Love At First Sight is also a song by Kylie Minogue.
My mom’s and your mom’s birthday move something in us every year. On mom’s birthday, I somehow feel like on my birthday and the truth is I wouldn’t be talking about my birthday if not for my mom’s and you wouldn’t be reading this if not for yours. Moms all over the world are pretty cool and we are all now – virtually – chin-chining. Reaching the age of chin-chining with moms is pretty cool. Along with age, however, comes some sort of responsibility to do something special on mom’s day. Or something. Delicious pizza at home with the family, good music and red wine is just as good of an idea as a surprise trip to Gran Canaria, one of the seven Canarian Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
❗️The outfits in this article mark the days and trips.
❤️ Outfits anytime anywhere mark everything if we just pay attention.
‼️ This flows through emotional and informational right next to a kite flying and a surfboard riding.
Emotional:
Writing this on the flight back from Gran Canaria, I can not but not remember of someone funny telling me that I like to sometimes live in my own world. The truth is I do, but don’t we all? We might not name it the same way – my world, your world, OZ – but we all live in the world we are constantly imagining for ourselves. Look at everything around you, it’d all been imagined by someone someday and – bam! – you have your mobile or laptop to read ?? this ?? on and I have the pleasure to write ?? this ??. This is where we connect and ? something ? moves again. Yourself with your music in your ears, myself with mine. Your thoughts in your head before you fall asleep, mine in mine before I fall asleep. Your dreams when you look at the ocean, mine when I look at the ocean. At the moon. Sun. Stars. And then we are together and we dance. And when we are together, aren’t our gaze and the words we speak a sum of everything we’ve been feeling, hearing, thinking, dreaming about and seeing all along?
Emotional:
But then again, it might be a child that seems to know nothing about anything and is, yet, flying on the kite, riding the wave with you like there’s no tomorrow and, yet again, another world reveals in front of you. In front of the child. I can already feel the breeze and I’d better watch it, the wind is funny af and I can hear my mom’s voice: Cristina, get back here! Mom is, actually, next to me on the plane and is, in fact, asking me what I’m writing about. I feel like on the wave.
Better yet, I feel like on the same kite with mom. We’re flying.
What is it about surf that I like so much?
About flying…
What is it about trips that we love so much? I know I love travelling just as much as I love a delicious pizza at home with the family, good music and red wine. Just as much as I love falling in love.
Jk.
Emotional:
Mom’s contentment is one of the best feelings in the world. Just next to her getting excited – the reason behind our SURPRIIIISE! (half screaming, half innocently looking onto our plates) during the breakfast on her birthday, at my brother’s house in the UK, on the 25th of February. What?!, mom’s eyes popping out and everything. My dad, brother and myself looked at each other, laughed and eye high-fived: In an hour we’re leaving for Gran Canaria, the luggage has been taken care of. Mom: What and what?!
Getting into the informational:
When we usually ask mom Mom, what do you want for your birthday?, the answer is always For us all to be together. We were. For breakfast. Her responsibility (or something), though, of being an adult keeps all of our family – and herself – each year in suspense: What should I do for my birthday…? Luckily, by dinner, we got to Puerto Rico in Gran Canaria.
The suspense of the newness is always bliss.
Informational both on Yes, a 10kg carry-on for almost 2 weeks for both UK and Canarian Islands is possible! and on the number and names of the islands.
Man, I know how to pack! In my 10kg carry-on to the UK, I not only packed my clothes for the family gathering in the UK, but also my and my parents’ (!) beach clothes. Yes, beach! Oh, beach! The nearest warmest destination to the UK are the Canarian Islands. So when Spain was the answer, we knew. But then, there are seven islands in the Canarians: Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. Guess who did her research!
Def informational:
Aside from the turquoise waters of Playa de Amadores, what ultimately made Gran Canaria top of the list was The Little Venice – a nickname for Puerto de Mogán, a gem – a nickname for a small fishing port with mini canals trailing throughout the whole port area. Mom said once she wants to go to Venice. The connections my brain made when finding out about this particular detail were too cute not to choose Gran Canaria!
Little Venice and little did I know, though.
Def emotional.
Gran Canaria was about to reveal so many more gems to us, that it became, along with us all being together there, one of the most enchanting vacations so far. It was of four nights and three full days – enough for us to think about coming back for more.
Hello!
A mixture of informational and emotional:
Coming home to the home away from home each time, makes any of the vacations feel like home wherever on this planet. Possibly the reason behind my belief that we are all citizens of this wonderful world and not just of one particular city, country, continent. If only we’d all fit into Marina Bayview Gran Canaria (Adults Only) at once and enjoy the freshness, intimacy, lighting, delicious food, grandiose, yet clean views, the smiles and cute accents of the staff, a some sort of ease that can not be described with words. Jk, intimacy is intimacy and it is fabulous. All of us there would be too trippy.
“There’s something about this place. It feels rich in the way that rich is ideally supposed to feel. Naturally. Freely. Easily. Humanly. Lovingly.”
Informational:
The spectacular rock formations all over the island are obviously mesmerising, yet what is surprisingly mesmerising is the beautiful ways locals enhanced the natural beauty of everything Gran Canaria stands for. The Flintstones come to mind everywhere. However, the cleanness, modern constructions, cleverness, the multitude of gorgeous tunnels and roads bring the island into nowadays with no feeling of any anxiety or agitation whatsoever. An encounter with a local speaking Spanish is always lovely, laid back and warm.
Speaking of warm, February in Gran Canaria is so warm that we pretty much burnt ourselves on the first day of laying on the sand. Not chaise longs, but sand. Towels and sand, fresh fruit and the perfect weather that feels perfect on skin. Until burnt. Lol.
But yum!
Informational:
When at the airport renting the car we traveled by the entire vacation, red was what the Sixt agent mentioned when us deciding on the rental. Convertible was next. And then, well, Fiat 500. All together on the surprise getaway for mom sounded pretty fun. And it was. Fun! And though the car is Italian, the trips all over the place felt very Spanish.
Informational that turned into emotional:
The second day trip alone – to Caldera de Bandama (protected landscape of the volcanic crater), to Pico de las Nieves (the second highest peak of the island, 1949m) and its surrounding magnificent pines forests, to Roque Nublo (volcanic rock, 1813m altitude), the Vineyards of Tafira Alta that take to Pico de Bandama with the panoramic view of Las Palmas (the capital of Gran Canaria), the sunset in San Agustin – with spectacular views every inch of the road took a bit of our breaths away and made it into a day I will never forget.
Roof or no roof above our heads.
Emotional that turned into informational:
Take my breath away is a metaphor we all love to use when thinking of particular moments, yet it is also an expression used to describe a situation when breathing almost becomes literally forgotten. Beware of the gorgeous (!) signalled (!) roads all over the island for when they are not (!) signalled (!)! It is better not to take them. Simply follow the white stripes on both sides of the road. Non signalled roads still remain superb while rushing one’s adrenaline very high up when one’s car almost got hung by them. The laughter afterwards brought tears of happiness, nevertheless.
The hills almost everywhere make a car ride so fun that horsepower becomes the trip’s best friend. And no roof’s best friend. Good music’s best friend. And good company is all about best, anyway.
The third day started with a no planned morning at the hotel. Chilling, sometimes, after a delicious breakfast is what makes a vacation become a vacation, right? Haven’t ever really articulated it this way, but chin-chin!
??
No category whatsoever!
Yet the third day continued with the stop at the Maspalomas Dunes that made the trip by the coast to The Little Venice (the place we went to twice and had a delicious dinner by sunset, by the port) even more exciting. Sandy. As sand was all over us, but the feeling of being on the dunes, by the ocean… Was a totally new feeling which only empowered the butterflies of gratefulness and freedom in my stomach, head, heart.
Planning in life is something I am continuously learning about, so I plan. I planned this trip, yet the bliss of it exceeded any of my expectations. Wait, I don’t think I had any or thought of any. Hm. I only imagined the feelings I dreamt for us all to have during it. It exceeded the dreams.
You riding? Flying?
We all choose who to live and share life with, ride waves and fly kites with.
Mooom, get off that kite!