A stag do, English breakfasts and black sand: Tenerife part two

Last few days in Tenerife.  Check out the next post for a photo album!

This is the one of the meals we had on the shore. It's so easy to sit on the beach shore and eat dinner.

Day 3: Fish and Chips
Thus starts the British saga.  The night before we were eating supper on our terrace, when the guys on the terrace next to us needed an opinion on an outfit their friend was wearing: pink fluffy vest, pink boots, pink shorts and a pink cowboy hat.  Where would you find an outfit like that? A stag do, of course (or a despedido de novios in Spanish/ bachelor party in the states).  We now have a list of common phrases from the UK that Matt, Mike, Sean, Aaron, Paul and Chris taught us, such as quid (pounds), penny floater, cheers, throwing shapes.  Finally, we’re learning how to speak “proper” English.  Someday, when we go to England, we’ll fit right in, with our awful British accents and all.

And how could we have a true Tenerife experience without trying fish and chips? (It was surprising how many restaurants advertised English breakfasts!)  We found a hole-in-the-wall place, Miami Bar, and proceeded to eat the best meal I have had in my entire life.  Fresh fish, fries, salad and a cold beer.  There was a football (soccer in the states, footy in the UK) game on, and the guys in the back would yell every time someone scored a goal, no matter which team it was that scored.  At the very end of our meal, one of the cooks walked around with a plate of homemade fries for us to try. (He grew those potatoes himself!)  This is exactly what you should do when traveling.  Find some place that may not look so attractive on the outside.  Chances are the food will be good and the people will be friendly.

Here are those potatoes that we tried! With the red and green sauce on the left.

Day 4: Beach, beach and more beach
It was day four and we still hadn’t gone to the beach.  We decided that needed to change.  So, we hopped out of bed and made our way down to playa de las americas.  It was perfect weather, a little breezy and absolutely sunny.   Picture this: black sand (even though it was more gray than black), huge waves (it is the Atlantic after all), beach umbrellas scattered all over the beach (although you had to pay to use the chairs that were under the umbrellas), and people selling massages, fruit and doughnuts to all the sunbathing people (why doughnuts??).  I thought about selling massages myself at a better price to pay for our meal that night, then decided against it.  There were only a few of us (me and some of the stag do guys) who were brave enough to venture into the water, and even though it was cold at first, you just had to get used to it.  It was refreshing!  You didn’t even need to swim, just float, because of all the salt in the water.  My favorite part of the entire trip was body surfing those waves.  Next time, I am absolutely learning how to surf.

There it is..the Atlantic Ocean right off the coast of Tenerife.

Later that night we ate at a tiny restuarant on the shore and met the coolest server ever, Sherry (like the wine).  He was from Pakistan and has lived and worked in Tenerife for a long time (around nine years or so).  Servers in Tenerife tend to stand in front of the restaurants and “encourage” people to try out their restaurant.  It could get a little crazy.  One guy was carrying an axe/wood concoction and tried to herd Sara into the restaurante.  I’m not exactly sure what he was wearing…we didn’t stick around long enough to find out. Sherry taught us that Mondays are chicken days, Tuesdays are salad days and Wednesdays are fish days.  When he realized that Sara was eating chicken and it was Sunday, he quickly said, “Y domingos son días de pollo también.” (Sundays are chicken days too).  He also taught us that if you have been drinking too much (hypothetically) that it’s a good idea to take a tequila shot with a hot pepper in it when you first wake up.  Well, that may work for him, but I’m not trying it! On the way home, we got ice cream bars.  If you haven’t tried them, you need to try Magnum ice cream bars.  Life-changing.

mmmm..blueberry banana.

Day 5: And here’s a four star hotel…here’s another..
The last day was our most ambitious.  We wanted to check out even more beaches, but the weather didn’t look promising..for the first time on our entire trip! (And I thought it was going to rain every day).  So we got a café and waited at an outdoor cafetería, shivering until the clouds blew over.  Then we kept walking to another cafetería and got a smoothie/burgers.  Ok, I know it sounds like we ate alot, but you have to understand..being at the beach really does increase your appetite.  After walking around for a while, we ended up at the same beach we were at the day before, ate the most amazing veggie burger (food again!) and headed back to the hotel to attempt to get rid of some of that black sand that ended up all over us.  (The next day, we found more sand in our hair..how does that work?).

We were heading out that night to find a Spanish bar, and who did we happen to see?  Our bus driver, Juso!  He told us to hop in the bus and gave us a tour of all the hotels on the island.  We drove and drove and he said, “éste tiene tres estrellas, y éste tiene cuatro estrellas, y éste…” (this one has three stars, and this one has four stars, and this one…) If we learned nothing else about the island, at least we know which hotels are the most expensive.

I could survive if I had to live here..

We all agreed that we definitely could have stayed another week.  But we had to leave.  Early.  We got to the airport before I realized how much stuff I had in my suitcase.  Why was it so much bigger than it was before?  And RyanAir, our airline, really did mean one piece of luggage.  One very small piece of luggage.  It took me a few tries to get my suitcase to fit in the suitcase size checker (all luggage has to fit, or you have to check it).  I’m so thankful for those understanding security guards.  They helped me flip over the suitcase and stuff it into the checker so it would fit.  And even though I had to throw away a bag of chips and a plastic peanut butter container, it was worth not paying the 50 euro to check the bag!

The first two days were the busiest.  The last three were relaxing.  And it seems like I learned more Spanish than ever before because of all the random people we talked to.  It wasn’t hard to start conversations at all. The people who live on the Canary Islands are very open and willing to share about their lives.  Plus when you’re friendly, people will give you free chupitos.  (You can look that word up if you need to).

It was a little disappointing to come home to the cold and rainy weather after five days in the sun, but I got to run in the rain, go to Madrid (and take the train on my own for the first time!), try food from Morroco (french toast and fresh milk), go grocery shopping (which doesn’t happen because my host mom cooks for me) and generally enjoy some quiet time before school starts again.  Aunque…todavía le hecho de menos Tenerife. (Although…I still miss Tenerife).