Often you don’t know who you’re doing it with, you don’t see faces of course you feel a bit unsafe.” – Xavi, 23 “Going out to a bar to pick up someone? I tried that, but I am five-foot-three, nobody notices me, and wasting fifty Euros on drinks to look like a dwarf, trampled by all the other guys – no thanks! Hitting up guys on the internet, or on a date… it’s scarier. I feel insecure because it´s not safe, there are no lights at all. Afterwards, the other times, I did feel fear. It gets me every time.” – Aquiles, 25 “The first time, I felt something like pleasure, excitement and attraction – that was anything but fear. As I go up, that tingling sensation starts, like when you were a kid and there were presents to unwrap. “Sex, yes, but also the fact of not knowing what is out there, that is what I like about it.” “Every time I go to Montjuic I go up the hill through the same stairs.
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“What is hiding there in the distance, behind the dark leaves of the forest?” says Alex, who, like all of the men in this article, agreed to be interviewed on the condition his full name not be published. Although the number of people cruising here has somewhat decreased over the years, many insist that what they enjoy about the practice has not been replaced by the mainstream acceptance of homosexuality, or by the rise of dating apps. They juggle the fears of being exposed and judged with the rush of clandestine encounters that make them feel deliciously alive. The cruising scene, which many participants say dates back to at least the 1970s, attracts men of a variety of backgrounds and desires, not all of whom identify as gay. It is also a meeting place for a community of men who practice cruising – searching for sexual encounters in public places. It is now a recreational area, home to parks, gardens, museums and a castle. Over the centuries it has been the site of Celtic settlers, Roman ceremonies, political executions, and several events during the 1992 Olympic Games. Montjuic is a large hill overlooking the harbor near the city center of Barcelona.