Tuesday 4 September 2007

Day Twelve

Tuesday 4th September

After having something to eat down by the sea front for breakfast I went into town to pick some presents up.

I then went into "planet fun" to use the internet there but there was an Irish woman already using the PC. However she had to go and she thought that 2 hours left on the meter was 2 minutes, so she let me use her time ^ ^. So for the next few hours I was surfing the web for free.

Went back to the apartments...played some more FFIV.

went out quite late and ended up at a Little Italy restaurant. Here I ordered the house speciality of Sirloin Steak "Chateau". It was amazing. probably the best meal I have had so far.

Went into the Miners Retreat bar on the way back, had a drink, went back.

Monday 3 September 2007

Day Eleven - Loro Parque and What happened to day Ten ?!

September 3rd

Today was the trip to Loro Parque, which is one of the Canary Islands biggest attractions and is home to many different species of animals.
We caught the coach around half past nine and it took about 2 hours to reach Puerto De La Cruz, where the park was located.
Once we got off we were straight into the park and one of the first things you see are the Koi Carp in the lake by the entrance.



The next stop was the Gorillas.

We then went to see the Penguins which were housed in the biggest man made Ice burg in the world. It was in darkness (mimicking the conditions in the arctic at the moment) and the atmosphere in there was really nice.



Saw some sea-bass in a big tube....looked a bit packed in there..



After a quick stop for something to eat we then went to the newest and most hyped attraction in the park - the orca ocean.
Shipped from sea world in Florida the Orca show was really something special. After an introduction where the cameras were trained on various people in the audience..the show got under way.



The Orcas were introduced and what they could do and how they interacted with their trainers was shown to the audience. They also splashed the audience at various times during the show, and I happened to have two killer whales splashing me head on. I got quite soaked.








There is something about these creatures that really captures my imagination....perhaps I watched Free Willy too much when I was younger.




All in all it was a really good show. But I wondered if they really knew that they were waving good bye with their tale fins.



The next show was the Dolphin one, but not before a stop at the giant tortoise and the tigers.






The Dolphin show was really good. Even though it wasn't as big and impressive as the Orca one the way the Dolphins were, their intelligence and some of the feats they pulled off really impressed me.






We then went around the park and looked at the underwater aquarium and tunnel which was filled with Sharks amongst other fish.



Saw an Alligator while looking around the rest of the park.



At about quarter to 4 it was time to head back to the coach after a day and trip I really enjoyed.

When we got back it was about 6 and we were all a bit worse for wear so we had a bit of a rest. It wasn't until about 9 that we went out to look for something to eat. Went to where we were going to go last night..it was really nice.

ended up in Cheers bar where we ended up saying goodbye to the two sisters who always said "coming to Cheers Bars later guys?". Apparently they had been saving up for ages to go back to Glasgow to see their family as they were earning next to nothing as bar PRs.

Went to bed....was a bit drunk.

Sunday 2 September 2007

Day Nine

2nd September 2007

I'm going to fast forward about half a day on this one, because apart from Chris getting ripped off with some earphones at an electrical store and me playing Final Fantasy IV all day nothing much happened.

Tonight was special for Los Christianos as it was the day of its Fiesta, and when the Harbor was blessed by the big statue/float of the Virgin Mary.

We headed out to get a meal but the place we wanted to go was closed (probably because of the fiesta) so we went for (another) Chinese Buffet. I do like Chinese Buffets.
Now at this point I told my dad that all the action was going to be at the other end of town, but he said it was going to be by the harbor. I guess we were both right because the procession with the float of the Virgin Mary was starting off in the harbor and going up towards the other end of town.
However at this point me and Chris were going back to the apartments to get the digital camera and batteries and happened to stumble across the procession while my Mom and Dad were at some bar in the opposite direction.
I kicked myself because I didn't have my camera with me.

Once I got my camera I went down to the beach to watch the Harbor being blessed with the Virgin Mary. It was all very noisy with lots of flares, music and boat horns. Id never seen anything like it.



I also made an alien/man out of the sand.



A boat was loaded with the float with the Virgin Mary on and headed off into the Harbor where something along the lines of the Harbor being blessed for good fishing etc. took place.

It came back ashore and then I got the chance to take some pictures of it and the people around it.





Next after a bit of a wait there was a huge fireworks display from both sides of the Harbor. They must have spent the whole budget of a small country on the amount of explosives that they used.





After it was all over I took a trip into the Burger King, it was like a home from home.

Jay

Saturday 1 September 2007

Day Eight

1st September

Well today's blog isn't going to be as razz-a-matazz as previous ones because my batteries died on my camera. So for today you will have to rely on my amazing writing skills only!

"oh God no ! " *Jumps off bridge*...*scream*..*gets fainter*...*splash*

...


Morning started off much the same, woke up, got kicked out of bed, had some breakfast down at the Cheers Bar..

Now after this I went off in search off an MP3 player to pick up at a reasonable price. But I was well aware off all the fake copies and crappy models that were being flogged off by the various "electrical goods" shops around town so I went with my guard up.

Some bloke tried to sell me something called the"i power"... enough said.

One bloke got quite rude and asked me which one I was going to buy in a kind of "just hurry up and buy something" kind of way so I quickly exited the premises...

Finally went into the most reputable looking place I could find and settled on a Samsung mp3 player. I checked it to make sure it wasn't fake ; )
It was only 50 Euros and its pretty Nifty.

Went back, Chilled by the pool for a few hours and got ready to go out later that night.

Had A Pizza at a Pizzeria and then ended up in the Cheers bar.

Scotch Eddie was up to his usual tricks again (trying to be a compare/singer) but the most bizarre moment was when an old woman who looked about 70 and was dressed up as someone from the Flintstones got up on stage and started singing "Smoke Gets In Your eyes" ...badly...

You can't make this stuff up. I checked to see how many Beers I had actually drank that night.