I just returned from my first official travel weekend! Ashley, Nicole, and I flew to the Canary Islands and stayed on Gran Canaria, the "big" island, in a hostel overlooking the beach/ocean. Not too shabby. The flight was interesting - an extremely loud Spanish man with a grating voice took it upon himself to narrate his stream of consciousness for the rest of the passengers. I couldn't quite catch his main rant on video in time, but here's a little taste of that experience:
But once we got there, it was worth it. We spent a lot of time at the beach and hiked up the plateau for some great views. (More pictures to come). We stayed in a small beach town called Puerto de Mogan at Volver Hostel, which is built into the side of the mountain. Our stay there was a huge reason why we had such a great time. We met people from all over the world: A German hippie girl who makes pottery, a German student couple, a British girl, a Swedish dad traveling with his three young sons, an older lady from Iceland, a Palestinian woman who lives in London (she says she is so thankful for the freedom she has found there), a Cuban waiter one night for dinner (with a few choice words to say about Fidel), an Italian lady, and a Canadian guy traveling with his French girlfriend. The last two were especially nice to us and filled us in on travel tips about Paris for our future excursion there. The last night we sat up on the roof and talked with them for most of the night. The owner of the hostel is a German girl who is super artsy and original - the hostel is definitely one of a kind. We loved the decoration, the shared kitchen and living space, and the incredible view. Here's what it looked like:
I get a bit jealous, remembering our European traveling. In a gross display of ignorance, what is the official language of Canary Islanders?
ReplyDeleteNot a gross display at all, this kind of confuses me still. It is officially Spanish because the islands are technically a part of Spain, yet I didn't get to practice my Spanish at ALL while I was there. Everyone was speaking English or German - all the signs have English, German, and Spanish on them. We heard from the Germans we met that the Canaries are a huge vacation spot for them. I think the reason for the English is that there are so many tourists and different nationalities there that it is a common denominator for most. They said Americans aren't very common on the island.
ReplyDeleteThat view was awful. (FYI: I'm trying to trend-set with the phrase "awful." I figure that if I say it enough, I can "flip" it similarly to other previously negative words like "bad," "sick," and "ridiculous.").
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