Why dishing out your phone number to anyone is not a good idea

There comes a time when you think it's OK to give your telephone number to a stranger you just met a few hours ago. What bad could possibly happen? Then comes a time when you realize what a huge, irreversible mistake you have just made.

Alright, okay, let's not exaggerate this. I'm just itching to tell you what happened to me in Gran Canaria. Fortunately, giving your number to someone who's nice is usually not a problem at all. But as you may know, usually is not a synonym for never.

After spending some time with two local Canarian guys, my friend and I grew tired of their company at some point. I'm not saying they were annoying or boring, we only wanted to do something else and get to know other people as well. That's why I then thought it would be kind to give my number to one of them, so we could meet up another day. I guess this guy still couldn't handle our going very well, because the first thing I noticed the following morning was 50 calls from an unknown number. And I had absolutely no doubt who was behind all these calls.

I answered him in the afternoon while we were having lunch at our patio. He told me he had a special gift for me and wanted to see me again. I thought for real that I could, perhaps, meet him and see what he has in mind. Then I started rethinking the whole situation. He hadn't given me his real number the previous night and kept calling from an unknown one. He had also told me I could call him 'Lado', after having a suspiciously long break when asked for his name. His mystery was definitely not cute, it was annoying and something inside me told this person didn't have a clean slate.

I apologized and told him politely that I wasn't going to come anywhere with him nor did I want to stay in contact.  I suppose that was something you shouldn't have said, since he started nagging and telling me how he loves me. Oh yeah, because those things tend to happen in one day. The calls went on and on and on. Every night he would call me 5-50 times and a few times during the afternoon. I got so full of his behaviour, I had to answer him once and yell at him how horrible a person he was for not leaving me alone.

As you might guess, he still hasn't entirely left me alone. He has actually called me three times and tried to contact me via Whatsapp after we left Gran Canaria in March. Talk about desperate or what? (or maybe bored, who knows) I've just ignored him.

Well, if there was something in it for me, I'll definitely consider to whom I give my number from now on! You can always block someone on facebook, twitter etc. but when someone doesn't call you with their own number, there's nothing you can do about it except change your number. Not very nice, is it!

10 memorable photos from Gran Canaria

 1  This cute cat came sitting on our terrace; the terrace where I loved to have breakfast and little breaks from the sun. The whole resort area was really well-kept as one morning, besides the cat,  there was also a man trimming a palm tree in our garden. Meow.

 2  This is the professional way to dry your jacket abroad. Tuck the sleeve in and insure that it won't fall off five times like mine did. To be used at your own risk! No seriously, I wouldn't recommend this to anybody. I was just really desperate before a dinner.

 3  We went dining in a quiet Chinese restaurant in Playa del Ingles which seemed a bit peculiar, truth be told. When my friend's food appeared, it occurred that we would be cooking it ourselves in the table. I might have been able to understand that with steaks, but this was chicken. Goodness gracious!

 4  Oh no, wait a second. On second thought, I need my sunglasses as it's way too sunny out here and I don't want my eyes to be closed. Go on, take it! No, not yet! #holidayphotoproblems

 5   Yeah, we had a good time reading the menus in Finnish. It's hard to translate the mistakes in English because of the complex grammar, but let's just say every other one is written incorrectly. But it was cute.

 6  The sexy sipping face. Or less sexy. Do I really look like that? This isn't even the only one, I think I have about three of these in my archives!

 7  This was one dried out river in Puerto de Mogan! This bridge itself was beautiful, but this truth lay beneath it.

 8  Absolutely no one at Burger King in Las Palmas! Then we saw a family of three: a mother, a father and a small child probably around 3 years old. And they happened to be.... Finnish! Wow, I just feel sooo much abroad right now. I decided to use Spanish and order an ice cream, which was great, but I couldn't catch what the cashier said. So much for that. Switching to English immediately...

 9  Trying on shoes at Primark. Primark is a shoe and bag paradise. I just love it. But apparently I didn't approve of this moment for photographing. However, I happily left the shop with new sandals, and a few more purchases. Ahem, ahem. I've got to praise the Argan Oil I bought for my hair; if it hadn't been for Primark's cheap little bottles, I wouldn't have ever bought this amazing oil at all. My hair sends love to you, whoever invented the oil!

 10  Last but not least, when taking a "unique" holiday photo like this, make sure your horrid plasters aren't ruining it. The pool looks nice... Oh well. It was the first day at the pool so we were all excited!

Beaches of Anfi del Mar, Gran Canaria

So this is what Anfi del Mar's beach looks like. The sand is the most finest type you can imagine, specially brought all the way from The Caribbean to this little island lying next to Africa. The best thing ever was the supermarket, which was right next to the beach and the pools. Despite being an area buzzing with tourists, the prices in the market were very low compared to Finland's AND they had the perfect salt&vinegar crisps! Haha, the crisps really made my day.

Tomorrow it's time for my long-awaited summer holiday, which will last for 10 weeks! After my second year of upper secondary school, I'm sure I've earned my holiday! I'm planning on going to Helsinki for a weekend, attending  a rock festival in Turku and to meeting my language course friends in Uppsala, Sweden. Not to mention my ten-day twin town visit to Besançon, France about which I know nothing and studying for my matriculation exams - or A-levels as some call them -  I think I won't get bored during my holiday!

Weird situations while travelling #1

Reminiscing one of our nights in Puerto Rico really brings smile on my face. I could say that it makes me laugh hysterically rather than just smile if I really start to think about it.

So what happened then?
After having a great dinner my friend and I wanted to relax and sit down somewhere. So we just strolled until we found a perfect empty bench in the middle of the park, which was simply crying out to be sat on. Well, the two of us didn't get to sit there for very long because an old Canarian man came along. It would've been normal if he hadn't been wearing white clothes from head to toe, carrying around a metal detector and riding a bicycle full of small flags. Nicely put... the whole apparition looked a bit out of this world.

centre of Puerto Rico

So he started telling us about his life by showing us how his metal detector works and some necklaces he had found with the help of it. Our communication was more non-verbal, because no one knew which language to talk. I think the only question he asked clearly in English was "do you smoke marijuana?" Unfortunately he had to deal with a lot of headshakes and no-nos as an answer from us. Suddenly he started raking up his backpack and took up a little bag. I was certain that he had something dangerous inside it, as the whole situation was completely random. Well I was wrong. This guy took out his recorder and started playing it!

Restautant la Bolera in Puerto Rico

I've studied Spanish for about two years and decided that it was the perfect time to practice it a bit - even if this man was a bit weird. I told him I had played the recorder for some years when I was a little girl. You should have seen how he got excited! So he began to tell us in Spanish how he loves to go to the mountains in the morning, play his recorder and sing over there with his six little dogs. This fellow even listed their names - from what I can remember, one of them was called Coco. Tenemos que irnos ahora, lo siento, adios. It was time for us to leave, for we didn't want to spend the whole night with this weird man.

This must be one of my most random memories from travelling. It's these kinds of things that make travelling so unique. Anddd that's why I'll share more of them whenever I can.

What's the most random thing you have experienced during your holiday? 

Puerto de Mogan by boat

Trying to photograph crabs...  with poor success, unfortunately

On the first evening, we went to a fishing village called Puerto de Mogan by boat. It was said that the boat would have a transparent bottom, so that we could see fish through it. Nonsense, mark my words. The boat had a small window through which we could try to peek to see fish. Well, it would have been sufficient if there actually had been any fish. It was all only turquoise water. Nevertheless, the cruise and especially the  peaceful village was very nice! I'd recommend them to anyone.

After taking millions of photos of the sea, we finally arrived to Puerto de Mogan. The whole place kind of put me in mind of Monaco's old city. Beautiful flowers, old buildings and good food!

We went out eating in a restaurant (see the food over here, the first one) and bought some really cheap make-up. The place itself was so beautiful that we didn't even have to do much. Walking down the streets taking photos kept us happy.

On a Mountain at Gran Canaria

So this was our little trip to a small, nearby mountain. Because the temperature would rise between 10 and 11 AM and it would be HOT, we were forced to head out hiking early so that we won't be exhausted. Still I don't regret a second of it even though I felt tired. In fact, I would have been ready to go on a longer, more difficult route. Since this mountain was close to our apartment, we just tried it without thinking of other options. The view was fascinating; I could have spent the whole day hiking and taking photos but sunbathing sounded too tempting!

I liked that the route was marked with red letters, which made it much easier to navigate in the area. Below is an obligatory selfie I took just before the peak!

And finally there! Somehow I manage to find this small, curious girl inside of me when I hit the road. I have always got to try something I have never done before. And that's one of the best things about travelling - you get to do things you wouldn't have done home. Even if they are small things, you just might notice that you got yourself some unforgettable memories.