After a rainy Sunday it was only natural to go someplace that is know for a lack of rain – the desert. It just so happens there is a small desert in the south of the island. I’m not really sure if it really is a desert, but it sure looks like it. Large sand dunes stretch couple of kilometers around at the seaside in the south.
Mespalomes dunes
The dunes were surprisingly large, it took quite some time to get on top of one.
Sand dunes
Drinking water
Almost dead
Running to try and get in place before the photo is taken. No luck.
The dunes
Original
The town of Maspalomas is the most touristic area of the island, full of bars, hotels and restaurants. After the dunes we hiked around the town before going back to our apartments. For most of the time we cooked for ourselves, I think in total we ate outside 3 times, and all three times it was paella time.
Paella
Sadly it wasn’t as good as the one Veronika and I had in Valencia couple of years ago.
On Tuesday we went to visit the main city on the island Les Palmas, the city is located on the far north of the island. It is quite large, almost 400.000 inhabitants, so larger than Ljubljana. We visited couple of stores and hiked alongside the main beach. Aside from few interesting shops there wasn’t much to do here and we were happy we picked south of the island for our vacation.
Learning to surf
We first thought it was actually a person pretending to be still for money.
In the afternoon, instead of taking the highway and going down the same way we came up, we decided to go around the island. Again, the roads quickly became narrow, cutting into the edges of cliffs high above the sea. The views were amazing though.
Cliffs on the west side
Cliffs on the west side
We had to go over some mountains to get to the other side
Strangely middle of the island was almost all the time covered by large dark clouds.
Port for ferry to Tenerife
We stopped at a couple of places along the way. At the most west part of the island there was a iconic traditional colored lighthouse.
The westernmost point of Gran Canaria.
It took us half a day to get back home again. Along the way, from time to time, we saw this funny traffic sign, alerting drivers about donkey-cow, sadly we did not see any live specimen of the animal depicted.
More than 6 years have passed, since my friends and I planned a trip to Canary Islands. Sadly back then, just couple of months before our departure Ryanair cancelled our flight and we had to change our plans and go to mainland Spain. Since then we waited for the right moment to take that trip again and this year that moment had came. In the end of April Veronika, I and two of my friends Vito and Eva finally left Europe and landed in Africa.
Our destination was Gran Canaria – the third largest island of Canary Islands. The round island is of volcanic origin, it is relatively small – only measuring 50km in diameter. It is located about 200 kilometers west of Western Sahara in Africa.
The only day we could see it, volcano on the neighboring island Tenerife. I think it’s around 4.000m high.
The flight from Venice took about 5 hours and I think it is the longest (by far) flight operated by Ryanair or some other low budget airline in Europe. We landed about 4pm on the island where we rented a car. We have pre-booked the car, while we were back in Slovenia, I still cannot believe how cheap it was. We booked our car at AutoReisen, and for 7 days we paid less than 50€ (not per day, in total). Noted, we did rent it out of the main tourist season, but still, it was actually cheaper to rent a car for whole week than to take a taxi from the airport to our apartments on the other side of the island.
First sunset in Africa.
We arrived to our apartments in the evening, we choose the south of the island for our home base – a small town of Arguineguin. Surprisingly the weather on the island varies differently on the location, the south is better for summer holidays, it is warmer, sunnier and as a bonus it has a small desert couple of kilometers from our location.
Our bay in the sunset
Tenerife can be seen in the background.
First taste of the water
Graffiti
Cactus is growing everywhere.
Cactus is growing everywhere.
Cactus
Cactus
In the shade
Nicely tended grass
Beach
Beach
Statue, I think it has something to do with the natives.
Can you hit the mark?
Lets go on a ride
Canal
On the sun it was very very hot
We spent our first two days exploring little towns around us and swimming. Despite this being Africa and getting burned really really fast on the sun, the water was cool – couldn’t have had more than 20 degrees, so in the end we didn’t swim that much. The area is very touristy, with lots of activities, beaches and paths everywhere.
To our amusement the people there seem to like Spar (the store) very much, it was literary on every corner.
Spar on every corner, literary.
Spar on every corner, literary.
On Sunday (3rd day) we decided to go check out markets in the northern part of the island. The weather wasn’t the best but at least it wasn’t raining, yet. We took the highway on the eastern part of the island to go north and then went through the middle of island back. After about an hour of driving, we reached small town of Teror where the market was located. The market was nothing special, but Vito and I managed to “pirate” a recipe from some tourist cuisine book, that we later replicated. It was the Spanish pancake thingie, that Mikel did in Luleå once.
Lights?
Cheese on market.
Teror
Market stalls
Teror
Gaining sugar like in the old dasy.
Some of the buildings inside the island were nicely decorated and had weird shapes.
Small town on the island
After the market we continued toward the middle of the island. There are two very high “rocks” in the middle, from where you can see half of the island. Sadly the closer and higher we got, the more clouds gathered. In the end when we finally reached the Roque Nublo it started to rain a bit, we stopped the car just below the fog. Since we already came here, we thought it only makes sense to actually hike to the top, it was suppose to be about 30 minute hike on a nice path to the top. This turned out into a fun adventure, soon after we left the car we found ourselves in a dense fog, the rain started pouring down on us, the paths literary turned into streams. After about half an hour we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of steep slope, below some cliffs and in some dense vegetation. The fog was so dense we weren’t sure where we were or where we had to go. After searching for another half an hour, climbing the steep slopes we finally figured out we were lost. After some intense backtracking and searching we finally found the correct path and soon climbed to the top where we could see exactly nothing, the fog was so dense the visibility was about 5m .
At one point we noticed we aren’t on any path anymore. How could we miss the big wide road?
Steep slopes everywhere. Yet people build houses and roads on them.
Some other pointy mountain
Getting lost at Roque Nuble. Toward the top it got really steep and rocky. When we got lost we actually had to climb over some rocks.
Path to the top
Nice views on the top
We returned to a car about 3 hours later, all wet and cold. As we lowered from the mountains the fog dissipated and we were greeted by incredible views of the valleys below us. I think we were stopping every 15 minutes to take some photos, combined with a narrow and windy road it must have taken us more than 2 hours to make the last 25 kilometers to our apartments, where the skies were clear and of course there was no sign of rain.
I’ve started working at JSI a long time ago, even before I went to Sweden. Last year was the first time I got a chance to go on a short business trip to Luxembourg for the project I’m working on.
I flew from Venice to Amsterdam and had about 7 hours till the next flight which gave me a chance to visit Amsterdam again.
That’s a lot of cheese
Tulips
How is this thing still standing?
Water canals in Amsterdam
Main train station in Amsterdam
Netherlands’ wooden shoes.
After that I had the shortest flight of my life – just about 45min from Amsterdam to Luxembourg. We literary just ascended to the flight height and then descended for landing.
My hotel was located near the old city center, it was a nice old stylish hotel with very nice staff. It was late evening when I arrived so I had a chance for a quick walk and to prepare for the next day where I had to present something at the expo center.
Old mill in Luxembourg.Our corner at the expo
I had the conference for 3 days. It was nice meeting people I’ve only known before through e-mails and skype calls. The other nice thing about the conference were the coffee breaks which were essentially my lunch and dinner during my stay, eating in the restaurants was so expensive, you could easily spent over 30€ for something that would be less than 8€ in Slovenia.
I usually had work from 9 to 5 so I had a lot of time to explore the city.
Old mill again
Luxembourg
Villas around the city
City streets
Villas in the city
Below the old town
Park with Wi-Fi, my favourite place. 🙂
Luxembourg
You really can’t see a boring building in the city, all look old and rich.
City streets in night
Where I had the conference.
Bridge to old town
Statues on the church in the center
After the conference finished I had an extra day to get back home so I used it to see the town a bit more and then slowly took my way toward the airport in the evening. This was my second time visiting Luxembourg, first time spending multiple days in it. It’s a very nice city and worth the visit. Especially the old town has a special charm to it.
Near the end of the year (2015) we randomly found out a return plain ticket from Venice to Valencia, Spain cost only 45€, of course we had to buy it, it was almost cheaper than bus ticket from Nova Gorica to Ljubljana.
Soon after, on the 20th December, we were on the plane flying toward Spain. We landed in the evening and took metro to the city center where we had hotel. Next day we had reservation in a nearby restaurant for paella.
Underground from airport to the city center.
Early in the morning (at least early for Spain) we woke up and went for a walk through the old city center. The city is old but fairly clean, there were a lot of people but not too much, since it was out of season. Despite being December it was quite warm, almost 20 degrees during the day in the sun. City was full of trees, not just any trees, the trees were full of mandarins. After trying one we soon learned why no-one ate them – they were sour as lemons.
Mandarins in December through the city of Valencia.
Mandarins in the street
Trying mandarins from the street. They were sour as lemons.
In the city center there was the largest closed market in Europe (if I remember correctly). They were selling all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meat and fishes. The biggest surprise was strawberries. They had really big and juicy strawberries for less than a quarter price of the ones in Slovenia. After buying 1kg of them we learned they were also much better than the ones we get here in Slovenia (during the late spring/early summer – we have no strawberries in December), they were very sweet as oppose to the ones we get in Slovenia which are watery almost without the taste. After enquiring a bit we were told that the season for greenhouse strawberries has just begun.
Spanish prosciutto, not as good as Slovenian of course.
Strawberries in December.
Buying some fruit
They were sold for around 2.5€ per kg.
Zefran, one of the most expensive spices.
If I remember correctly this is the largest dome over the market or something.
Fishes on the Valencia’s market.
In the afternoon we had a chance to try paella at last. It was so good, almost worth the whole trip just to try it.
Paella in Valencia.Paella in Valencia.
After the lunch we had a chance to explore the city some more.
Valencia
Valencia city center.
Valencia
Church in Valencia
Some colourful buildings.
The thing in the middle is separate building. Its about 1m wide.
The narrowest building in Europe.
City center
The next day we had a chance to visit the famous beach in Valencia. It looked so nice, very very large full of sand, you almost wanted to go for a quick swim in the sea. We had a nice lunch at the beach-side – again paella of course, with some snagrias to have full Spanish meal.
Valencia’s beach.
Palm trees at the beach
Paths alongside beach
What could this mean?
Almost empty streets during the summer
After the lunch we went to the other side to visit City of arts and sciences.
Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències
It was really interesting inside. They had tons of experiments that you could try everything from space and stars to animals. We also saw a 360 degree movie about Jerusalem, it was quite a fun experience.
Preparing to see the movie. The thing I have around my head are headphones. The movie was dubbed to different languages.
After we finished with everything it was already night and time to go to sleep. Next day we had something really special planned.
L’Hemisfèric
The next day we had “How to make a paella” cooking course. It lasted for about 5 hours and we did everything. In the beginning we went to local market (from previous days) to buy the ingredients. We also bought few grams of zafran alongside with snails, rabbit, chicken and other ingredients. After it we went to the restaurant where me Veronika and another two couples from USA were instructed how to do everything from cleaning to cooking ingredients.
Cooking paella
In the end we tried our creations and while it was ok, I think I will stick to going to the restaurants there, theirs is better. 😛
Paella course
When the water evaporates it is done.
Paella cooking course.
Time to try it.
After the course we went to visit the bullfighting arena near our hotel. It was closed few years ago and turned into a museum.
Bull fighting arena
Veronika in the middle of arena
It is quite large.
Arena from the outside
This was our last day in Valencia, but we couldn’t leave without trying one more thing: The black turtle burgers. We read online that it’s a must try after paella and spoiler alert, it was really worth it. Note: you really need a reservation before though, it is packed full all the time.
Veronika enjoining her burger, while I did a fatal mistake and took a burger with pancakes instead of bread buns. 🙁
The interesting part is that the fries are even better than the burgers. They are dipped in the cheese and spices sauce.
The black turtle french fries.
After big dinner we went to hotel and took the bus next day back to Slovenia. It was a fun trip and we will definitely go again if we find another cheap flight. It’s a good trip for a few days and if you go outside of summer season it is fairly cheap.
23 °C
7:35 am 
8:36 pm 
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