This place is absolutely the nicest place i have seen on the Canary Islands and will probably always stay my favourite.

Puerto de Mogan is a very small town, built in a slope with access to a sandy bay and a very small harbour. You can easily come here by bus from Maspalomas, which takes around 40min. You can spend an entire day in this village, although it is quite small. The first bus in the morning leaves around 9 and is always very popular. The last bus back to Maspalomas is leaving at 5 in Puerto, since it only goes every hour, i would recommend to take the one at 4 already. If the bus is full, they will not take you, since you are not allowed to stand up. They are always very busy so better be early at the stop, since people already queue even before the bus is there. Also it is a lot of german retirees, that are actually very much on time.
The bus stop is located approximately 5min walk from the very center and beach of Puerto. First you can get yourself some refreshing drinks or sparkly water in the Spar Supermarket on the way, maybe some nice Sandwich (as i was on very low Budget) and then head to the beach.

Here you can walk to the lefthand side around the whole bay and along a rocky peer, where the wind will wake you up, if you are not already.
In one of the caffés around the bay, you can have a nice lunch or icecream and relax during the hot hours around 11am-1pm. There are so many different tastes, that you will of course find something you'll like. After that i would recommend you to walk around the whole bay to the righthand side, across the river bridges and enter the harbour quarter. You can walk around the harbour and inspect the small very beautiful boats. I sat down there on the harbour wall and had my very nice Sandwich, always taking care that no pigeon comes to close. Bringing my book was also a fantastic idea, since one can not walk around a lot.
The main attraction in this cute place are the small alleys with art galleries and craft shops around the harbour. You can stroll in here and admire the huge hanging flowers on the torches, i am sure you have already seen a lot of pictures.

Also one can access a nice platform up in the mountains, with a bit of effort, from where you can see over the whole village.

Puerto de Mogan is by far one of the cutest spanish villages, i have seen so far and mind blowing. It is also a welcoming difference to the huge touristy cities of Maspalomas and Las Palmas. Here you will see no high-rise hotels at all, just small little appartments nestling along the mountains.

Since most people go for a beachy vacay to the Canary Islands, the beaches are always very busy. You will probably not find any calm beach close to the hotspots and also in between it's quite hard to access a bay, since the Island is very rocky.

Here is to the most popular beaches around Grand Canaria.

Playa las Canteras/Las Palmas

These beaches are by far the most touristy ones around Maspalomas. There are offered sunseats and parasols for a cheap price and a whole relaxing day at the beach. Worth to mention, it was extremely windy when i was there, so it feels way colder than it looks. Between those beaches there is a naked zone and if you walk around the southern peak of the dunes, there you will find a more private spot to tan.

Nevertheless the beaches were not as crowded as elsewhere. Your towel neighbours will not lie close enough to see, that you did not freshly shave your legs. Also the very northern end of Playa del Inglés (see photo above) is usually quite calm and empty.

Playa Meloneras

This beach is lying more west and less busy than both above. Still quite touristy and relatively small. From here you can see the Light House very well and easy acess one of the beach bars and restaurants around there. The waves also seem to be much higher here, in comparison to Playa del Inglés. Still the water is quite cold around spring, so i didn't go in for a swim.

Playa Puerto de Mogan

In the center of the small harbour town there is a cute tiny bay with a propped beach. Around the beach there is a really nice promenade with fancy coffe places and restaurants. Since this beach is more or less protected by walls to the open sea around the bay, there are no high waves and one can enter the water very easily and relaxed.

If you go to Canary Islands, you already know what to expect. Since this place is less for adventurous and more for a relaxing/doing nothing vacation, you have to bronze with other charter tourists.

Normally i do not go to Zoos or animal parks, unless it's Safari parks. Well i had the friday still free and did not want to spent another day on the beach, or at least not the whole day. Getting to the inner and top of the island is not easy without a car. Anyway i wanted to see the mountains of Gran Canaria, since they are so green and different from the coast and worse a visit.

So i decided one evening before, quite spontaniously, to go to Palmitos Park, which is known as an oasis far up between the mountains. They host a lot of different animals and numerous plants in a botanical garden.
 One can take the bus from Faro de Maspalomas or Playa del Inglés. It's about a 30min ride i guess and this tour is really nice, since you can see the endless suprisingly green slopes while going up and up in the mountains. (Price for both ways is around 4€)

If you take a car you can stop on the way and visit a real ranch or go in some really tiny restaurants with more local food. Otherwise the bus only stops at Aqualand as well, which is a lovely activity with kids.

The main attractions in the park are actually the animal shows, that take place in different times during the day. There is the birds of pray show, which is featuring huge eagles in free flight. To see this show one has to climb up the steep mountain, but the view is absolutely fantastic. It was around lunch time it started and i was so hungry, but very scared that the eagles would want to steal my lovely prepared sandwiches. Instead of bringing your own food, you can of course eat in the parks restaurant, which is offering almost anything, but for a quite high price.

Furthermore the park offers another really funny parrot show, where the birds drive tiny bycicles and do different hilarious tricks.
 The most adorable show by far is of course the dolphin show. They do a lot of different stunts, together with their caretakers, so one girl was actually surfing on a dolphin! Also they always integrate kids, that are allowed to train and swim with the dolphins, which is super cute.

More features of the park is an endless garden of cactuses, a butterfly house and an orchid house, which is really fantastic for photolovers. I just took countless shots there, because you can see all beauty summed up in one place.

The entrance for the park is 30€, which is quite a lot, if you are not that into animals and plants, i would not recommend it to you. (You can also buy the tickets combined with aqualand or online, which makes it a bit cheaper) 

Maspalomas has a lot to offer, from a buzzing nightlife to endless beaches and numerous shopping malls, but the biggest and obviously most beautiful attraction are the dunes located south east of the city.
There are several ways to access the dunes and they appear different from each angle and in every hour of the day. Short version: i could not get enough of them!

The first day of my vacation i got up very early, went south from my air bnb and entered the dunes from the western side. Here you have to walk a few miles through a natural reserve until you finally reach the real white sandy dunes.
Once you are there, you will not see any plants or greens anymore, just endless hills of sand. I have never been to the desert, although that's on my to- do-list, but these dunes give a very good impression, i guess. I reached them quite late, since i miscalculated distances, so there were already a few people and always someone in the way for my pictures.

The dunes are lying directly beside the ocean, so one always feels a cooling sea breeze while hiking up the sandy hills. That's actually quite dangerous. Of course i burned myself directly, since i totally lost track of time. I could just sit and observe my surroundings for ages. But be careful when entering a slope, you might be suprised what you find.

A lot of people are bathing naked here and once in a while it can happen that some man springs out behind a bush presenting his best piece and waving at you. Honestly, i have no words for that.

Anyway, might be better to not enter the dunes at night though.

Nevertheless, watching the sun go down over the dunes is a fantastic experience. Best you can do that from the platform located behind a Hotel in  the east. Here you can sit on some stairs and see how the sun colours the sandy mountains in a light pink, before finally going down. It took ages actually until it finally happened, and then it was looking incredible for a very short moment, but it is worth waiting for. Take a cheap bottle of wine with you and some crackers and i am sure you will love it as much as i did.

Just 2 tips, if you go in the dunes: Take a lot of water and do not go barefeet, the sand is super hot! Otherwise the dunes are a must-see and one can walk through several times, they will never get boring.

You can also do camel riding (actually it's dromedaries) for 12€ per ride (30min), the stable is located in the west close to Faro de Maspalomas. I did not try it, since i did not have time for it in the end, one has to prioritize a bit in 6 days.

Well, let's start with the very basic info about my trip to Gran Canaria

Budget: 656€ (190€ Flights; 280€ Air BnB; 16€ Airport shuttle; 170€ Activities, Food and Transport)

Duration: 6 Days (6Nights)

Travel Time: Middle of February, spring starts earlier here and Grand Canaria is famous for its blooming almond-trees

So i booked this vacation quite spontaniously (for me 2 month ahead), because i realised that i had to use up my vacation days, since i am not allowed in my first year of employment, to roll them over to next year (which was originally my plan). Well i had only 8 days left and swedish winters are so tough, i never thought it would be this dark and cold and also never ending, kind of.

So i decided that i would need a lot of sun soon and i would have preferred to travel to the caribbean end of january, since that's a good time, but with only 8 days it does not really make sense to go. It takes a whole day to go there and back and the flights are really expensive comparing to the duration of your stay. So anyway i planned my super sunny vacay in carribean end of this year instead.

If you need a short term vacation, with an ok flight time and sunny weather, the canary islands are definitly a good decision. I have been to almost all of them before, but not to Gran Canaria. Also Gran Canaria is one of the islands, that has most to offer. Fuerteventura for instance is just consisting of Hotelcities, to be honest.

Since i was quite late, it was also super difficult to find an accomodation. Most of them had been booked one week before, also the best flight times were already gone. If i had been earlier, i could have saved surely a bit on the AirBnB. Anyway the AirBnB is located in Maspalomas, a really popular area on Gran Canaria. This time i booked flights and accomodation directly after each other, since i am so "lastminute".

I could have taken longer off, but my budget is already split for other vacations this year, so my focus is to get a cheap vacation with as much activities and fun as possible. I booked two dives with Zeus Dive Center in Playa del Inglés as well (always contact the Dive school before you go there, that makes it super easy, since they also have planned dives and times)

Booking this one was quite stressful, because in the end i had to take what i could get. If you are more in time the offers are bigger and cheaper, especially everyone wants to leave the cold for an escape around february.

Well it is almost one year ago since i emigrated to Sweden and time for some evaluation. I didn't realise a lot of people travel to Stockholm where i live and it's actually quite a big tourist attraction.

I feel even i haven't seen all sides of this place yet, within a year, because once you live somewhere you always tend to think you have a lot of time. And somehow you take the place you live in for granted and don't realise how beautiful it actually is.

So since i will not travel in April, i will go around here in Stockholm and closer surroundings, to explore the best places to fill my sweden diary.

There are some general facts i concluded within the last year.

Stockholm is the capital and main city, but still it seems more comparable to a mid-size city in Germany. There are not many high rise blocks and nature is easy accessable for everyone. Also a walk by the water is anywhere possible, since Stockholm is built on countless Islands.

Most important here in Sweden are nevertheless the only two existing Seasons: Summer & Winter.

There is literally no spring and no autumn, i have the feeling. Also while Summer lasts around 5 weeks maybe, if lucky, winter lasts for ages!

Everyone has been warning me and saying when i came in April and loved this place so much, that i will definitly change my mind when winter is coming.

So i had an amazing very short summer in Sweden, went to Bali in autumn and when i came back in September it was there.

The really depressing point for me was actually the darkness, in december even at the weekend if you sleep longer, 3h of light. You start to isolate in your flat, starting endless marathons of tv shows, hoping that this might end soon, but well, the winter lasts until April.

Every step outside is a challenge, since you do not want to leave your cosy home. Actually it seems that this city is falling asleep. In summer there are endless amounts of parties, people outside all nights, you hear the laughter in the warm breeze.

In winter you will feel the isolation and uncomfortable stillness, but even i left my house from time to time, since this period of the year has some positives as well.

I have never seen as much snow as here in sweden. Already in november last year we had a suprising snow storm, that bedded Stockholm in a 40cm deep white blanket.

Of course it was so very chaotic, since no one expected it that early in the year. And the temperatures are insanely cold for me, when it is -12° degrees and windy, i get the feeling of freezing to death. But there is no bad weather, just bad clothing, so thats the time when you should leave the house. Since the snow makes everything more light and adoring, you can finally hear some small kids laughing outside while doing their snowball fights.

After December i could literally feel every day getting longer again, now the sun is up when i get up and it's still light after work, which is just such a fantastic feeling. You never appreciate something until you really miss it and i got so addicted to daylight and sunshine.

That was also a reason for me to do from now on a trip to a very sunny place in the middle of winter, probably best in December, to escape the swedish darkness.