Vacation: Gran Canaria Part I

We have played a show in Leipzig with my band GetItDone (https://www.facebook.com/getitdonehc).
We went to the Fleischerei (vegan deli, pretty good) before the show at Conne Island. I didn't do much training apart from the usual jumping and shouting on stage and some exercises on that day.
But Micha, Rico Ironmind and me agreed on swimtraining the other morning at 8. So we went for that at the pool "An der Elster" (http://www.sportbaeder-leipzig.de/index.php?page=28) which has a really nice 50m lane. Very new pool, so quite clean. Enjoyed it!
Since I have decided quite spontaneously to go on holiday to Gran Canaria, I went looking for cheap flights, a cheap apartment for me and my 2 girls with a pool and not too far from the sea. After picking everybody up, my bandmates dropped us off at the airport in Cochstedt near Magdeburg. Such a small airport...never seen one alike.
So yeah... we got to Maspalomas and almost everything looked strange. No towncentre, just apartmentcomplexes and hotels. Well... the weather was nice, when we landed, around 24 degrees, slightly cloudy, but much better than in Germany. So what have I done there? Meals: Not too good for a vegan. I have bought stuff to cook everyday, tried to buy as much fruits and veggies as I could (but not much to be found at the small local shops). So well... had baked beans or red sauce and pasta most of the days.

But waking up, watching the beautiful sun and diving in the pool felt really good!
So what else did I do?
On the arrival day I only went for more swimming in the pool as I had my training done earlier that morning in Leipzig.

The next day I went for a short run (6,6km) in the morning and then into the pool, did some exercises with Thera bands and another run in the evening (6km). Fine! Found out about some bike rentals, so the next day began with running 8km (incl. 3x1km a little faster than 10k racepace), then swimming in the pool directly afterwards. I also went to the bike rental (http://www.linosbike.com/site/?page_id=30&lang=de) and got myself a decent roadbike for 18€ a day. Initially I have wanted to drive to the capital of Gran Canaria - Las Palmas - but the bike dude, told me I should rather go somewhere else. So I had to convince my girls to not go to Las Palmas this day and go on a bike tour with me instead. So we rented more bikes and just drove around Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles. Got to a botanical garden and saw a plant of cotton for the first time in my life. We also went to the beautiful dunes of Maspalomas, that are totally worth the trip. Even my shitty cellphonecam can capture the beauty of this:

Bikeriding, dunes in the back!

Los Toros! Had been great fun!

I guess I just fell down! Riding the bull was the only non-vegan act I have done!

We cycled back to the apartment an eventually dove into the pool a few more times in the evening at the apartment.
The next day I had to bring my bike back, so I decided to get up early and cycle from Maspalomas to Puerte de Mogan. Almost 70km in total, so a nice start for the day. I dove into the pool again, ate alot, we brought the bikes back and head off to Las Palmas by public bus.

We walked through the city and finally saw a few older buildings and real cool park near the swim stadium, where many runners trained and another "muscle beach" was situated so I did a few exercises. Nice! Back to the apartment, diving into the pool, eat and sleep!

Back from BCN!

Saturday morning, 6.30 the plane took off.

Firat, Joan, Me, Nasim, Matze

The whole marriage party on the square in front of the city hall of Cervera

Montserrat

Brought me to Girona, which is a nice city, but most of the times I just take the bus from the airport to Barcelona. I got there around 10ish and met up with Canan and Firat to eat breakfast. Since I have eaten my wolewheat bread at the airport I only ate some dates, bought at the market boqueria, but on the evening, when it was dirtcheap, as Firat told me. Well, we went running towards platja Nova Mar Bella, stopped at muscle beach one, muscle beach two and then went to the place where you can pick up your gear for the Garmin Barcelona Triathlonchttp://www.garminbarcelonatriathlon.com/. I haven't signed up this year but wanted to check out whether I could still get a slot. No es possible! No worries... we just went back to muscle beach, dove in the waves - extraordinary high waves this day - and went back to Firats and Canans apartment in El Born to get to my friend Gabriels place right before the bus left to take us out to Cervera (an old catalan village on a hill, fortified by city walls). We even drove past Montserrat, where I definitely need to go next time!  There Lubia and Gabi said yes and bonded their relationship for life. Many pics have been taken as the ones above.
Then we went back to BCN for the party... and yeah... it was a party! The food was also amazing and brought to us by Gopal, a full on vegi deli https://www.facebook.com/julekeralagopal.bcn . Once you get to BCN, you gotta get there to eat most definitely! They do even have a few special catalan  recipes and transfer them into a vegan version. I couldn't move, because of eating to much. I was a bad guest that evening, but the food was just too good. We left the party shortly after one am.
The other day was the last day of my little trip, so yeah... tried to make the most out of it. After getting up and eating a little, me and firat ran to muscle beach again, swam a little, had a proper meal witht he leftovers from last nights catering and ran back, in time for me to catch the train to the airport.
I left BCN at 23 degrees celsius and landed in Germany at like 10 degrees... Shit!!!
It is always nice to get back home, but not when I get home from BCN.
The weather was nice today, but I have missed the right time to get outside as I was still pretty tired from the weekend, so I gotta get running now! Bye!
ah... we also took a pic after coming back from muscle beach: Yeah!