1995 3 Months NYC A Jewel Eivissa Tree Abuse ECO Black Friday Bocadillo Danger! Estofado Sangria Rave Cannibis Camino Viejo Neutrinos Weather Roosters JCS The PM Plongeé Smila Customs O. J. Verdict 1995 Eivissa (Ibiza): Fish Monger A Roar MacWorld Padinkos Bye E, Hello GC Gran Canaria Where A Tour How Food Yumbo Las Palmas Playa 1995 Gran Canaria: Potpourri Norteños More Food Irishmen Heading Home USA With Dad Back at Home
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1995 Gran Canaria: The Heart of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
27 October 1995
As I walk away from the bus station I'm surrounded by the vibrant, electrical pulse of city life. Within a block I'm surrounded by students walking to the high schools that dot the city. Working people, dressed alike in company uniforms, wait in groups at the traffic lights. The major streets Las Palmas have a variety of trees, so it's pleasant walking around. I immediately notice modern shops side-by-side with tiny one-room shops. One place I pass seems to have combined the architecture of yesteryear with a neon Coke sign:
The first line I translate to "fried chicken", the second to "hamburger shop", but the third, "Camino Huevo", stumps me. Street Egg? Is this the local equivalent to "floor pie"? As I stroll by I see students and workers lined up in the cramped shop, waiting their turn to get at street eggs, or whatever.
I'm now walking east, away from the water and toward the computer store closest to the bus station. I've plotted their locations on my map, so it's easy navigating about. Unbeknownst to me, I'm also walking into the student quarter, which features many small schools, cafés, bookstores, eateries, and other grateful rewardees of a thriving spare-change economy. The streets are narrow, and the sidewalks narrower yet.
There's quite a mix of architecture styles to be seen. I pass the oldest style I've seen, a tall door with a smaller "greeting door" within, a style that dates back several centuries. I've seen this style everywhere the Spanish have travelled, a few weeks ago I passed a door just like it in Eivissa's Old City.
In another block or two I pass a typical old building and another with brightly-painted Victorian-style shutters. On the rather drab street the vibrant new colors can be seen blocks away. A few more steps and I see another gaily painted building.
Unfortunately, there are some newer styles to be seen as well. Two garish examples of what went wrong in the seventies are standing at the water's edge, side by side.
Someone decided to take traditional European building materials and construct an homage to the Orient.
As I close in on my destination I happen to glance left, to a hill covered with decades of haphazard construction in the most eccentric of student neighborhoods.
I suspect I'm getting into Las Palmas' "information ghetto" when I spy a computer store run by an H. Integer. I'm not sure if they're pulling our collective legs.
It's hard for me to describe the flights of fancy my book-deprived heart took when I spotted these trucks:
Oh, I'd arrived at last! Books, knowledge, large multi-lingual bookstores, computer stores, and caffiene. After ten weeks of sheep-dogs, goats, sandy beaches, and terrible hardware problems, I was about to re-enter (if only for a very short time) the Land of the Geeks.
I turned the corner.
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