Thursday, May 20, 2010

Canary Islands! Some party people are old, some party people are young

So some program friends and I decided to take a celebrating-cuz-we're-done-with-finals trip to the Canary Islands, which is a territory of Spain but much closer to Africa. We stayed at Las Palmas (at the "good beach") on Gran Canaria, which is about a 45 min drive from the airport... turns out our beach mostly caters to Spanish retirees (ie limited English and very little nightlife.) (but lots of Bingo!) So as nice (and cheap) as Hostel 7 Soles was, I would recommend going to the other side of the island to Playa del Ingles.

The weather was bipolar: some days overcast, some days sunny (and apparently it is sunnier on the south side of the island? even though it's a pretty small island...) But do not let the overcast clouds/wind fool you! The last day was super overcast and very windy and since my front was nice and tan (read: burned) I decided to lay on my stomach and tan my back. I ended up with a very red lower back/upper thighs and sitting 3 hrs on the plane ride back to Madrid was a very painful experience.
On Tuesday night, when we went to Playa del Ingles, a British club promoter convinced us to spend 15 euros each on a club hopping night. Realizing only after that we would have no time to go home (an hour bus ride each way), change and return, we went to a bathroom, cleaned up as nice as we could, then went to a Perfumeria to make ourselves smell less "beachy".

The "Pacha night" had mostly German/ Swedish/ British people in attendance (I didn't even meet any other Americans). But some of these people were too young to be at a club... which wouldn't have been a bother if it wasn't for the "game" that I was invited to play by a club dancer (and I dragged the other two girls into it with me). The "game" was more of a "Striptease" by five random (all German?) guys, one of whom I seriously doubt was over 18 (so illegal?). Thank God my "partner" was at least in his early twenties, though his English sucked. Overall a very embarrassingly hilarious experience... and a veryyyy interesting night.
(i'm second from left, my friends Lindy and Kelsey are to the right)
Another note: all the signs, menus, etc. are in English (for the British tourists), Spanish and German. There were a LOT of German tourists there (Germany has pretty crappy weather, and enough $ to travel right now). I even got to practice some German with the club promoters and with a person in our hostel who was seriously confused as to which room was his... but mostly, my "practicing German" was reduced to a reminder of how bad my German sucks, considering how long I studied it.

Ah well. Anyway. Tomorrow (actually, in less than 4 hrs, as its past 1am here) I will be going to the airport for my 16 day backpacking trip through Italy (Milan, Florence, Assisi and Rome) and Greece (Athens, Santorini, Ios and Naxos). I try not to get online when traveling in order to experience more of the trips, so I probably won't update this blog until I get back to Madrid or, more likely, till I touch down in the States the afternoon of June 6th. (Well, I might not update it till after that date, gotta give me time to chill with the fam! :))

To all those who read this blog, thanks! It's always a pleasant surprise to see that people are interested in what I'm up to in Europe :D

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