Skip to main content

Day 2 - Is this happiness?

I was woken up early in the morning by the wind. I don't know if it blows always during the night or is just temporary. Anyway the weather is perfect: warm enough during the day to wear shorts or dress. I tried also the water in Puerto de la Cruz and it's cold. I still hope to take a bath before I leave, even if I might get cold after.
Today we did an exploratory ride on the island. We started from south-east, took the highway till Santa Cruz de Tenerife. On one side there was the sea and on the other side the mountains. The vegetation on the east coast is more dry than the other side of the island, is a semi-desert. I was not able to take pictures with all the landscape due to the speed but my eyes immortalized everything.
From Santa Cruz de Tenerife we crossed the island towards Puerto de la Cruz. Here we took a longer break from driving, had the first coffee of the day (around 1pm),eat something and tried the water. The sand here is black. It's funny but when I saw the sand on my toes I thought it looks like caviar.
I usually avoid touristic attractions but this time I went to one of these places, and I will go to a few others in the next days (go with the flow). I'm talking about Loro Park. This is like a zoo with different species and shows with dolphins, sea lions, orcas.
We spent 2-3h wandering around. I can't help but wander if those animals are happy with what they are doing. As the song of Pharrell, clap your hands if you're happy, the sea lions were clapping, but how are they behaving in their natural habitat? At the orcas show they tried to show us how those mammals are in their natural habitat. I couldn't enjoy it too much. All the animals are beautiful and I appreciate the opportunity to see them but still it's worth to sacrifice their freedom for our amusement? I saw for the first time red panda. They are so cute I'm gonna die!
From the park we drove down to south following the west coast. Here the vegetation is more luxurious. I liked more this side of the island. The highway was through the mountains, at high altitude. At some point we found ourselves again with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other one. I wish I could have captured the sunset. It was amazing. Those shades of blue, purple, red. The sea and the sky were becoming one thing in the horizon.
After 145 km (according to Google) we ended up in the same Irish pub. I think we'll go back there the next nights too. Tonight there was a gentleman singing live jazz music.
After today I noticed:
- on the island are a lot of older people
- most of them British or German
- they look so happy and enjoy the moment
Maybe this is not a bad place to spend the cold winters when you will not be young and beautiful.
In the morning there were some clouds but they vanished quickly
On the left is Puerto de la Cruz
Beach with black sand in Puerto de la Cruz 
@Puerto de la Cruz 
Live music in the Irish pub

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stories from Hamburg

Lately I've heard a lot about Hamburg, how awesome it is and I was curious to see it with my own eyes. Being in Berlin these days, was the perfect moment to do it. I bought train tickets and here I am in a train going to Hamburg. With my book, enjoying a 2h train ride  The weather was not favorable to me, but I still have all my fingers. I must say, the rainy day enhanced the colors of this city. I was not kidding about the cold It took me a few time to get used with the temperature, but after that I forgot it was cold. I had set in mind to see the canals. I came here for that. I read some articles about this and I was impressed. It's said that it has more than Venice or Amsterdam. From what I've seen, it looks a lot with both of them, but on a different scale. If in the two cities mentioned the buildings are not so tall, here we find massive constructions. #wanderlust #urbanphotography #enthusiastictraveller A post shared by Madalina G. (@gmadalina92)

Magnificent Florence

After reading Dan Brown's Inferno I wanted to go to Florence! That was two years ago and I had booked a trip for March 2020 but it was canceled due to the pandemic. This year I booked another trip for March, but that one got canceled too because I got covid. One month later I finally managed to visit Florence, but the plan doesn't always works out the way one expects. Initially the trip was for 3 nights but the airline with which I got the flight tickets changed the timetable and the first direct flight to return was after another 2 days, therefore I ended up spending 5 nights. Which turned out to be better! The journey to reach Florence was hellish! Apparently the airport is small, between cities, with only one runway, fairly short and not very wide. Additionally to that, the place is surrounded by high mountains, which is why it can be approached only in one direction. Not only does the terrain brings this challenge with it, but it also effectuates in a very unusual microclim

Kasteel de Haar - a luxurious castle

During the rainy days and with the current restrictions, my only consolation is writing about magical places I discovered in the past months in Netherlands. The subject of this post is De Haar Castle, a place rich in stories!  The joy of exploring this flamboyant castle De Haar is the largest castle in the Netherlands, once the private residence of the Van Zuylen family, whose descendants still stay there yearly. In the last century, the castle also frequently hosted members of the international jet set with their lavish lifestyle; from Coco Chanel to Roger Moore, they too left their mark on the sumptuous rooms of the most opulent spot in Utrecht. I visited the castle a couple of weeks ago, together with my dearest friend, Ioana, and it was a lovely Sunday, even with some warm sunshine!  This year I bought  Museumkaart  which allows free entrance to about 400 museums in the Netherlands, De Haar Castle included! Despite the months when the museums were/are closed, I got to use it a coup