The last 5 days in Tenerife - Part 2

Relaxation again

It was Saturday and I had decided to stay in bed a bit longer, so I just got up to put the "Do not disturb" sign at my front door in order to avoid that the cleaning lady drops in. As I was used to getting up at around 8 or 9 am, I couldn't sleep any long after that time and turned on the TV. The weather outside didn't seem to be that nice, so it wasn't worth hurrying up in order to get to the pool as it would be too cold to relax there anyway. But at 9:30 am I had to get up anyway, as the restaurant with the breakfast buffet was closing at 10 am. I left the room and also put away the sign from the door - maybe the cleaning lady would come during breakfast and the problem would be solved. Breakfast was the same as always, I felt a bit alone and watched all the happy families and couples having the holidays of their life. I didn't stay too long, just finished eating, used the Wifi quickly and started my way back to my room. As I had already expected, the cleaning lady had come right to my room while I had been having breakfast and she was still in there. So I couldn't return to my room immediately and went back down to the hotel lobby in order to use the Wifi a bit and see my messages. I saw that the girls in our Whatsapp group were talking about going to Santa Cruz that evening in order to see the big Carnaval's parade. As I wasn't sure about these plans, I wrote a message to my Vietnamese colleague and asked her what she was thinking about it, because we had almost always the same attitude about things and I wouldn't join the others without her. 

She told me that she wasn't sure neither but that she wanted to see the parade and it would be a nice possibility to get there by car instead of going to Santa Cruz by bus - that would be incredibly crowded this evening. So we told the others that we would really like to come with them and they told us to be at their place at 8 pm in the evening. They would stay the whole weekend at Santa Cruz, but I had already talked with my friend and we would only watch the parade and then get back to Puerto de la Cruz by bus. Happy about having plans for Carnaval (for me it was a dilemma between "I don't like partying" and "Everyone told me that Carnaval at Tenerife is incredible and you have to see it") I could finally return to my room and continue that relaxing Saturday morning as the cleaning lady had finally left my room. In the afternoon I only went down to the pool for about one hour, tanned a bit, had a swim in the pool and a burger at the pool bar for lunch. Afterwards I went back to my room again, watched some TV, called my Dad and finally took a shower in order to get ready for the evening. I had agreed on meeting my Vietnamese colleague at 8 pm in front of a German supermarket that was next to the main road and at the way to the city centre. I chose some suitable but also comfortable clothes (all in black) and took my Venezian mask (the only "costume I had) before I finally left the hotel and started my way down the hill. 

Chaotic Way to Carnaval

We met at the supermarket and walked down the way to the city centre together. The way was about 20-25 minutes by foot and we talked about the same things as at the restaurant the night before: the office, my Mum's boyfriend and (new) the coming Carnaval parade at Santa Cruz that had been announced by everybody as the most exciting event of the year at Tenerife. When we arrived we went up to their appartment and sat down for a while as they weren't ready yet. It was always like that - they told us to be there at a certain time and finally we always have to wait one or two more hours because they had just finished their shower and still needed to dress up and put make-up on their faces. It was a bit annoying, but the Vietnamese girl and me had learned not to care about that and to have fun while we were waiting for them. After a long while of getting ready, choosing clothes and finishing costumes with pink tutus and glitter and everything, we were finally ready to leave the house and get into the car to Santa Cruz. In the car we had a lot of fun singing 90s songs and laughing about our costumes and finally I forgot my doubts and was looking forward to the parade. But then the chaos started..

We knew already that we would have to get somewhere before the Parade in order to let one of the girls bring her things to somebody (she would sleep in Santa Cruz the whole weekend at a friend) and she was writing with that person in order to find out where to go. What we didn't know was that we would have to meet some other people in the city centre in order to see the parade together, but they were Spanish so they had just started to prepare themselves. I already regretted that we hadn't gone to Santa Cruz by bus, but now it was too late, so I exchanged my thoughts with the Vietnamese girl via messages and waited until we arrived to Santa Cruz. The person where one of the girls would sleep was still working in a commercial centre, so we had to get there - it was a bit outside of Santa Cruz and actually it was a large detour that the boyfriend of the other girl had to made. I didn't care about the detour itself, I was just a bit worried about the start of the parade that would be in only 20 minutes and I was almost sure that we would not be there in time. But I had no choice - I couldn't go there by foot. We arrived at the commercial centre and the other two girls went into it in order to look for the shop where the guy was working. It took almost 20 minutes until one of them finally returned and told us that there was a client in the store and the other girl had to wait. We all didn't understand why she couldn't just put her things there and leave the shop again, but well. After 15 more minutes she came back and didn't even apologize for the large delay caused by her. She just showed us all her cellphone and was incredibly excited because the guy (obviously working in a phone shop) had given her a phone case and some other accessoires for her phone. I couldn't believe that - how can a person be so selfish? My Vietnamese friend thought the same thing as I saw in a message she had sent me right after the other girl had returned. 

Finally, we started our way to the city centre of Santa Cruz and arrived after about 20 minutes. It took some more time until we had gone to a street next to the parade, but fortunately we were able to find a parking - I had never believed that we would find one right next to the main street, but obviously we were lucky one time. But the luck disappeared quickly, as we couldn't go to the parade yet because we had to wait for those other guys. I couldn't understand why we couldn't go to the other street and watch the parade while the others were preparing themselves. I didn't want to stand there at the corner and wait for people I didn't even know while the largest Carnaval parade (the biggest and most interesting one in my whole life) was going on 100 metres next to me, and the Vietnamese girl was thinking the same. But we had to wait and they didn't come, 30 minutes later they weren't there yet. I asked the others how long they wanted to wait, as the parade had already started about one hour ago and I didn't want to miss it all just because we had to wait for some people that were actually living in that city and could see it every year. In that moment the two other girls were shocked -  they hadn't known that the parade had already started and suddenly they agreed to walk over to the street where it was going on. 

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