sentimentalities

14. December 2008, Sunday
27° 56' 10" N, 15° 38' 40" W


I've been in this world long enough to know that life also means constant change and somehow every change or reorientation has turned out to be something good in hindsight.

Nevertheless, one becomes quite sentimental on such occasions and reviews things that have almost been forgotten for a long time.

Almost 30 years ago I lived here on Gran Canaria for a few months and got to know the island extensively.
The gravel roads in the wild, rugged mountains, the miserable mountain villages with their crooked huts or small tourist towns by the sea.

Gran Canaria has changed a lot in that time, nothing is the same anymore (to the detriment of romantics), but to the advantage of the people.

The gravel roads have given way to a well-developed road network, miserable mountain villages have blossomed into pretty towns (you have to search to find one of the original old farms) and the once so tranquil tourist towns by the sea are now gigantic bed castles.
Even Las Palmas is no longer as dingy as it seemed to me back then, but a completely normal European city.

Lost in my thoughts on the former Gran Canaria, I stroll through the streets decorated for Christmas with the friends from the "Cayenne" and the "Dual Dragon".
Merchants and town planners do their best to bring the spirit of Christmas closer to the customer, but with sunshine, blooms, mild temperatures and red-faced tourists in shorts, that Christmas spirit just doesn't want to come up.

Well, how would I benefit if I froze my butt off in Germany because of the pre-Christmas spirit!?