The Canary Islands

A little over a week ago I returned from the Canary Islands. The island we went to is called the Gran Canary Island. I went with my Italian roommate, Francesca, for one last get away before she left to go back to Sicily. It was me, Francesca, Francesca's best friend from Sicily, Anna, and about 20 other Europeans studying abroad in another region in Spain with Anna. Needless to say it was a little overwhelming at times being surround by many Europeans mostly of which were Italians. There we rented a few apartments and to my surprise I stayed in one with 7 other Italians. It was a little hard at first hearing lots of Italian and little Spanish. I think after some time they realized how frustrating it must have been for me not understanding much of what they were saying. So they began to speak more in Spanish. All in all I met some really nice and fun people from countries other than Italy as well such as France, Turkey and Poland.

We also all rented a few cars to get around the island. It was a great choice because it allowed us to see a lot more of the island than we would have been able to see by foot. There are a lot of very nice and different beaches but they are all very spread out so driving made it a lot easier to visit the different ones. Also, we took some longer scenic routes to get to different part of the island where we drove along windy, hilly roads which gave us a great view of the beaches, mountains and open land. It was a very relaxing trip where we spent most of our days just going to the beach. We went to a different beach everyday. One of them was a beach with black sand and lots of big rocks from a volcano that had erupted. It was cool to see a beach with black sand for my first time. However, I think I prefer the other ones more. The sand is more soft and the big rocks can sometimes hurt your feet making it hard to go in and out of the water.

One of the beaches


The sun set on our way home from the beach. I am with two of the Italians: Anna and Alex.


We stopped to take a picture from the side of the road.

The weather was beautiful while we were there. In the day it was sunny and in the mid 7o's. I even returned with a little bit of a tan and it was snowing in Vitoria when I came home. However, the snow didn't last long and now it is starting to feel a little bit more like Spring. Francesca officially left this week to go back to Sicily. It was a little weird and sad saying bye to her after living with her for the past 6 months. I am very happy we were able to go on a trip together before she left. We now have a new roommate from England named Elaine. She will be here until the end of May. Even though English is both of our Native Languages I try to speak mostly Spanish with her which is good. Her mom is from Spain so she can actually speak well too.

Well that is it for now. I am planning on staying in Vitoria until the first of April when my parents
come to Spain for my Easter Break which I am so excited about!