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. 

Las Palmas Gone Wrong

There was a day when we decided to have a day off and go to Las Palmas for some serious shopping. Everything was fine. Sitting in the bus and thinking of all the shops we could go to when we get there.

When we finally got there, we asked for a couple of maps from the info desk. A woman gave us few maps and kindly pointed out where we were at the moment. But when I asked how we could get to the shopping centre Las Arenas the easiest way, the woman looked at me strangely and calmly noted that all the shops were closed because of the carneval. Excuse me?! We couldn't believe it. In other words, we had just traveled for an hour only to hear that the shops were closed in Las Palmas.

I decided to check this piece of information from another desk and we heard the same words: "Yes, all the shops are closed. Come back tomorrow or any other day" It was relieving to hear that we could go shopping later on this week, but at the same time extremely annoying that we had chosen this very day and come up all the way to Las Palmas.

This was the reason for our cancelled shopping day!

So we headed to the nearest McDonald's to sit down and think of a plan b. I ordered a Kitkat McFlurry but it suddenly lost its delicious taste and the ice-cream became something I just shoved into my mouth.

"Playa del Inglés. Let's go there," my stepfather suggested. Well, what could we say. We didn't want to stay in Las Palmas, that was for sure. We didn't even feel like waiting for a bus, so we took a taxi to a "shopping centre" called Yumbo which was in Playa del Inglés.

Can you see the difference between the weather of Las Palmas and Inglés? It's unbelievable. Travel for only 45 minutes from Las Palmas and the cloudy spring weather will turn into a blazing heat. All's well that ends well, it was nice seeing a new place and buying some mini cactus souvenirs for Finland!

I'm doing a frequently asked questions post about EF language courses, because I get asked lots of questions about my trip.
If you have something in your mind, do not hesitate to ask!
I will be doing this post in Finnish because obviously it's the Finns who have been asking me different sorts of things. I will, however, answer in English as well :)

Feast of Flavours ‒ Food from Gran Canaria

Chinese chicken and vegetables

Tuna with canary potatoes, vegetables and mussels

Canarian sauces: mojo verde and mojo picón

Grouper fish with canary potatoes

Tapas time

Tapas pizza with prawns, tuna, olives, ham and tomato

The better the food, the happier! We usually went out eating to Puerto Rico, which was a few minutes' taxi drive away from Anfi del Mar. A restaurant we visited twice was La Bolera. It had exquisite seafood and the old people dancing to the rhythm of live music outside were kind of cute. In nearly every restaurant the menus were translated into God knows how many languages! One of them was Finnish, so we had fun looking at the translations that were − well − not so terrific.

I have to admit that mussels aren't really my cup of tea, but I had to try them again because we don't eat them that much around here. On the contrary, something I found really good were the bananas. I eat them nearly every day in Finland so I couldn't help noticing how much juicier they were at Gran Canaria!

Salmon with canarian potatoes

Grilled king prawns with rice and french fries

Tiramisu

Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet food

Last day's breakfast at Anfi...

...which also had a chocolate fountain...

...and some other delicacies!

Anfi Beach Club resort

What a holiday! Full of sun, sun and sun... We came back home the day before and it's just so dark here! It sure did good to escape from Finland for a moment.

Anyway, I thought I'd first show photos of the beautiful place we were staying in. It was a holiday resort called Anfi del Mar, which was founded by some Norwegian guy and therefore has a lot of Scandinavian people living there. The gardens and everything were kept in an excellent condition and the staff was really friendly. One morning we woke up to a little knocking sound ‒ a gardener was trimming the palm tree in our backyard. Had never seen that in my life before!

We saw some turtles swimming in one of the ponds! The photo below it shows a heart-shaped island.

These swimming pools were only for the residents of Anfi resorts, but anyone could enjoy the beach, shops and restaurants Anfi del Mar offered. There were also luxury brand shops, a game hall, a pharmacy, supermarket and actually everything you needed for a perfect holiday. At least if you were willing to pay. I noticed many things were cheaper in Puerto Rico but I'll save that for later.

I don't think I have any photos inside our apartment, which is a shame. Our apartment had two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a patio.

But hey, this was just a start for this trip. I don't have anything else to tell about the place itself. I'll be working on some posts about the food (important!), the things we did and the different places we visited, which might be more interesting. I hope everyone had a lovely winter break!

Paris part 2 - only parks, no shopping!

Jardin des Tuileries

Jardin des Tuileries is a huge park, which reaches all the way from Place de la Concorde to the museum of Louvre. With its statues, flowers, fountains and the big Ferris wheel, it makes an impression on both the younger as well as the older people.

Can you believe it! An empty square in the middle of Paris. Some occasional, active people jogging around the square and some other, well, not-so-active people immersed in their books, sitting on the benches under the trees. It looked so peaceful to see such a view in this bustling city. Paris does have approximately 27 million visitors each year!

I also ate one of the best ice-creams of my life in this very park. I just loved their different way of buying the ice-cream: first you chose the size of your cup and after that they would fill it up with all your desired flavours. That's right, you could have tasted a bit of every single flavour if you wanted to! As I can't resist chocolate, I chose three or four of them. Yum!

Champs-Élysées

L'Arc de Triomphe. Yep, that's my friend and me in the lower right-hand corner. It was a bit crowded, so to speak...We would have wanted to go shopping on this day, but our tour guide decided that it's such a lovely day for walking on the avenue of champs-élysées. Besides, there are shops on the avenue, so everything should be just great! Well, the shops being luxury fashion boutiques, they didn't really satisfy us students.

Sometimes it is good to pay for experiences rather that t-shirts. I think this is the most important thing I learned during my trip.I must admit, though, that I love fashion and mixing and matching clothes!

After walking for some time on the avenue, we wanted to go rest in a park and take some photos. It was kind of embarrassing to sit near the flowerbed but it was totally worth it! Luckily there weren't that many people staring at us. I'll end this post to these summery photos taken in one of the side gardens of Avenue de Champs-Élysées.

On Saturday we'll be leaving for Gran Canaria, as you probably have noticed the ticking countdown clock on the right-hand side. It means bye-bye for a week, there'll be a bunch of new adventures to share with you guys after that!