A week after Switzerland I went Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are owned by Spain despite being off the coast of Morocco. So everything was in Spanish which was familiar. Before I go into that, I’ll list off a few more cultural things I’ve noticed about Spain:

• Wine here costs a quarter of what it does in the States. This is because there is so much wine produced locally. Wine is barely considered alcohol here, people regularly drink it with lunch and/or dinner as often as water.
• Pickpocketing is a problem in Barcelona, but not much is done about it. Pickpockets are “victims of the system” and therefore the laws punishing them are very mild. If you get pickpocketed in Barcelona, don’t expect swift justice to come to the thief.
• The nickname for the city of Barcelona is “Barna”, not “Barca”. The soccer team here apparently claimed the nickname of “Barca”, and therefore it is incorrect to refer to the city as “Barca”.
• People always wear pants. Always. Occasionally t-shirts, but I have been stared at for wearing shorts. The only acceptable times are the gym or the beach.
• People dress well, but plain. Black is the most common followed by gray and brown. I avoid wearing brightly colored shirts, but it is harder than I thought it would be.
• The phrase for “beach body” here is “cuerpo Dannona”. This means Dannon body, as in the yogurt. Apparently Dannon did their marketing right and coined their own phrase to refer to having a beach-ready body.

Now, back to the journey. The dynamic for Tenerife was interesting. The was a group of 10 people sharing one Air BNB house, including Eva. Cole and I failed to get into that house and once again found ourselves sharing living quarters. Cole, Eva, and I arrived at Cole and I’s place Friday morning. The other people had arrived last night and had rented cars. If you ever go to Tenerife, rent a car. Cole and I are far too cheap to do something like that. So, we rode the bus everywhere. Our place was nice and I even got my own room. It was a small house high up on a steep hill. The whole island is mountainous because it is basically a giant, dormant volcano. This made the views spectacular. We felt like we were in Jurrasic Park, except a little drier (we were at the same latitude as the Sahara Desert).

We wanted to meet the rest of the people, but the other group and their cars went to the South of the island. The three of us stayed near the North and took a bus to a beach much closer. Relaxing on a beach was exactly what I needed. It was around 80 degrees with no clouds. The water was surprisingly cold, but I wasn’t in the mood for swimming anyway. Also, the beach was very European, tops were *cough* optional *cough* and many men (whether they should’ve been or not) were wearing speedos. I made the mistake of falling asleep without sunscreen on. In my defense, bottles of sunscreen were at least 20 euros. However, in hindsight, it may have been worth it considering I am still peeling from that burn. After my UV nap, Cole and I played football with some other Americans. To clarify, this was American Football, they brought an American football to the beach. You never realize how much you miss something until you see it again. To cool off, I jumped into the ocean, with my phone. Not to worry, it was working when I got out. The new Samsungs are “water-resistant”. I found out later that it would no longer charge, but that was a problem for future-Jack. We then got lunch and took the bus back.

The day was turning into night, so we bought a few groceries and made the arduous climb back to our house. At this point Eva hadn’t even been to the place where she was staying to drop off her stuff. Luckily one of our friends was nice enough to pick us up and drive us to their place to hang out. This place looked like one of Pablo Escobar’s hideouts. It had a pool, a hot tub, a grill, at least six bedrooms, a ping pong table, a spiral marble staircase, and plenty of space for shenanigans. That was a fun night for sure. Cole and I ended up walking back late that night. The drive was five minutes so it was only about 20 minutes walking.

The next day everyone planned on going to a beach in South Tenerife. Cole and I took an hour and twenty-minute bus ride while the others rode in luxury. The buses were relatively cheap, but after this trip I had decided that I don’t like riding the bus. Upon arrival, we spent another half hour trying to find everyone. We found some of the guys near some rocks on a black-sand type beach. I applied plenty of sunscreen once I put my stuff down. We didn’t stay long, however, because we went to find the girls of the group. They turned out to be at a beach just on the other side of the rock cove we were next to. After a short hike around, we got to a place overlooking the beach. This beach was awesome.

It was literally awe-inspiring. I genuinely hope some pictures will do it some justice, but I don’t think they will. The water was bright turquoise. I had never seen water like it. We continued to walk down to meet with the rest of the group, making it the first time we were all united. I couldn’t wait to get in the water. So I didn’t. I ran over to the water and found huge waves crashing in. The beach dropped off steeply into the water which made the waves seem bigger, but some were even got to 15 feet high. It knocked me off my feet when I tried to walk in slowly. I body-surfed those waves for probably two hours straight. If I had a boogie board I probably would’ve cancelled my return flight.

We spent the entire day there. I spend most of my time in the water, but I also found a nice rock overhang to sit in the shade. It was just the best beach ever. Nothing else to say about it. We finished the day with brews and cigars watching the sunset; it was the perfect day. Only thing I would change about it would to not be a red lobster the whole day. But I was having too much fun to notice the severe burns. That night we hung out at the big house again. Cole and I walked home again. It took us two walks home to notice that at night, the scenery looks exactly like The Hills Have Eyes. Like exactly. So, that was a comforting thought to have walking home at 3:00am.

Everyone’s flights the next day were early in the morning, so I got to sleep in. Unfortunately, my phone wouldn’t charge yesterday due to too much moisture in the USB port. Luckily I had my Amazon kindle to get on the internet, but it wouldn’t find my location or most of the bus times. So I packed up my things, walked to the bus stop, and sat there. I didn’t have a clue when or if a bus was coming. It was a little stressful, but the perfect weather on a beautiful island helped. Eventually a bus did come and it dropped me off in town where I got a connecting bus to the airport. I was at the airport almost three hours early, I was not going to miss another flight.

I made it back safely with a wicked sunburn. I even overheard several people talking about it behind me, probably out of admiration. The next weekend many of the Tenerife group were going to Prague. I believe there were 14 people going, which was too much for me. Cole and Eva went to Germany. I finally had a weekend where I wasn’t traveling. I didn’t do too much, I was just enjoying being able to rest. On Friday, I went to the Encants Mercat, which is an open-air market where you could buy just about anything. That night I went out with Allison and met some new friends from Germany, Russia, Quebec, and North Carolina. Saturday, I hiked the Bunkers. The Bunkers are on top of a hill with the best view of Barcelona I’ve seen so far.

One thing that happened before that weekend was Cole lost his phone. Or it was stolen. He doesn’t remember. Either way it is gone forever so when he got back from Germany, Mami lent him one of her old phones to use. He lost that one later that week. He felt terrible, but two phones in one week is impressive. Cole’s Mom (his United States mother) sent him an old iPhone 5, so we’ll see how long that lasts.

The weekend of March 24 we went to Valencia, Spain on an ISA excursion. We took a four and a half hour bus ride down South on Friday. Fortunately, I had some leg room this time and was able to sleep for most of the ride. The first stop was at the beach for about 30 minutes. After not nearly enough time to actually enjoy a beach, we continued on to the aquarium. Now apparently, the aquarium of Valencia is the third best in Europe. When I got there I could see why. The place was set up like a campus, where you could walk between buildings to visit different types of creatures. The buildings were very futuristic-looking and some resembled the Sydney Opera House. This place had walruses, beluga whales, a shark tunnel to walk through, and a dolphin show. It was the coolest aquarium I had ever seen.

Now I want to take a detour down philosophy road. I’ve heard many people say that aquariums make them feel bad or that parts of aquariums make them feel bad. I can appreciate that for the same reason I can appreciate someone wanting to be a vegetarian. As you might imagine, some of the people who don’t like aquariums are vegetarians. Others say they would like to be vegetarians, but aren’t. To me, the sympathy people have for these animals seems a little arbitrary. What I’ve seen is that some people feel bad for some of the sea creatures and not others. Perhaps they feel bad for the cute ones. Who would feel bad for an eel? Then they say, “I feel bad for the smart ones because they realize the situation they’re in.” Fair. My response would be, “At what level of sentience do you start feeling bad for the creature?” There is a massive spectrum of intelligence among creatures so where is the line drawn for creatures too smart to be in captivity? If you’ve seen the documentary Blackfish, that would be a good devil’s advocate card to play against my argument. Ok, a whale in a tank smaller than a football field, that does seem unfair. What about dolphins or chimpanzees? Maybe a documentary must be made about them for people to cry for their freedom as well. I don’t know, maybe I’m completely wrong. I guess you must have a balance of which animals you like. If you don’t like any you may be a psychopath. If you love all life equally then stop using hand sanitizer. It’s just curious to see people eat cows and chickens raised their whole lives standing in one place and be fine with it, but a cute fish in a small tank upsets them. I might’ve just talked myself out of my original view point. Just a thought I had, but decide for yourself. Sorry for the rant.

Anyway, after the aquarium, which I enjoyed, we went on a short bus tour and then the hotel. For dinner, as ashamed as I am to admit this, I had Taco Bell. I’ll say it again: you never realize how much you miss something until you see it again. That night we went out and stayed out too late, as per usual. Saturday morning was a walking tour around Valencia. I was very impressed with the city. It was like Barcelona except smaller and more laid-back. The tour ended at a huge stone tower which we climbed to get a better view of the city. The next stop was just outside the city on a farm/restaurant. We were to eat paella, but it had to cook on a wood-fire stove for several hours. In the time spent waiting, we went to go feed some goats, sheep, horses, and donkeys. We also got to go to an orange farm to pick our very own Valencian oranges. When it was finally time, we sat down to what became an eight-course meal. This included, salad, bread, patatas bravas, calamari, the delicious paella, and two or three deserts. It was incredible, one of my favorite meals while being abroad.

 

That night, I had Taco Bell again. Alright look, it was the cheapest and closest thing to the hotel. It was fast, easy, and tasty. Please don’t judge me too hard. That night me and a few others went to a silent disco. It was awesome. Everyone had headphones on and had the choice between three stations of music. Each station changed the lights on your headphones to either green, blue, or red. That way you could see which people were listening to what you were. It was fun just to see everyone dancing to three types of music. A common theme was occurring and I got home too late again. The ride back was more difficult to sleep because the suspension on the bus was broken. We stopped in Peniscula on the way for about two hours. I loved it so much there that I took my family there when they came the following weekend.

While I was in Valencia, my parents and two sisters were in Paris. This was their first time in Europe, so I was excited for them. They flew into Barcelona on Tuesday night and I met them at the airport. For the next few days I was their tour guide around Barcelona. We basically saw everything: the Gothic quarter, the Picasso museum, the Bunkers, the beach, the Sagrada Familia, the MNAC art museum, and plenty of restaurants. I was used to walking fast and walking all day so I was dragging them around but they kept up. In Spanish, Jack is “Juaquin”, so they called me Juaquin the tour guide. I would also quiz them on things and award fictional points to entertain myself. Thursday night I made reservations at a restaurant that was recommended to me by a friend for seven people. The other two were Cole and Mami. The restaurant was called Martinez and it was up on a hill overlooking Barcelona. The food was fantastic but it had a price to match the quality (sorry, Dad). Cole and I served as the translators between Mami and the rest of my family. I did better than I thought I would’ve, but man translating is tiring. The whole night was fun and I’m glad my parents could finally meet the lady taking care of me for the past few months.

On Saturday, we rented a car and drove two hours South to Peniscula. Peniscula is a small coastal town with a beautiful ocean. We stayed in a hotel that was about 50ft away from the beach. It was still the offseason there, so we had the whole beach to ourselves. I threw the Frisbee with my dad, which was the first time I’d thrown a Frisbee in a long time. The entire day was nice and relaxing. We needed it after walking around all of Barcelona for the past few days. That night we ate at a Mexican restaurant and my dad and I explored some of the local bars and talked about life. The next day we visited a castle on top of a hill that had an amazing panoramic view of the landscape and ocean in all directions. The castle was once owned by Papa Luna, which I initially thought translated to “Daddy Moon” and reminded me of Will Ferrell’s character in “Semi-Pro”. However, I came to the realization that it means “Pope Moon” which is only half as cool. Overall I think my family enjoyed Spain and I’m happy they made the journey out here.

So, I’m sorry for the late post or if I didn’t go into too much detail, I have gotten busy but also lazy. This post is over a month late, but I have been having a great time overall. As I finish typing this I’m sitting in a McDonald’s in Ibiza, Spain because my AirBnb doesn’t have Wifi or any sense of hygiene. I will have PLENTY to talk about for my next post because it has been a roller coaster of emotions during spring break. As always, let me know if you have any questions and thanks for reading. And this time, thank you for your patience.

Ciao,

Jack