🌞 Christmas in the Canaries – Somewhere Between Snowflakes and Sunburn – Pipeaway Newsletter #199

Hi from the Canary Islands!

After a couple of short-sleep nights in Budapest, I was half-dead when I landed in a subtropical paradise. Well, not as dead as this British granny whose family thought it would be cheaper to smuggle her on board as “just sleeping” than deal with repatriation. But also not as alive as this gigantic rat that was spotted in the cabin when the plane was already over the Atlantic.

I was just the “right-amount” half-dead, after shortening my first Budapest night to get early to the Rudas Baths (my favorite winter spot when visiting the Hungarian capital), and then doing the same to my second night, pressed by catching an early Ryanair flight, the cheapest way to get to Gran Canaria.

As snowflakes were forming against my plane window, I was dozing off, still trusting that what awaited me would be days heavily sprinkled with free vitamin D, that gigantic lightbulb in the sky not letting Christmas become truly white.

Well, one gets confused while consuming all the conflicting headlines. At one moment, you read about your destination as a perfect winter sun break, and then you learn that snow swept across its mountain peaks. Even deep Norway had higher temperatures than the summit of Tejeda.

Luckily, as soon as I landed, I could have easily stripped those long underwear and hidden my gloves in the pockets of a jacket I won’t be needing.

Temperatures of above 20 degrees Celsius! Oh, how privileged I felt, having this opportunity to change my environment according to my selfish climate preferences.

I don’t take this luxury for granted, and am deeply thankful to the kind souls that make me feel so welcome in the most special corners of Earth. Well, for Egypt, I have to thank my Greek friend Nikos, while this warm Spanish month is courtesy of my Brit-Norwegian hosts Paul and Lars.

So, yes, it might be a sandy Christmas for me, somewhat wind-swept, but still warmer than the European continent could provide now. The winter solstice has passed, and the days will only be getting longer. Can’t wait to fill them with nice memories!

Feliz Navidad, if you are celebrating! Where are you at the moment, anyway?

As I’m west of Africa, but technically still in southern Spain, one of the Eurovision‘s Big 5, I did write the last ESC-related article for this year (I promise!). Have a read, if you want to mess up the idyllic holiday I hope you’re enjoying. The post is titled “Terrified by Music”. Maybe a clumsy wordplay on Eurovision’s slogan (perhaps it should have been “Terrorized by Music”?), but you’ll get what I meant.

Have a calm and peaceful Christmas week,

Ivan Kralj        
Pipeaway.com

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Ivan Kralj

Editor

Award-winning journalist and editor from Croatia