Futbol (Soccer) & the Countryside

Elena, Agustus and I

Elena and I sitting in the stands to the right of the player with the white shirt

Day 3- The next day we woke up around 11:15am and laughed about falling asleep so early the night before. At 11:30am we headed to Ale’s soccer game (Ale is Elena’s boyfriend). His team is ranked #1 in the league and the opponent from the other island (who they played) is ranked #2, so this games was a good matchup to watch. A little bit of rivalry broke out between the two teams twice, but each time the other team started the commotion. I think they were just mad that Las Palmas was wining because one of the “fights” took place towards the end of the game when Las Palmas was winning 3-0 which ended up to be the final score anyways. The weather at the beginning of the game was bright and sunny with powerful heat from the sun. During halftime the clouds rolled in and took away the heat which felt good for a change. The remainder of the game was played with cloudy weather which Elena was thrilled about. Elena’s friend Agustus photographed the first half of the game and then came and hung out with us for the entire second half. So, this being said, I got to practice my Spanish since he does not really know English! After the game we waited for Ale to congratulate him. Then it was time to go home for lunch. In the Canary Islands, lunch is the biggest meal of the day and dinner is the smallest. We had a complete lunch with the table set and everything. Lunch was delicious, pork and French fries! After that we didn’t really do much. Just bummed around the house. Elena and I watched Bridesmaids half in English and half in Spanish since it is easier for her to understand things for the first time in Spanish. I had seen the movie already so I was fine with watching it in Spanish. I actually think watching it in Spanish made it funnier. But anyways, we didn’t get to watch the entire thing because we headed up to Elena’s family house up in the mountains out in the country of the island. 

Countryside

 
The temperature difference was drastically different! Elena, Laura (her sister), Soli (her sister’s friend) and I were literally sitting in the house with our jackets on. 

Elena, Soli, Laura and I (and the game DixIt)

The house was SO cute. Actually, Laura was in the process of moving there with her longtime boyfriend Dan. We watched some TV (in Spanish), ate some snacks, played a game called DixIt, and eventually had a late dinner. DixIt is a game Laura received the day before as a gift on her Saint Day. Your Saint Day is almost like a birthday and is a huge deal in the Spanish culture. This game requires you to use your imagination which made it extremely fun to play. Eventually it was time to go back home. I had SO much fun this past weekend catching up with Elena and seeing the island. I would love to go back but I do not think I will have enough time. However, I could not have asked for a better weekend.   

Elena's Dog Molly!

Nude Beaches and Black Sand (Canary Islands)

Day 2 - My second day in Las Palmas consisted of nothing but the beach! Elena, her friend Melanie and I traveled about 30 min to the south of the island where the majority of tourists flock. 

Melanie, Elena and I

The name of the exact beach we went to was Playa Ingles. Once I saw the dunes, I felt like I was in Egypt. They were ENORMOUS, and separated the ocean from the buildings/hotels but A LOT. I felt like I had to walk through the Sahara desert to reach the water. Oh and there are absolutely NO paths whatsoever. Our strategy was to follow where the majority of the previous footsteps led to and stay away from the huge sand cliffs. This worked like a charm! 

We reached the water and just started looking for an open spot to setup. Before we knew it, we ended up in the nudist part of the beach! This was a scary sight. The majority of the people were old! We immediately turned around as we cracked up. Unfortunately for us, our day was cut short by the cloudy weather. The beach temperature got cold really fast and everyone disappeared. Soon it was our turn to leave. On our walk back, we encountered an adorable wild baby hedgehog! I didn’t even know hedgehogs are wild creatures and not just house pets.

Second Beach

Instead of totally giving up on the day, we headed to a beach in Las Palmas called Las Canteras.  This beach was totally different from the south. The sand here was black and there were no dunes except for a cement wall where the restaurants, apartments, and “boardwalk” were perched up on. I’m happy the weather deteriorated in the south because it offered me another opportunity to see a different part of the island. The weather here was perfect with the sun scorching through the clouds. We spent the rest of the day there, and then dropped Melanie off at her house. Back at the Elena’s house we took showers and just hung out. We were both so tired we did not even go out to a discoteca. In fact, I said I was going to take a nap at 9:45 pm and slept until Sunday morning. Elena said she would wake me up but never did because she fell asleep too! I wasn’t even hungry for dinner. I ended up eating dinner for breakfast the next day. The sun and driving sucked out all of our energy. Such a weird night! 

 

Canary Islands Reunion

 Day 1- Friday morning was my first time flying on the infamous Ryanair airline. This company does not assign anyone seats (unless you pay extra) and has comparably cheap flights that fit a college student’s study abroad budget. I looked up flights, as directed by my longtime friend Elena, and seized the opportunity to go visit her in the Canary Islands! She has lived in the Canary Islands her entire life, but her family in the United States is extremely close to my family. She and I met years ago at a party with her family while she was visiting the US. We kept in touch ever since so now that I am studying in Madrid, I get to visit her! My Ryanair flight went smoothly for the most part excluding the few bumps encountered. Elena picked me up from the airport and we headed on our way! It was weird being in a car with someone driving manual transmission, but then again that’s how things are here in Spain. We cruised down the highway listening to popular Spanish and American songs on a CD she made as she pointed out specific points of the islands. When we arrived at her house, she showed me around and introduced me to her dog, Molly, since everyone else was still sleeping. 

 After that, we both went back to sleep as I was up since 5am that morning. The nap felt good. Elena’s mom, her sister Laura, and I dropped Elena off at school around 2pm, then headed to the market to buy some food. Yes I said market and no this is not the same thing as a supermarket. Buying food this way is a lot cheaper because it goes through less people/companies. When we arrived home, I went and sat by their pool (which they recommended) and took a small nap, again. The sun felt amazing, but the pool was too cold to swim in. After that, her mom and I went to visit her grandmother, who I have not seen since probably before high school. Unfortunately, her grandmother did not remember me, but it was still nice to visit and attempt to communicate in Spanish. Then the two of us said goodbye and went into town to explore while we waited for Elena to finish up class at 8pm. To pass the time by, we had churros, chocolate, and coffee and browsed through a few clothing shops (where I wanted to buy EVERYTHING) and picked up some more groceries. The town was cute and probably only had one tourists, me. It was neat to see one of the true sides of the Canary Islands other than a tourist spot. Once Elena finished classes, her mom left me with her and some of her friends in town. We all went to a crepe and gelato place which was phenomenal.

 I used my Spanish to converse with her friends because most of them could hardly speak English. Eating and chatting concluded, so Elena and her friends took me to the cathedral which dates back a long time ago. 

Anton, Elena and I in front of the cathedral

Soon enough, we got bored standing outside of it and went to another restaurant just to sit and chat some more. Something that NEVER happens there is rain. Except of course it decides to rain multiple times while I was visiting. The heaviest rain occurred while we were all sitting at this restaurant lucky for us we were sitting under a huge umbrella. Everyone else scurried and scampered for shelter. It was pretty funny actually. One family took their yellow lab dog inside the restaurant. Our night ended here with the rain. It was fun living the life of a true 20 year old Spaniard! Everyone is so laid back and not in a rush to go anywhere. I could get used to it!

SURF'S UP!

Day 3 - The third and final day consisted of surfing and only surfing. At first, Zach and I were the only two from our little group who wanted to surf until Emily and Jen changed their minds at the last second once they saw how many people were doing it and decided to follow. It was more fun this way because we had more people to try and catch waves at the same time with. The bad part was that there were way too many people in one spot trying to surf. Having surfed before, this annoyed me tremendously. I would be riding a wave and people would see me coming at them but refused to move similar to a deer in headlights. It’s the “surfing law” to move out of a surfer in motion’s way. As a result, I had to jump off and end the ride. What a buzz kill. But besides this, surfing was A LOT of fun.  

 The waves were HUGE and there were so many “real” surfers farther out catching the big waves. 

 
These are surfers who spend their life traveling to surf the best surf breaks in the world. They sleep in their vans keeping their expenses to a minimum and let their dogs run around freely.  It felt pretty cool to be surfing at the same beach some of the pros surf at. Surfing was a lot of fun, but deposited a lot of sand in every place imaginable even with wetsuits on because the waves were so powerful. Unfortunately we had to travel all the way back to Madrid without showering. That bus ride home was miserable. The seats were so uncomfortable and it felt like it took forever to get home. Once again, we took an overnight bus back to Madrid to make it back in time for classes Monday afternoon. However, before we arrived in Seville, we stopped at a rest stop to find the craziest man in the world on TV. We were granted to the opportunity to watch the Austrian man free fall from outer space through the sound barrier and onto land live while we happened to be stopped there. Other than this, there was nothing exciting about the trip home. I do not think I will ever take a bus that lasts more than 4ish hours and is overnight ever again. The weekend in Portugal was a lot of fun. The beaches were unlike any other I have been to. I actually would not mind going back!

Exploring Lagos By Boat

  Portugal Day 2 - The second day began nice and early. We headed to a different beach to hang out at while we waited for our sangria cruise around the coast of Lagos. On the beach, Jen, Emily and I participated in a soccer game which proved to be a lot of fun considering we were the only girls playing. The first group returned from sailing and then it was our turn. On the cruise, we had unlimited sangria which had cinnamon and mint mixed in making the Sangria extremely tasty.

  Once we reached where we were supposed to anchor, some people jumped off the boat for a swim while dingy boats took a small handful of students at a time into the Grottos (naturally made caves on the coast). This in itself was spectacular. Some of the rocks formed natural shapes such as hearts and elephants. This lasted for about 20 min, but it was a good 20 min well spent. 

Back on the boat, we socialized, took some pictures, and I even jumped off into the frigid waters. However, in the end, jumping off was worth it because now I can say I jumped off the boat into the open Atlantic Ocean. After the boat ride, we went back to the beach. Most of us had lunch in the only restaurant there. They also had free wifi which is a HUGE deal for study abroad students who need to stay connected to the world. Our sangria sail pretty much took up our entire day until sunset time. At dusk, the entire group traveled to a point in Portugal known as “the end of the world” when people thought the earth was flat. 

 Before arriving to our destination, we were told that this was one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. And indeed it was. People were staggered all of the cliffs peering at the gorgeous s sight. 

 

 The sunset itself was extraordinary. It was cool to get to see where people thought the world ended during the dark ages. Directly after the sunset, some of us got dropped off in downtown Lagos for dinner.  My SJU group opted to do this in order to attempt another shot at eating at the Nah Nah Bah. We had to wait a little bit but the wait was definitely worth the taste in food. I’m not a huge burger person but these monsters were the best burgers I have EVER had. The restaurant put pineapple on the burger which was a good exotic change. 

We finished our delicious dinner and trekked back to that Australian surf bar. At this point we were all really close to the bartenders and just hung out talking about random stuff. Then it was time to move on to the promotion of the night, Joe’s Garage. With the lights off this place looked pretty cool, but I could tell once the lights go on, it would look like a total garbage pit. Anyways we had a fun time dancing there and then headed back home again at a reasonable hour.