Seychelles (DAY 1) - travel

This year we couldn't decide where to go for holidays. We also didn't have much time to discuss it, cause Jeppe is finishing his master degree and I am working full time. Anyway, we decided by random choice to go to Seychelles - paradise on Earth, as it's called by many.
We took a flight from Copenhagen to Dusseldorf, then from Dusseldorf to Abu Ahabi and from Abu Dhabi to Mahe. The trip in total was 16 hours. It was sooo tireding, I was not ready for it, cause we flew right after my work on Friday at 7pm.

We flew with Air Berlin, but from Abu Dhabi we had partner flight by Etihad. I was so surprised when catering brought cutlery. There was real knife and fork, together with big spoon. I was like "what the hell, this is against all safety rules", but apparently it's normal there. Still don't understand it though.

The flight was delayed and we landed at 2pm next day (2nd of July). Already the view from the plane took my breath away. It was soo beautiful and that was just the airport area. I couldn't want to see more!

Unfortunately, when we stood in line to get our luggage - it didn't arrive. We were not the only one. With us there were standing around 15-20 other people whose luggage got lost. We had to stand in a huge line, cause there was only one lady working. We had to fill all information about the luggage, describe it and write our address, so they can send it to us. I was pretty nervous, because when we arrived I had nothing with me and Copenhagen clothes on me. I had long jeans, sneakers, top (stinky after the trip) and nothing more. Etihad told us that the luggage should come in the next flight (evening flight) so we took some Seychelles rupee and grabbed a bus towards our place. Our guest house was near Viktoria (capital) so the trip took around 30-40 minutes. The bus cost 5 srp (rupee) so it is pretty affordable for everyone and we very happy to integrate with the locals. We also heard that when you travel with the suitcase, you are not allowed to take a bus (cause it is simply full all the time and there is no space for luggage). Also remember to have max 25 rupees, because the bus drivers are not allowed to take bigger bills (we managed to ask him politely to take 100 when we took a bus from the airport, but he wasn't very happy about it).

The view on the way to Viktoria was amazing. I didn't check before that Seychelles are basically mountains. Beautiful mountains. We had to travel through the rain forest to get to Viktoria. On the way we saw how people live and how children play football on the streets. We were also pretty scared to drive the bus (locals call it "blue monster") because it was super old and it looked like it will burn while trying to go uphill. And there is a lot of hills on the way. A loooot!

Also, in Seychelles they drive on the left side of the road. The also drive like maniacs, so there were moments I feared for my life, but only until I got used to left side traffic.
What is good to know in Seychelles, that the bus stops are not mentioned anywhere. Even the bus schedule tells you only the time where the bus starts and where it should be in the next big place. All the small stops in between you have to control yourself and guess the time of arrival. Also buses are often not on time and they go every 30 min or every one hour sometimes. At the beginning it was pretty hard to adapt, thank God for GPS.

We arrived to our destination around 6pm and we didn't realize that it is so far away from the beach (on the map it looks so close, but we didn't take the mountains into considerations). When we arrived, the first thing what we did is to take a shower and go to sleep. We were insanely tired from the trip. I was also insanely angry that all our luggage is gone and I don't have clean clothes to change for, but I managed to fall asleep.

Shortly about our place - it's called Chez Lorna. It is a guest house, not a hotel like they write. It is lead by a lady called Lulu and she is super friendly. She lives there herself together with her son. He two daughters come there for a weekend. The family is super nice.
The room is equipped with air conditioning and a small fridge. Bathroom contains nice shower and a toilet. The only bad thing was that we had a room just under the hosts and the walls are not really thick. We could hear everything what is happening upstairs, especially when the kid started jumping. I was not super happy about that.

Room overview from the last day there. We were too tired to take a picture at the arrival.

Gran Canaria / Expedia (DAY 5) Faro

It would be sad to be in Gran Canaria and not get any tan. Unfortunately we almost didn't get any, because our lovely Portuguese friend told us to use sun lotion with filter 50 or 30, plus we almost didn't have time to lay on the beach.
BUT THAT DAY...!

There is definitely one thing which you have to have in mind placing yourself at the beach in Maspalomas - flows. At the beginning of the day you have to walk so far to the water. Around 3 pm water is at your feet. We didn't know how bad it is, until we saw some people screaming because they were caught by a flow. All things wet. We decided to be smart and we built a moat!

Some people didn't have luck!

After having fun at the beach, we took a bus to Faro. It's a very beautiful place with a shopping mall near the beach. The only thing you need to check before going to Faro is when the last bus is leaving. We got super lucky, because we managed to catch the last bus around 21.30 (local time). Of course it won't be the end of the world if you miss it, but we didn't want to spend our money on cabs. 

In Faro you will be able to meet flying parrots! For some of you it might not be exciting, but I have never seen free flying parrot!

I love sand art, especially made at the beach!

Faro is a good place to see the real dunes. If we had some more time, we definitely would go for a small walk.

The only bad thing about Faro is that it's pricey. Also in the shopping center people will try to sell you some "very cheap stuff", but I would personally wait a bit and buy it in the Jumbo center. 

We also visited some Italian restaurant there. They were bragging that it's the best food ever and that it's so fancy. Damn, we wanted to try. I regret. My portion was so small and I didn't get even nearly full. The cocktail was OK, but not for the price. Definitely - I don't recommend. The place was called: Ristorante Pizzeria Grand' Italia. 

Don't look at Jeppe's face, we had a small fight that time. 

Conclusion of the day: we were happy staying in Maspalomas!

Gran Canaria / Expedia (DAY 4) Palmitos Park

When you go for Tripadvisor and search for things to do in Maspalomas (Gran Canaria), Palmitos Park is on a high place.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g230095-d668916-Reviews-Palmitos_Park-Maspalomas_Gran_Canaria_Canary_Islands.html
It's a place reminding ZOO, but more like Nature Reserve.
We decided to go there in a cloudy morning, but don't believe in clouds when you go there. This place is high up in the mountains, so as soon as we got there, the heat was unbearable. I found some information that buying tickets online will save you a lot of money. I don't know how it really is, because we payed for our ticket at the entrance and we payed 46 euro (online price) for both Palmitos Park and Aqualand. You could also buy the ticket at the hotel, so no worries, you don't need to order it before.

Palmitos Park overiview: http://www.palmitospark.es/plan-your-visit/park-map/?lang=en

I won't write a lot about the trip there, because it is pointless. I thought pictures might describe our trip much better!
The only thing I need to tell you, that there are shows at specific times, so you need to plan it a bit ahead in order to see all the shows. Believe me, it is worth seeing all.
What we did first was to run for the Eagle show. It was an amazing experience! Who would have thought that such wild animals would be so attached to the Palmitos Park crew.

On the way to another show, we took a looot of pictures of beautiful animals. We met a talking parrot, which spoke Spanish of course, blue tale lizard (we haven't seen it anywhere else so far), crocodiles and a lot of big lizards. They were not captured, they just love the park.

What I loved the most, was the dolphin show. It was definitely worth the money to come there and see those beautiful creatures from close. For additional payment, you were able to touch them and to take a picture with them, which you were getting at the exit. It is definitely worth it, cause you get it together with the Palmitos Park book describing all the animals in the Park. I didn't know that, so I was positively surprised. I payed for that pleasure 20 euro. I don't regret it.
Some people chose a special dolphin experience, which means that they were in the swimming pool with the dolphins and depending on the price dolphins could swim around you, jump above you or something similar to that. I love dolphins, but for me it was a bit of a waste of money. The "full experience" was short and it did't look 100-120 euro worth. The shows itself are free for everyone in the park.

There was also a "wild birds show". It was at the same mountains as the eagle show. There was a lot of parrot and other big birds, which I unfortunately don't know the name. Probably my boyfriend will know, cause he is a biologist, but hey - I study Software Development!
At the show, people were allowed to hold the parrots on their arm! I was also the lucky one! It was funny, because I didn't know that their claws are so sharp, so I got a bit of a shock, but it was definitely worth it!

Another show which we saw, was a parrot show. The parrots were soo cute! They were trained to do tricks, ride a mini bicycle, pretend tourists, doctors and much more. I didn't want to take pictures during the show, so I did when they were almost over. Unfortunately it was against the light, so you won't see much of it.

Also the view in Palmitos Park is incredible. It looked like a jungle, where all the rare animals are hiding. But remember, this is a whole day trip, so bring some food and drinks! Of course you can also buy something to eat there, but its a bit expensive in my opinion.
We finished around 16. It was almost closing time as I remember. The buses were waiting for us so it was super easy to get home. Remember also to buy return ticket when you go there. It is easy and we didn't experience any problems with it.
I will upload some more pictures from Palmitos Park, because the view is really worth it! Enjoy!

Gran Canaria / Expedia (Day 3)

The third day we decided to go for a small trip. Like typical / not typical tourists, we decided to take a bus to a place called Playa de Arguineguin (near Mogan). There was a direct bus there and it took around 30 minutes.

The first thing we noticed was that in Gran Canaria has thousands of roundabout, not many intersections. When I think about it, it's super genius, people don't have to wait at the red light, everything goes super fast and smooth. Also it is very pleasant for tourists - if you accidentally chose the wrong turn, it is super fast to get back on the right track.

At the place of the destination we moved towards the beach and had a chance to experience real Spanish market. It looked like a regular market, not like those prepared only for tourists. There was a lot of clothes, watches, CDs, porcelain and of course a lot of souvenir stands. The only thing that made me wonder if it was a regular market or not, was the price for everything. It was much higher than in regular touristic places.
At the market place we found a guy who was making necklaces from nicely shaped shells. For around 6 euro you could get a nice souvenir with your name on it and with a chosen drawing. I bought some for my sister and best friend. We also found there wooden frogs, which are hand made, and when you use a stick and scrub their back, they made real frog sound.

After that we moved straight to the beach. We came from the harbor side, where we could find a lot of fishing boats.

I felt like at Playa del Arguineguin were only locals, no tourists. Everywhere we moved we could hear Spanish language, not even German. It felt so good to be there. People were making barbecue at the beach, they were sitting there with the whole family and chill. It was Saturday, so I guess most locals had their day off.

Yes, that was my first time in Gran Canaria, were I decided to tan topless. And you know what? That was the most amazing feeling ever! Since that moment I was topless every time we went to the beach. I wouldn't do it, if the locals wouldn't consider it as something normal. Almost every girl, every lady was sunbathing topless. And it feels good, believe me.
Playa del Arguineguin was also a good place for snorkeling. There was almost no waves and you could see the bottom really clearly. There were also a lot of colorful small fishes, which definitely make it worth buying our snorkeling equipment.

Right spending some time at the beach, we decided to grab something to eat. What we found was really unexpected. This picture might give you a clue.

In Danish it means - "The city's worst food place". Yes, that was a danish restaurant. Was the food good? We didn't dare, but there was a lot of Danes, which definitely didn't complain. We wanted some original Spanish food, Danish worst food ever we can find at home if we would like to.
So we were trying to find a place to eat, but almost every nice looking restaurant was closed around 16-17. I don't get how is that possible, but it was. So after a long time we found a nice place right at the beach. We sat next to a middle age guy with a dog.

What it appeared was that the guy was very communicative. She spoke Spanish to us all the time, even tho I explained to him that we don't speak the language. Anyways, I understand a bit, but I can't speak that well. What was funny is that we started talking and he offered us to drive us home (to the hotel). He said it is on the way for him, so no problem. We tried to explain to him that we will take a bus back, so he doesn't have to trouble, but he really didn't want to hear NO for an answer. After he fed us with his pizza (we couldn't say NO too, even tho we had our own food), he said that he will wait for us at Mogan and we will go at 18. Great, he explained where we should meet and left. Everything in Spanish. I was really wondering if my Argentinian soap operas helped me enough, to understand the guy at all. And ... I did.

We had 30 minutes until the meeting time, so we decided to go for a walk next to the beach. It was really pretty. What we noticed was that in this area was a lot of Swedish and Norwegian flags, dentists and institutions had their advertisements written in kinda known me language. I felt - weird. We went for some kind of Scandinavian district. Anyways - the view was great.

It was 18. The guy was waiting for us and we actually found him. For a second I though he will kidnap us, but he was acting like we were his really good friends. I got his dog to take care of and Jeppe had to help him with getting air conditioning to work. Charlie - that was a dog's name, was really peaceful creature. I got to know from the guy, that driving with a dog in Gran Canaria, which is not attached by a dog-lead to the seat, is illegal! Ha! My ability to communicate with Spanish people started being better and better!

The trip with the guy was super nice. He took us the round way, so we could see something. He was also explaining some things on the way, of course in Spanish. He dropped us off close to the hotel and we had a really nice experience. From that moment I was even more in love with Gran Canaria.
At the end of the day we jumped into the swimming pool with our water proof phone bag and had some fun. Really nice day! And tomorrow - Palmitos Park!