1995 Gran Canaria: The Heart of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

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Gran Canaria

 

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:

Camino Huevo

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.

Bocadillo sign

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.

door-in-door

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.

Victorian shutters

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.

funky bldg   funky bldg

Someone decided to take traditional European building materials and construct an homage to the Orient.

oriental style

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.

tiky-taky-on-hill

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.

microcenter

It's hard for me to describe the flights of fancy my book-deprived heart took when I spotted these trucks:

libro-technico-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.

apple-storefront-main
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