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After exploring MANY possible options for Spring Break, we
finally decided a trip to the Gran Canaria (in the Spanish Canary Islands) and
Malaga would be a perfect way to spend a week exploring more of Spain and relaxing away from all the
cathedrals, day trips, city tours, and “must see” tourist activities. Since
there were 13 of us, we rented an apartment rather than give our life’s savings
to one of the expensive resorts and by Thursday night we were on an ever
pleasant Ryanair flight to Gran Canaria. (For anyone that’s ever flown Ryanair,
you know that pleasant is the last thing Ryanair is) At 3 hours, it was my
longest flight since I’ve been abroad. After landing, we attempted to take a
bus to the bus station that was supposedly right next to our apartment, but we
couldn’t figure out the routes and the bus driver was rude/unhelpful resulting
in us taking the wrong route (which at least still got us closer to the
apartment) and then we just took a taxi and handed him our address.
The first thing we did after getting the keys for the
apartment was childproof the entire place. With 13 of us in an 8 bedroom
apartment for 5 days and a hefty security deposit, we didn’t want to risk
anything.
Our apartment was a convenient 10 minute walk from the beach
and ended up being hundreds of euro per person cheaper than renting a hotel or
hostel on the island. Gran Canaria is off the west coast of Africa and was very
different than any other island I’d ever been too. Actually, I’ve never been to
an island so I guess it’s different from what I imagine other islands are like.
For one, there’s no wifi…anywhere. I resorted to sending all necessary emails
through a computer at the arcade down the road where you could buy 15 minutes
of internet for a euro. There also were telephone booths in every convenience
store and a ton of people using them.
We spent most of our days laying out on the beach and most
of our nights playing cards and hanging out. Lots and lots of cards. There were
two aspects of the beach that were of particular interest.
1.) It was a typical topless European beach. Just to paint a
picture in your mind (I'll spare you the pictures), that means 80 year old saggy ladies on your left and fat
guys in speedos (thong speedos if you were lucky) on your right. I will say
that while it was a bit disturbing at first, it was so refreshing to be in a
culture that wasn’t body conscious at all.
2.) We somehow managed to arrive on the one day a year when
thousands of jellyfish invade the beach. So for the first 3 days the water and
sand by the water were completely covered in jellyfish. Workers were literally
raking dead jellyfish off the beach with rakes. Ew.
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| sew many jellies |
The last day we were in the Canary Islands, we took a bus
down to Puerto Rico (town not country) on the south side of the island to spend
a day on a catamaran called the Afrikat. We got lunch, and all the beer and
sangria we wanted, and they also took us in a little boat to a nearby sea cave
and let us use their snorkeling equipment to snorkel in a bay in the Atlantic.
We unanimously decided it was our favorite day trip yet.
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| Afrikat catamaran crew |
That night we tried to finish our trip to Gran Canaria with
a bang by going to what I can only assume is the only club in Gran Canaria. It
sounded like a good idea until we walked in and were instantly swarmed by short
boys with braces struggling to drink their beers. Yeahhhhh we were at an
underage club. We stayed long enough to get our free drinks and then went back
to the apartment.
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| discoteca pic |
Besides nearly achieving cradle robber status, I’d say Gran
Canaria was a success.
The next leg of the trip took us to Malaga in the south of
Spain. After encountering a scenario strangely familiar to the opening scene of
Taken, we speed walked from the bus station, jumped a fence with our luggage,
and hailed a taxi that only laughed at us and said “hay muchas problemas” when
we told him the address of where we needed to go. Turns out, the south of
Spain, and Malaga in particular goes CRAZY for Easter week, or Semana Santa as
they call it. There was a massive parade with streets blocked and people
everywhere and our hostel was conveniently in the middle of it all. Our taxi
driver took us as close as he could, still at least 8 blocks away, pointed us in the general direction,
and wished us well. While Morgan and I tried pushing our way through the
massive sea of people, we came across another group of girls and a guy sitting
hopelessly on their luggage on the curb. They were from Chile and also had a
hostel located in the middle of the massive crowd of people. They helped us ask
for directions to our hostel and before we knew it, we were following a 60 year
old man and his wife through the crowds to our hostel as people cheered us on
and waved us through. After a massive blur or Spanish people, floats of
religious figures, and narrow alley streets we finally got to our hostel.
Welcome to Malaga!
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| Semana Santa parade |
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| Part of the English bachelor party |
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| Aggressive Parisian bachelor party arrives...this is how we met |
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| massive Parisian bachelor party |
Our last
day in Malaga, we went on a day trip to explore the nearby Andalusian white
villages and ocean of Frigiliana and Nerja. They were gorgeous and reminded me of what I always thought
of when I used to think of Spain.
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| Frigiliana |
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| Nerja |
Spring Break 2012 = great success.
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