube revealed everything from World War shipwrecks to cars dumped in the river’s depths in recent years.

So, here I am standing before the Adriatic Sea, the cooling agent for millions of tourists looking for an escape on the Croatian coast. This time, they can refresh themselves by taking seabed walks on Krk island, diving in an underwater museum near Trogir, or even swimming with horses on the island of Brač.

When the sun sets over the sea horizon, just experiencing the views above the sea surface can already boost one’s soul. Well, not everyone’s.

“Centoquindici fotografie!”, tells me the Italian passerby as his wife stands on the sea promenade, filling up her phone’s memory with sunset pictures.

I do wonder how he’ll escape this evening’s views, when the solar eclipse will draw our attention to the sky again. Plus the Perseid meteor shower. Plus the planetary alignment. A lot of wonders scheduled for tonight!

Sometimes, however, the powerful nature of this planet surprises us with small miracles of beauty even without an announcement. Whether it’s rainbow clouds over Indonesia or a fire rainbow over West Virginia, natural phenomena above our heads can brighten up a bad day.

As you prepare to watch and take pictures of our shortly darkened Sun this evening, remember that not all stars are created equal.

There is one, actually, that almost nobody is allowed to draw. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Have a starful rest of the week,

Ivan Kralj    
Pipeaway.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 🌞 Tonight, the Sky Has Plans – Pipeaway Newsletter #228 appeared first on Pipeaway.

Not many would call the guy a hero. But Galerie Gleis4, the same Basel gallery that, last autumn, presented Donald Trump’s crucifixion with a cruci-fictional dilemma “Saint or Sinner?”, is now asking the public whether Bibi, the most wanted war criminal on the planet, is “Hero or Villain”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits on a pile of children’s toys, contemplating over “The Gates of Hell”

The British wannabe-provocateur Mason Storm returned to the Swiss art mecca, bragging about breaking his own sales record, having sold his idea of a controversy to “a renowned Basel art collection, for an undisclosed sum”, sight unseen.

He named the latest lucrative sculpture – “Toy Stories”. Is it a plural because of the copyright? The logo in the gallery window clearly rips off a singular “Toy Story” title.

A miniature version of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits on a pile of children’s toys, deep in thought. Surely, you assume, a reference to the record-breaking number of children killed and injured in Gaza. Or to the record-breaking number of amputated children’s limbs, unable to reach for the toys beneath the Storm’s contemporary version of Rodin’s “Thinker”, contemplating over “The Gates of Hell”.

But no. The artist insists this isn’t about the man depicted at all: “It’s about you, the viewers.”

The courageous Mason Storm, who prefers to keep his face hidden, is, once again, questioning the audience’s instinct to “quickly judge” – straight out of Pontius Pilate’s moral handbook.

“How can reasonable people look at the same person, the same idea, the same fact – and come to completely opposite conclusions?”, the artist wonders, innocently. “Some see a hero. The others a villain. Some see courage, others danger. Some hope, others threat. And often both sides talk about exactly the same thing.”

Provocation in Gloves Doesn’t Work

Mason Storm’s “Toy Stories” are designed as a “provocative work”. The artist’s press materials openly anticipate that the work will trigger attacks and criticism. Nevertheless, “art does not exist to affirm people in their comfort zone. It is intended to ask questions, create friction, enable discussion”, we are taught.

There are two very interesting dimensions here.

First, people feel uncomfortable when being asked this-or-that questions with obvious answers. They might entertain the conversation out of politeness, but in that case, the attached discomfort tells us nothing about whether the art itself has any teeth.

Second, strip away the unveiling news coverage and the artist’s own statements, and “Toy Stories” generated no substantive art criticism whatsoever. Despite the subject matter and timing, there was no condemnation from Israeli officials or passionate public reaction. No protests, no vandalism, no social media firestorm.

In 2026, an artwork referencing Israel that doesn’t trigger a single antisemitism accusation or, at least, pro-Palestinian protests, is maybe not provocative after all.

What we have learned from the history of Netanyahu’s PM chair (which he occupies for so long that, in the future, it could be used as a casting mold for authentic sculptures of his buttocks), or the history of authoritarian regimes with similarly extended governing tenures, is that leader-portraits appear either as the cheapest form of idolatry, or, usually much pricier, critical voice against their wrongdoings.

Mason Storm might deserve his own category: political-topic monetization engineered specifically not to offend anyone with a checkbook.

The number of reactions might be inversely (and perversely) proportional to the bank balance, but a “provocative” Netanyahu portrait that fails to provoke a single response from the usual zionist watchdogs should probably reconsider what it’s actually selling.

Bibi in Israeli Art – Between Adoration and Death Threats

Nobody takes Bibi as a muse for his exceptional cheekbones. The inspiration for portraying such a public persona is never aesthetic, and always political.

Among the rare reverent entries is Israeli mural artist Doron Viner’s portrait of Benjamin Netanyahu rendered across dozens of $100 bills. As an art print reproduction, the work is currently listed for $120 on the artist’s website. But the description of Netanyahu is priceless: “one of the best who served well during his terms”, “known for his ability to grow businesses and has proven to bring the Israel economic growth to new heights”.

Israeli artist Alex Levin, compared to Rembrandt by one enthusiastic Facebook commenter, shared a pencil portrait carrying “a message of gratitude to the Prime Minister for his leadership”. The image of Netanyahu with a “focused and determined expression, reflecting a moment of inner strength and resilience” went viral.

As Levin explains, his work is seen as “not only a reflection of beauty and faith but also as a mirror of Israel’s collective consciousness, where art and civic identity intertwine in powerful and meaningful ways.”

Those artists in Israel who approach their governing holy cow with even the most subtle criticism are a mere toothpaste stain on that distorted mirror, a proof of a hygienic attempt screaming for removal.

In December 2016, police entered Israeli art schools to investigate an 18-year-old student’s coursework.

A piece depicting Netanyahu with a hangman’s noose was read as an “artistic talent used to incite and murder” by Culture Minister Miri Regev, demanding the state defund the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem over it.

Amid the student protests, another Netanyahu portrait surfaced at Ramat Gan’s Shenkar College of Art in Tel Aviv – Prime Minister’s face with a Hitler-style mustache spelling “incitement”.

The critique was on point; Netanyahu has his own history with incitement accusations, having joined 1995 rallies branding then-PM Yitzhak Rabin a “Nazi” for signing a peace deal with the Palestinians. The “Nazi” tag, evidently, is only antisemitic when it’s pointed the other way. Rallies carrying both etiquettes and real coffins resulted in Rabin’s assassination.

That same December 2016, sculptor Itay Zalait erected a golden statue of “King Bibi” on Tel Aviv plaza once known as Kings of Israel Square. Regev, famous for demanding loyalty to the state as a condition for government funding, was shocked again, and called the act an “expression of hatred toward Netanyahu”.

Zalait returned for round two during the 2020 protests against the PM with “The Last Supper” installation – Bibi, “the savior of Israel”, presiding over a lavish final meal. This time Netanyahu responded personally, calling it “the shameful threat of crucifixion”.

The History of Netanyahu’s “Antisemitic” Art

Unreachable for Israeli police intervention and defunding threats, Mason Storm wasn’t even judged worthy of the antisemitism label – now the zionist regime’s go-to tool for controlling the narrative among its critics.

That’s awkward to report on, because, you see, even this sentence could be considered an exploitation of an old antisemitic trope – the idea that “Jews control the world”.

But Nazi-era obsession with Jews has nothing to do with an indisputable fact that, in a media landscape with steadily shrinking scrutiny of Israeli policy, any sufficiently sharp critique of Benjamin Netanyahu tends to get relabeled as hatred of an entire people.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan? “One of the great antisemites in modern times.” US campuses protesting against the war in Gaza? “Antisemitic mobs.” Antigovernment demonstrators in Israel? “Exactly like fascists.” A Norwegian mural of Anne Frank wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh? “Pro-Hamas Nazis.”

Weaponizing Holocaust memory to shield a war criminal suspect doesn’t just miss the point. It dilutes the perception of real antisemitism in the world.

And, also, it just doesn’t work. Kippah is not a magical force field against criticism. Using it to deflect attention from the real topic is now a trick seen a time too many.

Here are eighteen Bibi artworks that found that out the hard way.

1. Strings Attached
(The Guardian, Steve Bell, November 2012)

Steve Bell drew Netanyahu on a podium with Israeli missile-resembling flags while puppeteering UK PM Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary William Hague, under a “Vote Likud” banner.

The reactions immediately rained on the author, with Jewish Times columnist Giles Coren calling him “Nazi c***”.

The Community Security Trust, a Jewish advisor on antisemitism, called it “an unoriginal way of visualising the old antisemitic charge that Jews are all-powerful”.

Now, it is true that Nazi propaganda has been using an image of Jews as puppet masters of world politics, but Bell wasn’t having it: “This is not about the Jews: it’s about Benjamin Netanyahu. (…) It is about the cynical manipulation of a situation by a specific politician and NOT about cynical manipulation by ‘the Jews’. I refute completely any charge of antisemitism, since I would never conflate the two.”

2. Blood and Mortar
(Sunday Times, Gerald Scarfe, January 2013)

Netanyahu building a wall out of Palestinian bodies, captioned: “Israeli Elections: Will cementing peace continue?”

Gerald Scarfe’s grotesque caricature initiated a wave of reactions for its “antisemitism”.

Netanyahu’s “large, bulbous red nose” was depicted as one of those antisemitic tropes, as if a political caricature classic was appropriated by the Nazi cartoons preceding the Holocaust.

“The Sunday Times has clearly lost its moral bearings, publishing a cartoon with a blatantly antisemitic theme and motif which is a modern-day evocation of the ancient ‘blood libel’ charge leveled at Jews”, said Michael Salberg from the Anti-Defamation League. “This is the stuff which historically justified hatred of Jews and led to the wholesale slaughter of Jews.”

The World Zionist Organization Israel claimed that the cartoon crosses “all lines of decency and morality”.

Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin called it “reminiscent of the vicious journalism during one of the darkest periods in human history”.

Israel’s ambassador to London met with the newspaper’s editor and demanded an apology, but the media owner Rupert Murdoch was quicker: “We owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon.”

The papers’ own spokesperson disagreed: “It is aimed squarely at Mr. Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people.”

3. Next Year, No Job
(Süddeutsche Zeitung, Dieter Hanitzsch, May 2018)

Netta Barzilai’s Eurovision win got Bibi drawn in her costume, rocket in hand, shouting: “Next year in Jerusalem!”

The caricature criticizing the Prime Minister’s exploitation of the Eurovision victory in the context of the country’s current policies made a commotion, and the author lost his job.

Editor-in-chief Kurt Kister explained that the drawing relied on antisemitic stereotypes and clichés: “In the face of the caricatured person you could see a very large nose and rather thick lips. The ears were very big. (…) Stereotypes, even if they are not meant to be so in every case, can support racism or be racist themselves.”

Nazi-period representations of Jews’ physiognomies were not the only antisemitic element the out-of-office editor recognized after returning to his desk. The Star of David, clearly used here to identify the context, reminded him of the Nazi magazine Der Stürmer, which used it as an optical mallet to “signal to even the stupidest: It’s about Jews.”

“It frightens me when I see a caricature in which the Star of David is twice used to suggest that the ESC is somehow Israeli (no: Jewish) and Netanyahu’s missiles or bombs too. (…) For a caricaturist in this country, the Star of David must be something other than ‘just’ a national symbol such as the Union Jack or the Stars and Stripes”, wrote the editor after saying ‘goodbye’ to his long-time employee over the dispute, despite agreeing the cartoon was “not antisemitic”.

Nevertheless, the newspaper apologized for the possibility of the drawing being “understood as antisemitic”. The author Dieter Hanitzsch refused to issue an apology, and said he wants to be able to criticize Netanyahu’s policies as a German.

Read how Israel uses Eurovision for artwashing. 

4. Some Animals Are More Fired Than Others
(Jerusalem Report, Avi Katz, August 2018)

A George Orwell riff turning Netanyahu’s Likud selfie, celebrating the law that defines Israel as a nation of Jewish people, with an “exclusive right to self-determination”, into a lineup of pigs. Avi Katz quoted the “Animal Farm” directly: “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.”

Criticizing the celebration over discrimination against Israel’s non-Jewish residents didn’t sit well in online forums. The publisher backed off, saying that the cartoon crossed the line from criticism to “incitement and hatred”, especially as Judaism considers the pig one of the most unclean and impure animals, used as an antisemitic image for over eight centuries.

The Nazis indeed called Jews Judensau, with folk art showing them suckling on large pigs. But Katz’s drawing had nothing to do with the antisemitic trope. It was exposing the authoritarian government. The exposé was paradoxically confirmed when this Jew lost his job over “antisemitism”.

A similar cartoon by Ze’ev, depicting the government of Prime Minister Menachem Begin as Orwell’s pigs, was published in 1980, with nobody ringing the antisemitic alarm bells.

5. Benched
(Dagbladet, Finn Graff, October 2018)

As a reaction to the same discriminatory Jewish Nation-State law, the Norwegian newspaper’s Finn Graff cartooned Netanyahu punching a Druze man off a “whites only” bench.

Raphael Schutz, Israel’s ambassador to Norway, demanded the removal of the “sickening image” and an apology, calling the piece “an example of the most repulsive imaginable antisemitic imagery”.

Anti-Defamation League director Jonathan Greenblatt reacted as well: “The cartoon showing the Israeli prime minister’s body shaped into a swastika is outrageous and deeply offensive. It takes one of the symbols of the Nazi Holocaust and twists it to make a political point against the very people who were singled out for death in the Nazi gas chambers.”

However, Benjamin Netanyahu was never singled out for death in the Nazi gas chambers. And the commentary definitely aimed at him, not the victims of the Holocaust. The newspaper ignored the protest, stood its ground, and refused to remove the cartoon.

6. Hugging It Out, Nazi-Style
(O Dia, Renato Aroeira, January 2019)

Following the inauguration, Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro and his distinguished guest and “brother” Benjamin Netanyahu embrace at their arms forming the shape of a swastika.

The Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro threatened to sue the author Renato Aroeira, calling the work antisemitic.

“Art can never be used to offend the memory of millions of people who died in World War II. The issue will be viewed with severity. We can’t tolerate the offense to Jews and other minorities”, the federation’s president, Arnon Velmovitsky, said on TV.

It is not known whether the lawsuit was ever officially filed.

7. Leading the Blind
(NYT syndication of Expresso, António Moreira Antunes, April 2019)

Netanyahu as guide dog leading a blind Trump.

Widely denounced as flagrant antisemitism, from Donald Trump Jr. to the American Jewish Committee.

The author António Moreira Antunes rejected accusations: “Trump’s erratic, destructive and often blind politics encouraged the expansionist radicalism of Netanyahu. (…) What will be the reason why I cannot do a critique of Israeli policy without being immediately categorized as antisemitic? I have nothing against the Jews, but I have many things against the politics of Israel.”

The New York Times, however, stood with the critics. It deleted the cartoon from its syndicate website, calling it offensive, and later fully apologized for antisemitic tropes, while committing itself to “making sure nothing like this happens again”.

They meant it. The paper stopped running political cartoons entirely.

However, Expresso, the original Portuguese outlet, while apologizing to “those who may have felt offended”, rejected interpretations of the drawing as antisemitic and said it “has always defended freedom of expression and opinion, principles we will never renounce”.

8. Gutted
(The Guardian, Steve Bell, October 2023)

Netanyahu operating on his own belly, the incision shaped like Gaza, boxing gloves on. Message: “Residents of Gaza, get out now.”

Rabbi Zvi Solomons called the author “an inhumane antisemitic blood libeling beast”.

Editors have also recognized an antisemitic trope: Shylock, a greedy Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” who demands a ‘pound of flesh’ as security on a loan.

“There is no reference to that play in my cartoon”, Steve Bell said, receiving accusations as nonsensical. “The image itself was inspired by the late, great David Levine’s cartoon of President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) showing off his operation scar, which Levine draws in the shape of a map of Vietnam.”

The explanation wasn’t satisfying. After 42 years of cooperation, The Guardian fired the cartoonist.

9. Setting the Table
(Bob Moran, January 2024)

Netanyahu feasting on children at a blood-soaked table, with a backdrop of Gaza ruins and ‘Kosher’ title. The US President Joe Biden and British PM Rishi Sunak serve as butlers.

The reactions on X were calling for police intervention, as commenters recognized the antisemitic tropes of medieval blood libel (Jews feasting on Christian babies), and secret control of foreign governments. Some compared it to Nazi propaganda.

“There are no Jews in that cartoon”, Bob Moran replied. “If you think the man in the middle is a Jew, you have no understanding of the Jewish faith. Or any faith. Or basic morality.”

Indeed, there is a crucial difference between Moran’s work and “Nazi-style slurs against Jews” – it doesn’t portray “a Jew”, but a very specific public persona, responsible for his extremely far-reaching political actions.

The artwork sold for £32,000. 

10. Nosfenyahu Rises
(La Presse, Serge Chapleau, March 2024)

Bibi as Count Orlok vampire from 1922 movie “Nosferatu”, with long claws and pointed ears, “en route to Rafah”.

Jewish leaders criticized the image published online, calling it antisemitic and “extremely hurtful”.

“It is unacceptable to bring back antisemitic tropes and allusions like that,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, following the comparison with 1930’s Nazi portraits of Jews as vampires. “It is distasteful and exactly the wrong thing to do in these times.”

“It’s a caricature based on an old character Nosferatu, an old vampire who goes and invades another country”, the author Serge Chapleau responded. “That’s all, it’s not worse than that. (…) It’s not antisemitic, it’s not that at all.”

“It targeted the Israeli government, not the Jewish people”, agreed Stéphanie Grammond, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief. “It was never our intention to promote antisemitism or harmful stereotypes.”

Still, the publisher pulled the cartoon away and issued an apology.

11. Puppet State
(Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago-Based Protest Puppeteers, January 2025)

A giant Netanyahu puppet clutching a bloodied MK-84 bomb, Uncle Sam weeping behind him.

The “US-Israel War Machine” art installation by Chicago-Based Protest Puppeteers caused a stir among the city council members, demanding removal because it promotes “hate and bigotry toward the Jewish community”.

“The description said the U.S. was supporting Israel, sending arms to Israel and working together with Israel – and called them child killers. That’s very offensive. It crosses the line into hate. The whole display is… anti-American and antisemitic”, Debra Silverstein, the council’s only Jewish member, said.

David Goldenberg, Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the puppet display “deeply offensive” because it “spreads lies and misinformation about Jews.”

According to Abby Palen, the group’s artistic director, the artwork is actually an anti-war statement, “a criticism of governments, not people”.

One alderman, David Moore, agreed: “If it was directed against any ethnic group, I would be the first to condemn it. But it’s pointing a finger at the government. That’s something we can’t censor.”

The puppet stayed, but the placard with its title and a death toll in Gaza was removed, as a concession. A “may-contain-sensitive-content” warning was added.

12. Melting Point
(Museo de Cera, Mexico City, January 2025)

A museum visitor attacked Netanyahu’s wax figure at Mexico City’s Museo de Cera with red paint and a hammer, saying: “With respect to the Jewish people, whose identity has been kidnapped by these genocide perpetrators, I have to kill this war criminal. Long Live Palestine. Long live Sudan. Long live Yemen. Long live Puerto Rico.”

Israeli media, such as Jerusalem News Syndicate, immediately branded him a “pro-Hamas activist”, with no supporting evidence.  

“The aggression committed against the statue of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a detestable action that sends a dangerous message of violence, intolerance and hatred, which exceeds any legitimate criticism”, the Israeli embassy stated.

13. Two-Faced
(The Other Art Fair, London, James Early, March 2025)

An oil painting stitching together Netanyahu’s and Hitler’s faces, titled “Monster”. Pulled after The Other Art Fair‘s opening night in London amid waves of hate and insults.

“Modern antisemitism offers its caricature of Jews to help its audience understand who is responsible for all that is evil in the world. This is important for fantasies of global conspiracy because the all-powerful evil is necessarily not visible in such fantasies. Antisemitism gives them a human face”, wrote David Hirsh in The Jewish Chronicle.

“According to the International (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism, ‘Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’ is an example of antisemitism”, Campaign Against Antisemitism stated. “Immediate action is required, and an apology and explanation of how this was allowed to happen in the first place is due.”

“I am not antisemitic”, James Early, the artist, said in his defense. “I have previously created paintings that call out the horrors of the Holocaust and how evil that period of our history is. I’ve been to Auschwitz and crumbled as I learnt the cruelty that took place there. I just want all the violence to stop, whether it’s done by Hamas or the IDF. My views are of Netanyahu and not the people of Israel”, the artist said.

14. Sealed With a Kiss
(Rome, Laika, May 2025)

A mural of Hitler and Netanyahu kissing, titled “The Final Solution”, meant as “Hitler congratulating Netanyahu on conducting the Gaza war”.

Israel Hayom (colloquially known as Bibiton, or Netanyahu’s mouthpiece) called Laika’s street art a dramatic escalation of European anti-Israel sentiment. Disturbed by the artist’s use of the words “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” when referring to IDF operations, Hayom’s Dudi Kogan expressed “concerns about the spread of antisemitic imagery and Holocaust comparisons across the continent”.

Gila Isaacson from Jfeed news site referred to the “disgusting antisemitic mural” as “a deliberate assault on Jewish history and dignity”, calling the Nazi dictator’s approval of Gaza military operations “historically obscene and deeply offensive”. The commentator saw classic antisemitic tropes disguised as the artist’s political critique: “Her call for Jews to oppose Israel by invoking our Holocaust trauma is a manipulative low blow, exploiting unimaginable suffering to shame Jewish communities into submission.”

15. Seeing Stars
(Primal Scream, Roundhouse London, December 2025)

A concert backdrop displaying destroyed Gaza and world leaders, including Netanyahu, their eyes covered with Stars of David merged with swastikas. The message “Our Government is complicit in genocide” appears at the end of the “Swastika Eyes” number. Accused of antisemitism, Primal Scream was reported to police by the Community Security Trust.

“Entwining a Star of David with a swastika implies that Jews are Nazis and risks encouraging hatred of Jews”, the agency explained.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism agreed: “The Nazi swastika represents the ideology that inspired people to industrially slaughter six million innocent Jewish men, women and children by bullet, gas and any other means available. To visually combine that with the Star of David – the pre-eminent symbol of Judaism – is absolutely sickening and totally inexcusable.”

“Jews, whether from Israel or from the U.K., have outworn their welcome and are being visually shown the exit door. There is really no other way to interpret the hateful presentation which was then characterized as art”, wrote Cookie Schwaeber-Issan in her opinion piece for All Israel News, a site whose official goal is to “explain and analyze events with a Biblical perspective and worldview.”

The band’s line: “The film is a piece of art. It clearly draws from history to question where the actions of current world governments sit in that context. It is meant to provoke debate, not hate. In a free, pluralistic and liberal society, freedom of expression is a right which we choose to exercise.”

The Roundhouse venue reacted differently: “We deeply regret that these highly offensive images were presented on our stage and unequivocally apologise to anyone who attended the gig and to the wider Jewish community.”

16. The Turd Reich Strikes Back
(Canberra, Grow Up Art, February 2026)

Photoshopped posters of Netanyahu, Trump, and Putin in Nazi uniforms, seized under Australia‘s new post-Bondi hate-symbol laws – the first case tested under them.

With the signs “Sanction Israel” and “Stop Genocide”, Canberra’s Dissent Café and Bar owner David Howe explained “The Turd Reich” (posters made by the British street art duo Grow Up Art) as an “anti-fascist statement” and “protest art”.

Following the report for hate imagery, the Australian Capital Territory police declared the bar a crime scene, and called a serious crime unit to remove the material. After a week-long analysis of the posters, the police had to return them, with no charges filed.

17. Ship of Fools, Full of Neocons
(Politico, Sean Delonas, March 2026)

A Hieronymus Bosch-style feast of Netanyahu, Trump, and Republican lawmakers sailing toward Iran on a money-masted galleon.

Alana Goodman wrote about it in pro-Israel Washington Free Beacon: “The cartoon plays on classic antisemitic tropes about Jews covertly controlling events, in this case the decision to launch the war in Iran, and using financial exploitation to do so. The exaggeration of Netanyahu’s nose in a grotesque, caricatured style plays on age-old efforts to dehumanize Jews.”

Following the criticism, Politico deleted the piece from its Cartoon Carousel, saying that “images that could be reasonably interpreted to rely on ethnic stereotypes or employing tropes that have been involved in historically hateful ways” are out of bounds.

18. Effigy of the Year
(El Burgo, Spain, April 2026)

A century-old Easter tradition of burning a giant effigy “symbolizing all bad” chose Netanyahu as this year’s Judas. Setting the seven-meter-tall puppet on fire was meant as a celebration of the victory of good over evil, and the crowd cheered.

Israel’s embassy in Spain called the El Burgo event an act of “appalling antisemitic hatred”, blaming Pedro Sánchez‘s government for “systemic incitement to violence”.

The town mayor Marilo Narvaez’s response was blunt: “We are by no means antisemitic, not in the slightest. We are an open, welcoming and peace-loving community. We decided to create a puppet condemning genocide and war. I don’t think there has been anything more relevant this year.”

Netanyahu and “Antisemitic” Portrayals – Conclusion

Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most controversial political figures of the modern world, has found the perfect tree to hide behind – that proverbial tree one can’t see the forest for.

Faced with criticism, Israel’s Prime Minister and a chorus of defenders lean on genuine Jewish historical trauma to victimize the head chief of the ‘Holy Land’ and disarm anyone who opposes him.

Hitler must be
laughed atCharlie Chaplin

In the last decade, the endeavor to control the narratives of Israel’s reality among the artists ‘speaking’ freely in international art and media forums has only been increasing.

Aiming to censor everything from caricatures to puppets, the playbook demands a prompt reaction: conflate the examinable political leader with the persecuted Jew, and the argument ends before it starts.

But to borrow Bob Moran’s line: the man in the middle is not a Jew. His actions, despite the efforts to be portrayed as a fundamental fulfilment of an ancient prophecy, have nothing to do with Judaism, or any reputable religion, in fact.

The artists reaching for Holocaust imagery aren’t referencing it because they forgot Jewish suffering, but because they exactly – remember it. And they see the pattern recurring in front of them.

Mason Storm, selling his bland Netanyahu-on-toys installation to a respected Swiss art collector for an undisclosed sum before the public ever saw it, is mostly a businessman riding a wave of artworks whose authors sacrificed much more for their point to come across. While they were putting their jobs and reputations on the line, these maskless individuals did not tone down their voice while calling the emperor naked.

On October 7, 1940, German forces entered Romania, to secure the oil fields. The Luftwaffe planes bombed the hell out of southern England, while Hitler’s submarines sank Allied ships. In occupied France, Jews were ordered to immediately register.

Eight days later, Charlie Chaplin, falsely branded a Jew by Nazi propaganda, released “The Great Dictator”. The usual Tramp character became Jewish Barber, and, in another role, Adenoid Hynkel – the parody of Hitler of his time.

“Free speech was suppressed, and only the voice of Hynkel was heard”, the script said.

Satirizing the Dictator was a risk major studios would never have taken. In Chaplin’s world, there was no hesitation. Because, he said, “Hitler must be laughed at”.

P.S. The villain in “Toy Story 5” is Lilipad, a frog-shaped smart tablet. The franchise’s first tech-coded antagonist competes for Bonnie’s attention, causing an existential crisis among traditional toys.

What do you think about Netanyahu-inspired art?
Leave a comment below and pin this article for later!

The post Netanyahu, Toy Stories & Antisemitism: With Bibi Art, Someone Always Pays the Price appeared first on Pipeaway.

Hi from Europe!

I wish the concerns about the streets becoming moral battlefields expressed in my previous newsletter were just paranoia. But after I clicked “send”, wishing you a non-violent weekend ahead, darkness prevailed.

Berlin, where ten years ago a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia rammed a truck into a Christmas market, killing 13, now experienced another attack by an Islamic State admirer during the Berlin Pride. Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, drove a van into a crowd, taking one woman’s life and injuring 29 others.

With extremist terror threatening the European “way of life”, scenes of thousands of Moroccans illegally crossing into Spain, risking life to find a better one, reinforce the fears of cultural clashes.

Can people learn and adopt the rules defending different values once they cross a border?

Not necessarily. What happens when Europeans go to Asia, for instance?

Last week’s incident on a Bangkok train, when a group of loud Italian students harassed a local commuter who only asked them to lower their voices, ended up with fines, apologies, and even police protection.

Between insulting gestures and condescending sneers, one especially entitled statement could be heard during the altercation: “Sorry for bringing money to your country.”

If that rings a bell, it’s because, just a year ago, an Israeli tourist brat refusing to remove her shoes at a restaurant in Thailand caused a similar public outrage when she said: “I’m sorry, but my money built your country.”

The semantic structure is practically the same: starting with a fake apologetic intro (sorry, but not sorry), and then expressing a racial/ethnic supremacy with a suggestion that a doubtfully thicker wallet makes you privileged.

The Tourism Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul had to inform visitors to Thailand that their bank account doesn’t make them special: “The money tourists spend may buy goods and services, but it certainly cannot buy privileges over Thai citizens.”

He was not the only minister who had to remind people of their whereabouts last week.

During a crackdown on unauthorized foreign businesses, a man in the inspected Chabad House in Phuket said: “Don’t you know this is Israeli territory?”

Deputy Interior Minister Polapee Suwannachet, leading the operation, had to reject the idea that this Jewish community house would somehow be exempt from legal scrutiny: “This is Thailand. Everyone on Thai soil must comply with Thai law. No one has the right to claim sovereignty over Thailand.”

In a push for “quality tourism”, Bali also cracks down on foreign businesses operating without proper permits. The recent one to fall is Entourage Bali, a silent-disco run club, which came under scrutiny after accusations of accepting Westerners while refusing the applications of Indonesians. Two Dutch organizers have now been blacklisted from reentering the country.

The same way we expect others to follow our customs and rules within our country, once we cross its borders, we should respect locals and their regulations, no matter how different they are.

That means lowering your voice when someone kindly asks you to do that on public transport, taking your shoes off at a temple or a restaurant where everyone does the same, or obtaining all the permits needed to run a business in a foreign territory.

That also means not to pack a loaded magazine with bullets for your honeymoon – looking at you, IDF holidaymaker. And no, it cannot happen to anyone.

Have a respectful weekend,

Ivan Kralj    
Pipeaway.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 💸 Sorry, But My Money Grants Me Privilege – Pipeaway Newsletter #227 appeared first on Pipeaway.

Hi from Switzerland!

I’m back in the tri-border town, and the first thing I see in the streets is the Basel Tattoo. My friend was planning to get some ink done during this annual convention.

That reminded me of those two girls traveling “to Nice” on a flight to Tunisia (TikTok video with 4 million likes). Another acquaintance bought a ticket for Riga (Latvia) and ended up in Rijeka (Croatia), a story I retell in the collection of destination mix-ups that happen more often than you’d think.

Basel Tattoo has nothing to do with tattooing. It’s a military music festival!

Now, I understand fetishes come in many forms. But to me, 130,000 people lining the streets (that’s more than what Eurovision‘s Turquoise Carpet in the same town attracted) to celebrate anything related to armed forces in today’s world is somewhat bizarre. On the other hand, it’s better to see men dressed in kilts armed with bagpipes instead of rifles.

Strangely, weaponry can be an uninvited guest on even the most innocent parades, such as, for instance, nude bike protests, which I recently wrote about. My experience of the London event was very positive. The crowd was cheerful, and despite the impression tabloids could distill from online comments, there was no expression of hostility from the onlookers.

That was not the case at the World Naked Bike Ride in Los Angeles, where a man in black (this one with a real tattoo on his face) opened fire at the participants.

At a similar charity event in Chelmsford, England, two men on an e-scooter kicked the cyclist mid-ride.

The naked bike ride in Buffalo, New York, had to be canceled this week after organizers received threats of being hit by cars, being thrown at with bricks, and other assaults. All in the guise of making America moral again.

Taking violence to the streets makes us no different than monkeys. Literally. In Lopburi, Thailand, home to the famous Monkey Buffet Festival and a town that has an actual macaque prison, a hundred of them escaped the enclosure earlier this month. They ran loose through the neighborhoods, damaging properties, and even breaking into the local police station, not for the first time.

There are violent outbreaks among primates at Basel Zoo, as well. Just days apart, Yeba, the 14-year-old silverback gorilla, has taken two young lives in his harem – first biting a younger male on the genitals, prompting euthanasia, and then accidentally biting the chest of his newborn. Nature conservation organizations started calling on the zoo to stop breeding gorillas in captivity.

Although we don’t live in a jungle ourselves, but freely roam our western civilized streets, we still breed violence whenever we feel others will endanger “our way of life”. Well, the way of life that resorts to violence whenever it feels threatened by other people sharing the same coordinates is not the least dangerous lifestyle choice, is it?

Living in today’s society, among folks with various sets of beliefs, perspectives, and life ideas, requires us to employ tolerance. Unlike gorillas or macaques, humans have evolved to control their primal instincts. So when provoked by different concepts in life, instead of emptying our arms, we should rather arm ourselves with empathy.

Have a non-violent weekend,

Ivan Kralj    
Pipeaway.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 🦍 The Streets Are Not a Battlefield – Pipeaway Newsletter #226 appeared first on Pipeaway.

Hi from my bed!

Well, as sexy as it sounds, I am not literally in bed. But I’ve been more horizontal than usual these days (hence, newsletter on Friday!). My immunity fell apart, and in the middle of a hot summer, I had all the symptoms of a common cold – sore throat, runny nose, weak muscles…

While England and Wales were counting 2,700 heatwave-related deaths, I’ve been chilled in a radically different way.

I have no idea where I could have picked up the virus. Maybe on a plane? Maybe as I hopped on the crowded London tube, where temperatures could kill cows?

Well, in a city as grand as London, it is hard to reach cooler places, such as Hampstead Heath, without getting in contact with other commuters.

If you’re fine with swimming in muddy waters, encircled by resting gulls (they do poop in the lake, so beware of the dropping bombs), Hampstead Heath ponds are a great place to chill down.

You’ve got Kenwood Ladies’ Pond, Highgate Men’s Pond, Hampstead Mixed Pond, and even an unnamed dog pond. Unlike humans, pets don’t have to pay 5 pounds to enjoy their dedicated city beach.

There are quite a few additional ponds in North London’s green oasis, siren-calling you in summer heat. Some locals responded, ignored the rules against disturbing wildlife, and decided to cool down in the lakes reserved primarily for swans and ducks. Even the police had to be called. When confronted with the pressures of climate change, we are capable of breaking the law.

Years ago, people could enjoy single-sex ponds even without clothes. So, when three summers ago the authorities banned a century-old tradition of nude sunbathing in the open-air changing room, it naturally sparked an uproar among their regular visitors.

Nowadays, the warning sign that sunbathers should “dress modestly and wear family-friendly swimwear” still hangs on the walls of the Men’s Pond dressing room, but it seems that the rule enforcement is not so strict. After all, nobody can regulate the speed of someone dressing up, and some visitors truly take their time.

Resistance is understandable. Whenever public authorities try to regulate public morals in places that have certain established traditions, the heat will rise.

For instance, in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, a discussion on a dress code change in one public bath got rather steamy.

Instead of wearing one piece of clothing, the visitors of a popular Turkish bath now need to cover their intimate region with another one – all to protect against “inappropriate behavior”, like some magical electric fence between two adults.

You should read all the details about the Rudas Baths apron controversy, as it shows how public moral debates may sometimes be used to achieve goals that have nothing to do with skin exposure.

Wherever you are, go vertical if you can, get out of the house, enjoy some sun while it’s there, and cool down at some lake, when available.

That’s my goal as well. Having a cold in a heatwave is no fun.

Have a sunny weekend,

Ivan Kralj    
Pipeaway.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 🛀 Steamy Debates in Hot Summers – Pipeaway Newsletter #225 appeared first on Pipeaway.

Guests at Rudas’s historic Turkish baths are now required to wear two aprons – one front, one back

Try walking into these baths today wearing an apron, and the hawk-eyed staff will quickly jump from their perch by the main pool and gesture that you need to cover up. They’ll discreetly hand over another apron, to cover your rear. Apparently, apron skirts are now Rudas Baths’ fashion standard.

Since the start of 2025, actually, with occasional visitors still catching up, since it was never publicized on official spa channels, guests at Rudas’s historic Turkish baths have been formally required to wear two aprons – one front, one back.

The change may sound like a minor wardrobe update, but it has sparked surprisingly passionate debate among regular bathers, history enthusiasts, naturists, and curious tourists. Some welcome the additional privacy. Others say a centuries-old tradition just quietly died.

Why did one of Europe’s oldest Turkish baths decide to rewrite its own dress code? 

Rudas Aprons – What Actually Changed?

In December 2024, Rudas introduced a rule requiring guests on single-sex Turkish bath days to wear two aprons instead of one. Covering both sides of the body became mandatory rather than leaving it optional, as it had been for as long as anyone could remember.

Pipeaway reached out to the baths for an explanation. The response, signed by Sales and Marketing Director Szilvia Czinege, read:

“We previously received several guest complaints about the inappropriate behavior of some guests, and after a discussion with regular guests, we decided on this measure, which we believe is better suited to hygiene conditions as well.”

I followed up asking about the consultation process, the volume and nature of the complaints, statistics on guest suspensions, and the broader history of the bath’s dress code. Despite repeated emails, Rudas chose to leave the questions hanging.

We can only speculate about the reasoning behind the management’s silenzio stampa, but it does suggest they would prefer the topic not to be discussed at all.

Reading this newest statement against Rudas’s history of PR on sensitive decisions, “inappropriate behavior” looks like the polite institutional Hungarian for people were having sex in the baths again. Even if an open-air gay intercourse at Rudas, inflated to mythical proportions (with some interpreting this notion as a way to deter the public attention from true decision motifs), was a real occurrence, it is not clear how an additional piece of hanging fabric could prevent this behavior from happening. Does Rudas know how sex works?

On the other hand, noting “hygiene conditions” in the context of the discussed garment change sounds like bolting a fig leaf onto another fig leaf. Despite the effort to present the rule as partly clinical, the previous, equally controversial spa communication on public health concerns regarding full-coverage swimsuits reveals that the reasoning behind the inconsistent approach to dress codes might indeed be the hygiene – but a moral one.

Need to sweeten up this story a bit? Look for the best Hungarian desserts in Budapest!

A Tradition Older Than Modern Hungary

To understand why two scraps of fabric caused this much noise, we first need to rewind five centuries, to when Ottoman architects turned the hot springs under Buda into one of Europe’s most remarkable bathing complexes.

Modeled on the hammams of Constantinople, the occupiers harnessed the power of the city’s thermal water as – therapy.

With its octagonal pool beneath a domed ceiling pierced by colored glass, Rudas remains one of the finest surviving examples of Ottoman bathing architecture in Europe.

While the rest of the building has been renovated several times over the centuries, the historic Turkish bath has retained much of its original character – part spa, part living museum.

Unlike modern swimsuits, the traditional bathing apron, known in Hungarian as kötény, was never intended to provide full coverage. Fastened around the waist, it covered the front of the body while leaving the back bare. It represented a compromise between modesty and practicality – dignity preserved, thermal water fully enjoyed, exactly as bathers had done for centuries.  

The apron’s peculiar design, covering the private parts while standing and, with a simple twist around the waist, covering the sauna chair when seated, became one of Rudas Baths’ defining quirks.

While locals wore it without a second thought, tourists often spent awkward minutes figuring out how to tie the Rudas apron correctly, and then shared amused & confused stories online.

Some dreaded it enough to bathe in swimsuits instead, or asked staff for a second apron, to fashion their very own mini-skirt of privacy (sic!).

When, in my 2017 article, I wrote that doing so would make you “look like an idiot” (I guess, in the same way how we short-sightedly made fun of our clueless elders shooting vertical videos on their first phones, long before stories were imposed as THE format), I couldn’t have imagined that someone would look at the most ridiculously-looking attire in the room and eternalize a two-part skirt as an official outfit policy.

Rudas Apron is More than a Dress Code 

Unlike modern spas, where visitors compete in branded swimwear, Rudas offered an experience that felt rooted in another era. On men-only days, everyone from Budapest retirees to nervous backpackers, from businessmen and politicians to those receiving social help, wore the same simple garment. The Rudas apron became an unlikely social equalizer.

Even if newcomers felt an initial embarrassment, it evaporated within minutes. Inside the centuries-old bathing hall, surrounded by men of every age and build, most visitors quickly realized nobody seemed particularly interested in anyone else’s appearance.

This surprisingly unremarkable rectangle of fabric had become part of Rudas’s identity, contributing to its cultural heritage.

Clothing traditions often preserve history, as reliably as buildings and monuments do. The Scottish kilt, the Japanese yukata, the Finnish sauna towel, and the yangmeori hat from the Korean bathhouse culture, all tell stories about the societies that made them.

At Rudas Baths, the bathing apron performed a similar role. It served as a quiet reminder that you weren’t visiting just another spa, but stepping into a living tradition that predates the country’s modern borders.

The historic Turkish bath has outlasted wars, fires, occupations, and revolutions. Empires rose and fell behind its stone walls while bathers continued soaking in the same way as always, the apron surviving the changes as well.

Until December 2024. The world’s most famous bathing rag quietly became a pair of modesty panels.

This Isn’t Budapest Baths’ First “Sex Scandal”

Beyond the brief official statement provided to Pipeaway, addressing behavior and hygiene concerns as reasons for the double-apron measure at Rudas, the baths management hasn’t elaborated further, leaving room for everyone to draw their own conclusions. 

The measure, introduced so silently, does seem odd and controversial, especially as Budapest Gyógyfürdői és Hévizei Rt. (BGYH), municipal company running the city’s thermal baths, has a history of dealing with sex scandals.

In 2004, a Hungarian TV2 reporter walked into Király Bath’s men-only session with a hidden camera and came out with footage of men soliciting, embracing, and having sex. The investigative exposé landed like a grenade in the national Tourism Ministry, which was actively using the historic bathhouses in its promotional campaigns, engaging even Tony Curtis to say: “Some like it hot”. The scandal triggered moral patrols and an immediate temporary ban on men-only days. After a short restitution, apron bathing at Király was formally phased out in 2011. Despite lowered prices, the struggle to attract non-gay clientele was real: the bath, weighed down by debt, never fully recovered its old status after introducing mandatory coeducational days. Its eventual 2020 closure is officially attributed to a lapsed hygiene license and an unaffordable renovation bill.

Then there’s Gellért Thermal Bath. German media revealed that, in 2007, insurer Hamburg-Mannheimer (later ERGO) organized a corporate trip to Budapest for its best salesmen. They had rented out the historic bath for a night and turned it into a “Freiluftbordell” (open-air brothel). Dozens of prostitutes entertained the company’s 100 top-performing agents at this “team-building” event.

We needed no investigative reporting to learn about naughty encounters in Budapest baths; some were self-documented. Both Gellért and Széchenyi Thermal Baths served as film sets for the adult industry. From Layne Derrick’s “Pools of Desire”, a 1999 homoerotic feature with dozens of fully naked men at Gellért, splashing, wrestling, and stroking each other during massage and rather touchy shower sessions, to more recent and explicit pick-up sex videos starring the likes of Chris Kubrick and Antonio Mallorca with female bathers, some of these racked up millions of views on specialized porn sites. Tony Curtis’s tourism spot never got close to the view counts of “some like it hotter” videos.

From Sausage Parties to Fake Masseurs

Besides amateur and professional porn makers, Széchenyi’s everyday visitors also overflow the spa with eroticism. Index.hu, for instance, described catching “group petting of young couples in love”.

Tripadvisor reviews back that up: body care in Budapest baths goes beyond just enjoying minerals. Due to a high proportion of men attending Sparty, Széchenyi’s late-night music event, users often described it as a sausage party and not the safest place for women. The upset visitors repeatedly highlighted floating condoms, groping serious enough to require therapy, and a significant number of other sexual assaults.

Gellért received its portion of reports for sexual activities in the pool, but also a series of reviews titled “Worst massage I have ever had”. Among them, several were serious safety incidents, where customers felt inappropriately touched by masseurs (this, or this), and even reception staff impersonating masseurs (sic!).

Unlike the undisclosed, unquantified complaints Rudas cites as justification for a dress-code overhaul, these well-documented incidents at other baths haven’t triggered, for instance, a ban on private events, late-night parties, or cameras in the bathhouse.

Most of the serious accusations made against the spa and security staff for not acting against the offenders, or being offenders themselves, remain officially unanswered (familiar?). When they do get to respond to online reviews describing guests crossing the line, Sparty’s team refers to them as “idiots” or “morons” ruining their great programs. Real accountability for not making the premises safe enough is dismissed. Because they “run online campaigns against inappropriate behavior” and “print warning posters”.

Modesty Panic as a Smoke Screen?

Is it a coincidence that private hires, boozy night programs, and not really regulated cameras (indistinguishable whether used for social media or porn production), all happen to be reliable revenue streams, and somehow never trigger the kind of moral intervention Rudas just applied to a piece of cotton?

Could it be that the dress code change and gradual adding of more and more mixed hours at Rudas uses a moral excuse in order to hide economic interest in attracting tourists, especially while the golden goose of Gellért endures extensive renovation, affecting the overall baths’ revenue?

Budapest is already thoroughly gentrified and swimming in visitors. They are accompanied by lobbies whose interests don’t always align with the wishes of traditional bath enthusiasts. Easier bath access to persons of any gender on any day of the week enables a more lucrative bath commodification. And that’s an argument that consistently follows supposed “moral regulation” of Rudas Baths.

Back in 2019, the management drew a furious petition from regulars after quietly cutting the beloved Friday Rudas Baths men’s day down to a few morning hours (back then until 12:45 pm; cut further since – to 10:45 am), converting the rest of the day to co-ed. The management left no room for blushing: “Our decision was influenced by both the increased tourist traffic and the prevention of widespread open-air sex.”

Titles screaming “Public sex gone out of control” seemed like a red cloth waved before the bullish society in which Viktor Orbán’s right-wing government had banned same-sex marriages and families, abolished gender changes, criminalized Pride, and modeled a string of anti-LGBTQ laws on Russia’s, while Fidesz co-founder, MEP József Szájer, was simultaneously fleeing a lockdown-violating gay orgy in Brussels by sliding down a drainpipe.

Framing gay men as suddenly dangerous after lunchtime, as if flipping some kind of hormonal switch at noon, is Szájer-level hypocrisy: kicking gays out when the clock ticks, when they get physically assaulted, or even when they just hold hands, while still cheerfully extracting money from those filthy queer wallets every morning.

Regulars who signed the petition didn’t buy the official “widespread open-air sex” story. “I don’t know what they are talking about”, said one. “Referring to public sex is a sham, it is a non-existent problem”, commented another. A third called it fiction, invented as an excuse “to be mad at gays”. A fourth summed it up bluntly: “What has been publicly communicated about the reasons is only to make people feel angry with gay people, while this was presumably done under pressure from lobbying by some companies involved in tourism.”

The Hygiene Paradox

Besides just correcting the male visitors’ afternoon behavior, this time around, Rudas Bath claims its motivation for adding an extra apron is to improve hygiene conditions, too.

But here’s the problem: a second wet apron, tied on and reused across a two-hour soak, sauna session, and steam room visit, isn’t more sanitary than one. If anything, it’s twice the damp fabric against skin, twice the laundry load…

It gets better: to address the double-apron demand as contradictory in terms of hygiene, we could quote a real expert: Budapest Baths.

You see, despite the official website’s FAQ containing information that both burkinis and bodysuits are welcome, real life has exposed that ladies (most often Muslim visitors) in ¾ swimming leggings have repeatedly been asked to leave for violating the etiquette (see here, or here).

Both in response to Fodor’s media inquiry and a Tripadvisor review, management explained that their policy allows only shoulder- and knee-long swimsuits. The rationale behind it is that more fabric results in an increased safety and hygiene hazard.

“Large swimsuits have a much higher water carrying capacity, leaving much more water coming out of the pools that can cause accidents. In addition, it is also a matter of public health concern, as there are more bacteria on a larger surface, and its evaporation in saunas and steam chambers is unhealthy”, the officials explained.

By that exact logic, two soaked aprons also have a much higher water retention than one (more accidents), as well as more bacteria (increased public health risks). And yet, the introduction of another mandatory apron got sold as the hygienic choice.

Double apron exposes Budapest Baths’ double standards: this was never about bacteria. The rule is clearly not a hygiene fix. It’s a rear-view fix, dressed in hygiene language. It’s a part of a broader tendency to regulate which bodies get to be visible in public and their effect on the comfort of the majority.

Looking for a relaxed clothing-optional experience with no judgment? Try naked hiking in Australia, naked bike rides in the UK, FKK beach-hopping in Makarska, an overnight stay at a Seoul bathhouse, or a nudist resort in Greece.

Rudas’ Second Apron Controversy – Conclusion

Rudas isn’t just a Budapest bath with single-sex days anymore. It’s the only one. Every adjustment Rudas makes to its single-sex sessions, therefore, isn’t just a policy tweak but the last living version of an Ottoman-era tradition being reshaped in pursuit of the tourist revenue every mixed-gender bath in the city now depends on.

Is Rudas walking Király’s road? The shape of the story is uncomfortably familiar: a historic single-sex bathing tradition under commercial and reputational pressure gets incrementally modernized to keep the peace, until what’s left barely resembles what people originally came for.

Each adjustment, stacked over years, nudges Rudas toward a more sanitized version of something that was never really about modesty to begin with. The apron was always a practical compromise between nudity and swimwear – a garment built for function, not virtue signaling. It let you enjoy the baths without fuss, and go home without a wet swimming suit weighing down your bag.

Budapest Baths has tangled itself into a modesty theater, where it needs to simultaneously argue that there could be too much AND not enough of fabric

The original apron wasn’t famous because it covered so little. It was famous because it represented continuity. It connected modern bathers to generations who tied the same knot under the same Ottoman dome. Replacing one apron with two may seem like a tiny alteration, yet symbols often matter precisely because they are small.

Budapest Baths has tangled itself into a modesty theater, where it needs to simultaneously argue that there could be too much AND not enough of fabric. Equally uneasy about Muslim women and gay men, it struggles in providing coherent answers, often choosing not to respond at all. But not addressing challenges doesn’t make them disappear.

If the real goal on men-only days at Rudas is total modesty, why keep the apron at all? Why not, instead of slowly cooking the moral crab, have enough public courage to simply require ordinary swimwear? The compromise at an unusual middle ground preserves the appearance of a historic tradition, but in a form that no longer reflects the original custom.

And if the objective is to put an end to an “inappropriate behavior” (something that Budapest’s mixed baths clearly struggle with as well, without triggering equivalent policing), is the modesty crackdown with a piece of half-transparent apron truly efficient? Or should the new dress code mandate chastity belts for everyone?

Once you open the moral Pandora’s box, where exactly do you draw the line?

What do you think about the new Rudas Baths apron rules?
Leave your comment below and pin the article for later!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post Rudas Baths Apron Controversy: Why Budapest’s Historic Spa Wants You to Cover Up? appeared first on Pipeaway.

Hi from the United Kingdom!

Pride Month is behind us, but London‘s flagship parade is always held on the first weekend of July. As I’m in the UK capital for a month now, London streets seemed to be precisely the place where I thought I should be this Saturday: at an event that unites the kingdom in supporting and celebrating diversity.

Some 30,000 marchers and 300 floats snaked through the city, from Green Park to Whitehall, with over a million people lining the route of London Pride.

Coming from Croatia, a country that religiously approaches catholic conservatism, it’s been refreshing to see that London has spiritual oases that blend traditional liturgy with progressive theology.

The clergy of Southward Cathedral, Swedish Church, and other representatives of the Council of Lutheran Churches, a company of those from Great Britain, Nordic, and Baltic countries, all showed up waving rainbow flags and carrying signs such as “Making Space for Love”, “God is Love”, “You are Loved”…

In the courtyard of the welcoming and inclusive St James’s Church at Piccadilly, a drag DJ played music, standing behind the banner “God Loves You, Just the Way You Are”.

Seeing ‘love’ in practically every message of religious voices at the Pride in London was just what you’d expect from theological doctrines being taught in the 21st century.

The parade also included members of the army, firemen, healthcare workers, public transport staff, as well as families with children… A true United Kingdom, thousands marching as one.

I especially liked seeing the youngest kids making their first steps against discrimination, following a humane approach to life practiced by their parents.

That might not be London in every family, but it was certainly London I chose to recognize this weekend. Not just at the Pride.

In the evening, after a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant (Café Amisha – check it out, this is not a paid ad!), I escorted my disabled friend to the Bermondsey Spa Gardens. At one of the street workout bars, I did a few pull-ups, trying to burn some calories from those creamy Ravioli ai Porcini.

Just as we were ready to leave, several young girls showed up, jumping on the workout equipment, to play.

I rolled my friend’s wheelchair out of the park, and suddenly, I saw a woman running after us. As the mother of one of those kids, she wanted to make sure that the girls didn’t push us away from working out, apologizing for literally nothing. Seeing a parent go the length of running after people, just to teach their child the importance of kindness, love, and consideration for others, was rather moving.

The more I see the world, the more I recognize that its most valuable worth lies in the kindness of strangers. Their hearts can radiate with a warmth that shows no calculation. In our societies that increasingly connect through nepotism and corruption, doing something nice for a person we are not related to in any way is probably the most divine thing a human can do.

As Joan Osborne would sing it three decades ago: “What if God was one of us / Just a slob like one of us / Just a stranger on the bus / Tryna make His way home?”

What if, indeed?

Help someone make their way home today.

Have a divine week,

Ivan Kralj    
Pipeaway.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 🌈 The Gospel According to Ordinary People – Pipeaway Newsletter #224 appeared first on Pipeaway.

Hi from England!

This newsletter arrives with some delay, but the heat got me.

As you surely know, record-breaking temperatures have disrupted life across Europe, with data showing that this continent is warming faster than any other.

It’s not much different in the United Kingdom. As temperatures rose to the high 30s, just like this newsletter, trains were also late. In the London Tube, readings in the carriages of the busy Central Line showed highs of 39.4ºC. Even the event on the extreme heat had to be cancelled because of, well, extreme heat.

So, my escape to England’s southern shores was supported by a survival instinct. Temperatures in Littlehampton, the Sussex town where the heat is mostly raised in the pans that fry fish and chips, and poison pen letters, were at least bearable.

If you’re wondering how they refresh themselves in the birthplace of James Bond, the answer is: Littlehampton Beach. Oh, how helpful those chilly shallows were! Cooling in the sea and walking over the long promenade against the breeze were tactics that saved my sanity.

In this quiet coastal town, I even marked my birthday. Well, I don’t celebrate those things much. But my friends made sure I had a nice time.

Their old neighbors invited them for lunch, and I tagged along, despite having reservations about spending my “special day” in the company of people I’ve never seen, and maybe have nothing in common with.

But the welcome of these strangers was extremely heartfelt. The lady in her 70s made an incredible BBQ feast, with burgers, sausages, teriyaki chicken, chicken satay, cheese-filled potatoes, three types of salad… The list hardly stopped.

And then, as the sun still chased us around the parasol, we moved from the garden to the shade of a shed. While I sipped on a glass of bubbly, the lady of the house surprised me from behind with a raspberry tart and a small dessert glass with homegrown cherries and a lit candle on top – the inevitable “Happy birthday” song broke out.

I’m not the greatest fan of birthday surprises, but experiencing kindness from strangers always touches me. Generous ladies impressed me from Cambodia to Hungary, and this one in West Sussex, taking the time to go the extra mile just to put a smile on the face of a person she had never met, was equally moving.

But what struck me here happened when we were already packed to leave, squeezed in the smallest car imaginable. She approached my friend to whisper goodbye, and then I heard words that tore apart: “They were giving me five years. Now, I’m in seventh. But I feel good. They say you feel the best just before you go. We shall see…”

On the day I was supposed to celebrate life (my birthday coincidentally gifting me with the horoscope sign of Cancer), this kind lady, who had battled a real cancer and seemingly had not much life to celebrate, showed up with extreme positivity.

Hearing all the sincere laughter, camping adventure anecdotes, and excitement for upcoming cruises with her equally retired husband, while enjoying a feast she selflessly decided to share with a complete stranger, I would never have guessed that this was a person who would, at that moment in the car, tell us possibly her last goodbye.

My father passed away after battling the same disease, but in the case of my unexpected birthday host, there was something rather encouraging – this energy that says life is worth living fully in every little moment, shared with those you love but also those you’ve never even met before, came with a smile and laughter and common joy.

That was the energy of living in the moment, today. There’s no tomorrow. There’s no next month, or next winter, or next year. Well, except for that planned cruise.

As we are putting an effort into managing how to survive the heat, we should double those efforts into ensuring that selfless kindness as an approach to life not only survives but flourishes, in every moment we share among ourselves.

Have a kind midweek,

Ivan Kralj    
Pipeaway.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 🌡️ Survival Tactics: A Lesson from a Stranger – Pipeaway Newsletter #223 appeared first on Pipeaway.

Littlehampton Beach hosts the world’s longest winding bench – 324 meters of it

About 100 kilometers south of London, hidden in the shadows of its louder, flashier neighbors, Littlehampton is among West Sussex’s most-whispered secrets.

The facts are all publicly available, so the place can hardly stay classified. But in some unusually esoteric development, Littlehampton has managed to cloak itself against mass tourism, leaving behind a rather grand stretch of sand and shingle, where you can spread out a towel without accidentally joining another family’s picnic.

Littlehampton Beach, its main part 1.5 kilometers long, appropriately hosts the world’s longest winding bench – your tired legs will thank you for it. If that’s not enough rest in your breeze-generous stroll, you can also sit down at a famous seafront café housed inside a radical piece of architecture.

Perfectly fitting into the hush-hush vibe, Littlehampton is the original home of libellous letters that gripped 1920s Britain. Case-cracking aficionados will be happy to learn that James Bond was also conceived here.

If you’re just looking for a place to unwind, no secret agent skills are required. Hard to miss, Littlehampton Beach caters to a wide range of tastes. Depending on which side of the River Arun you wander, you’ll find either a buzzing family resort with ice creams and amusements, or a deserted nature reserve where you can walk for miles without bumping into anyone except sand lizards darting between marram grass.

This is Littlehampton, one of the most interesting strips of coastline in southern England.

Where exactly is Littlehampton?

Littlehampton sits in the county of West Sussex, tucked between Worthing and Bognor Regis, roughly halfway between Brighton and Chichester on England’s south coast.

Its location makes it remarkably accessible. Direct trains from London Victoria reach Littlehampton in around two hours, making it a perfectly viable day trip for city dwellers desperate to swap concrete for sea air. By car, the A23, A24, or A3 via A283 each offer straightforward routes south.

Littlehampton's name comes from the Saxon 'hamm tun' (meaning the farm/hamlet by the river meadow), later evolved to Hampton. In 17th century, 'Little' was added to its name to avoid confusion with the much larger port town - Southampton. Here are some day trips from Southampton worth considering!

Littlehampton Beach = two beaches

The River Arun flows through the center of Littlehampton before spilling into the English Channel, effectively dividing the coastline into two distinct beaches, radically different in character.

East Beach – in the midst of summer, it can be even busier than this

East Beach offers the classic seaside holiday experience. This is where you’ll find a lively promenade, family attractions, well-maintained seafront gardens and the UK’s longest bench. There are ice cream shops and faded pastel beach huts, a miniature railway that has been delighting children since 1948, lifeguards on duty through the summer, and that particular ambient soundtrack of a British beach – seagulls, laughter, music.

East Beach regularly wins the Seaside Award from environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy for water quality, management, and facilities standards. It is widely regarded as one of the most family-friendly beaches on the south coast. A free Kidcare wristband scheme, offered by the Beach Patrol Office, operates to reunite separated families, because even on a beach this relaxed, small children remain unpredictable.

Cross the river via the retractable Littlehampton Harbour Bridge near the train station and, on the other side, tucked behind a steep bank of shingle, West Beach (switching to Climping Beach) provides a complete contrast: a quieter, almost wild escape, with the Isle of Wight floating on the horizon, on clear days.

This undeveloped stretch of coastline, backed by an extensive dune system and the Littlehampton Golf Club, is where nature still has the upper hand. West Beach’s dunes are classified as both a Local Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest with national protection. The landscape, laced with resilient marram grass and sea holly, is home to sand lizards, some of the rarest reptiles in the United Kingdom.

Looking for an inspiration for sand castles? Check out the fascinating Belén de Arena, constructed from Spanish beach sand.

The Café Effect

East Beach Café is quite an extraordinary landmark in Littlehampton. The café in rusted steel was created in 2007 by award-winning designer Thomas Heatherwick, today best known for the 2012 Olympic cauldron, London’s New Routemaster bus, and Google’s campus in California, but at the time of this commission, a young talent Sir Terence Conran, the legendary design icon, had called “the Leonardo da Vinci of our times”.

The commission came from local entrepreneur Jane Wood and her daughter Sophie Murray, who had bought the plot with a passable kiosk on an unspoilt promenade, and decided to do considerably better.

Rejecting the usual vocabulary of seaside architecture (white sails, Art Deco nostalgia…), Heatherwick took his inspiration from the beach: its waves, shells, pebbles, seaweed… The result is a 40-meter sculptural structure resembling the skeleton of an enormous whale, the hull of a beached ship, or a gigantic but very stylish piece of driftwood.

With numerous awards for its architecture, East Beach Café revived the world’s interest in a sleepy coastal town. This is often described as an example of the Guggenheim effect, the phenomenon of a destination identity’s radical transformation through a single piece of architecture, named after Frank Gehry’s titanium museum that revitalized Bilbao.

In 2008, the mother-daughter duo engaged in a similar but quieter property development on the other side of the river, too, dedicating it to sustainably sourced fish & chips. The tiny West Beach Café, whose facade opens up like a dollhouse, was designed by architect Asif Khan. The same like its older sibling, this one was also built by local craftsmen.

A Very Loooooong Bench

Between the East Beach Café and Harbour Park Amusements, marking a generous stretch of the promenade, lies one of Britain’s strangest and most lovable public installations. Featured on the lists of the world’s longest benches, this one measures 324 meters while snaking along the seafront of Littlehampton, curving around lampposts, dipping in and out of the ground, and offering even two roofed shelters for walkers.

Initiated by, again, Jane Wood and Sophie Murray, and designed by London-based Studio Weave, the bench is built from reclaimed tropical hardwood (9,000 slats!), salvaged from landfill and old seaside groynes, with colorful bars following the meandering form.

The twisted bench opened in July 2010 and can seat over 300 people comfortably. Should any rival town be tempted to contest the status of the UK’s longest bench by constructing an even longer one, Littlehampton’s design extension is prepared: the landmark bench can grow to over 620 meters, with a space to seat more than 800 adults. No out-benching without a fight!

The Littlehampton community expressed the need for more seating at the seafront, but also got quite literally invested in this creative-regeneration project. Members of the public could buy individual slats, engraving them with personal messages: birthday wishes, beach memories, tributes to loved ones, and even a marriage proposal.

The most significant contribution for this project, however, came from Gordon Roddick, who made a generous donation as a tribute to his late wife Anita Roddick, Littlehampton’s most famous daughter and founder of The Body Shop, a pioneer of the ethical beauty industry.

There are other ways of escaping the London heat that do not include traveling to the coast - for instance, joining the World Naked Bike Ride.

The Spy’s Birthplace

In 1942, when the eco-cosmetics activist was born in a bomb shelter as Anita Lucia Perilli, a secret wartime group was conceived in Littlehampton. During the Second World War, the town served as the headquarters of the 30 Assault Unit, a band of specially trained naval commandos whose remit was essentially licensed espionage: infiltrating enemy territories to seize intelligence before it could be destroyed.

The members of 30AU were trained in safe-cracking, lock-picking, and other spycraft. After D-Day, these forces captured top-secret German technology and archives, material that would later serve as crucial evidence in the Nuremberg trials.

This remarkable unit was the brainchild of Commander Ian Fleming, who would, after the war, channel his considerable experience of adventures in classified operations into a series of novels about a certain secret agent.

So the next time someone asks where James Bond was really born, the accurate answer might be: on a beach in West Sussex.

Poison Pen Letters Instead of Postcards

Littlehampton today might seem a slightly more boring than a spy thriller, a place for switching off and not doing much. Out of 33,000 citizens, almost a third are older than 60. It’s one of the favorite retirement towns, where many come to appreciate the quieter tempo of life.

A century ago, however, the situation was a bit different – all hell broke loose in the town that Victorian tourism literature had labeled “The Children’s Paradise”. Between 1920 and 1923, a series of letters containing obscenities and spectacular false accusations was sent to numerous residents of Littlehampton. The language was so shockingly explicit that the court refused to read the letters aloud, to spare the jury’s blushes. From Parliament to the national press, everyone debated the scandal.

The setup was pure suburban noir. Edith Swan, a thirty-year-old laundress, and Rose Gooding, her neighbor on Western Road, had once been friends. The friendship collapsed after Swan reported Gooding to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, falsely accusing her of maltreating a child. Shortly after, Edith sent the first poison pen letter to herself, signing it as Rose. Then another. Then another. The letters began spreading across the neighborhood, upsetting everyone in the “quiet seaside town”.

Rose Gooding was prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned (twice!) for letters she hadn’t written. With the help of planted marked stamps, Swan was finally caught in the act in June 1923 and sentenced to a year in prison.

Exactly a century later, “Wicked Little Letters”, a film starring Olivia Colman as Swan and Jessie Buckley as Gooding, was released. If you want to see Littlehampton’s wilder side, it’s available on Netflix.

No Threats Today 

Nowadays, you don’t need to expect D-Day dramas and post office traumas in Littlehampton. Considerably less eventful (which, for many visitors, is an advantage), the town may be some distance from its Victorian tourism heyday.

Beach Hotel, where Fleming stayed between intelligence operations, was demolished and replaced with flats. Despite the lack of proper hotels, this “narcoleptic West Sussex town” (as diagnosed by Stephen Bayley, the architectural writer) still imagines itself as a holiday resort of the future.

A few out-of-the-box constructions won’t rewire a stagnant opposition to change in a day. There’s a long way to go, but the early 21st-century developments did increase the touristic interest in the town.

Littlehampton celebrates “doing less”. Only tides shift here quickly

From the East Beach Café’s rusted contours to the sand-dune-inspired curves of the Acoustic Shells designed by Flanagan Lawrence, our gaze is attracted by the extraordinary visual surprises.

But sometimes, pleasures are much simpler.

It can be enough to just have the freedom to race towards the sea with a unicorn floatie, defying printed warnings against the use of inflatables near the strong currents of England’s fastest-flowing river.

Confident seagulls stealing an entire box of pizza are sufficient to ruin (or make) someone’s day.  

A soft ice cream is worth queuing for even if it’s sold from the most ordinary-looking kiosk. The only urgent thing to do at Littlehampton Beach is to lick it quickly, as melting stubbornly resists the slowdown call.

Littlehampton celebrates “doing less”. Unlike promenades lined with souvenir shops demanding your attention every few meters, this waterfront has left enough breathing room between its attractions to let you notice the coastline itself.

From early-morning jogging with a musical background of halyards clinking against masts in the breeze, to spotting fishing boats returning to the harbor in the evening, trailing their own hungry seagull escort, you are embraced by the place that flirts with contemporary, yet accepts changes at its own pace.

Only tides shift here quickly. Maybe that persistent resistance to change is Littlehampton’s most intriguing secret.

LITTLEHAMPTON BEACH - FAQ

How far is Littlehampton Beach from the train station?

It’s a very short walk over a mostly flat terrain. Littlehampton Beach sits roughly 1 kilometer from Littlehampton railway station - about 15 minutes on foot. Follow Terminus Road - Hight Street - Surrey Street - Pier Road, and then you’re right on the seafront.

Is Littlehampton Beach sandy?

Yes and no. Both beaches combine sand and shingle, with broader expanses of sand revealed as the tide retreats.

Is Littlehampton Beach safe for swimming?

Part of the East Beach, marked by the red-and-yellow flags, is patrolled by Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeguards during the summer months. As with all tidal beaches, be aware of currents, particularly near the river mouth. Water temperature in high summer hovers between the character-building 16-19°C (61-66°F). 

How clean is Littlehampton Beach?

Bathing water quality at Littlehampton Beach is normally classified as ‘good’. After heavy rainfall, it’s advisable to wait at least 24 hours before swimming. Heed the warning signs on rare pollution risks that can occur, but are normally temporary. As for the beach itself, it’s regularly cleaned by professionals, but it also stimulates visitors’ contribution - at the beginning of the promenade, one can borrow a little picker and a reusable bag and join #2minutebeachclean movement.

Is Littlehampton Beach dog-friendly?

Between May 1 and September 30, East Beach has restrictions. No dogs are allowed on the beach between the river and the beach huts, and leads are required on the promenade. West Beach, with its wide open shoreline and quieter atmosphere, is more accommodating for pet owners.

Can you rent Litthelampton beach huts?

Some beach huts are available for sale, and they are usually listed at £20,000. It is also possible to rent double-sized and fully accessible huts - a day hire costs £65.

Is Littlehampton Beach accessible?

The promenade along East Beach is wide, mostly level, and suitable for wheelchairs, mobility scooters, and strollers. Accessible restrooms and disabled parking are available nearby. Although accessing the shingle and sand is a challenge, the paved promenade provides excellent sea views. 

Is there parking at Littlehampton Beach?

Yes. East Beach has pay-and-display East and West Green seasonal parking lots (£2.50/hour or £4.90 for three hours in summer). West Beach has a smaller lot at the same rates, which fills quickly on sunny days. Early arrival is strongly recommended on any weekend that doesn’t involve rain. 

Which is better: East Beach or West Beach?

East Beach is ideal for families, cafés, and seaside entertainment. West Beach is quieter, wilder, and better suited to walking, wildlife spotting, photography, and solitude.

Can you walk between East and West Beach?

Not directly along the shoreline, as the River Arun separates them. The pedestrian route is via the Littlehampton Harbour Bridge. You’ll need 15 minutes of riverside walk to reach this red pedestrian drawbridge.

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Hi from Littlehampton!

London has become unbearable these days, due to both extremely high temperatures and high pollution levels.

I already felt the burden of the upcoming heatwave last week when, with a Celsius reading in the high 20s, I ambitiously went cycling around the Thames for four hours. Even the view of the UK capital’s freshly opened, first swimming pool with natural water, floating between the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf at a chilling 16 degrees, couldn’t console my air-gasping.

While London struggles with the hottest June in recorded history, with temperatures expected to reach 40 degrees, I hopped on a train to Littlehampton, a seaside town on the English Channel, just 80 kilometers to the south, and many miles away from the tropical red alerts.

Being away from the burning roads of London for a week seemed like a smart choice. What else is there to do when you can fry an egg on the asphalt? Beach call sounds like a siren one shouldn’t ignore.

Another option is to just disrobe, wherever you are. Like those cyclists from the previous newsletter, who, unlike me in my own London bike adventure, didn’t need to sweat through T-shirts and pants, simply because they didn’t have any.

In the expectation of my grand Littlehampton escape, I prepared a detailed guide on the World Naked Bike Ride, so if you want to know and see more, head to the article.

Inside, you’ll also learn that the London nude bike tour is not a lonely event of that type in the calendar. This very week, you can ride your bicycle fully naked through the streets of Los Angeles and Cardiff.

Find all the upcoming dates and major locations (Bristol, Edinburgh, Chicago, Montreal, Amsterdam, Cambridge, Helsinki, etc.) in the guide, and do some sports like the first Olympians did – naked.

On a very serious note: hydrate yourself, wear sunscreen, and befriend some shade this week. It will be a hot one.

Despite touristic locations selling you the sun all day long, sometimes literally, like a Sardinian village that banned parasols for people aged 10 to 65 (sic!), remember that even nice things should be consumed with measure. Respect the sun, and embrace the shade when the respect starts burning.

Have a chill week,

Ivan Kralj    
Pipeaway.com

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on them and make a purchase, Pipeaway may make a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our work!

The post 🍳 Too Hot to Handle: Fleeing the Frying Pan – Pipeaway Newsletter #222 appeared first on Pipeaway.