The final day

The final day of Las Palmas has arrived. A group of friends and I are walking on the streets of Las Palmas for the last time of this stay. We’re leaving tomorrow!

The slight fear of seasickness combed with excitement of seeing the horizon meet the surface of the sea in all directions fills my head.

My day began at 6 o’clock. Olivia came in to my cabin and whispered ”wake up” in order to wake me without waking my cabin-buddies. Throughout the prior day, Monday, I had made my duty as a ”backis”, meaning I worked in the kitchen throughout the day. Cleaning, cooking, prepping. The duty as backis means preparing breakfast the following day, today. Preparing breakfast meant waking up at 6 o’clock, therefore I woke up earlier than my cabin-buddies. The three of us, the three backises of the day, met in the kitchen and started to prepare breakfast for the entire crew of the boat. With a cup of coffee in hand and a fight agains the urge to close our eyes we went up and down the stairs. Each time with as much breakfast we were able to carry in our hands. Eventually the Big Mess was ready. Our classmates arrived gradually. Each one mumbling when talking, with their eyes closed halfway and a confused expression on their faces. Each one woken up minutes ago.

After the 8 o’clock line-up my time as a backis ceased. Today was the last day at harbor, the last day in Las Palmas. Our first trip’s second harbor was Las Palmas. In other words my class and I have been here before. The days at land have been nostalgic from time to time, the places we visited two years ago appear now and then when walking around the city. One of these places, a café where we began a morning in 2019, came to mind. A group of friends and I decided to start there today as well. A coffee and the view of the beach at dawn. The thought of this being our school-day is crazy. The slow morning developed into the decision of taking a bus to the part of the city we referred to as old town. Although I don’t think this actually is the oldest part of the city… We began walking. Minutes later we arrived to our goal, a second hand store a classmate recommend this morning.

Suddenly it was mid-day. The jeans that had been a good idea this morning, considering the chilly weather, didn’t seem as fantastic at this time of day. The sun stood high. We began our journey back to the boat, lunch-time came closer. I had been craving sweet potatoes for a few days. Can you guess what stood on the table when the hour of lunch arrived!? Along with the sweet potatoes there were bean-beefs and a sauce.

At three o’clock we were going to have visitors from an organization witch helps migrants arriving to The Canary Islands. Our assignment in social science regards migration. The visitation meant that we had to be home at 3 o’clock. Between lunch and the arrival of our guests a group of friends and I made a walk to the beach. The gray clouds and raindrops that had made an appearance this morning had been replaced with the sun shining high upon the sky. We played volleyball at the beach. Correction: we tried to play volleyball… The ball barley made it over the net more than twice in the beginning, but we didn’t let this stop us. The practice made.. well not perfect, but improvement!

The visitors came around 3 o’clock. Along with the other students I sat on big-deck listening to them talking about the situation of migration from Africa and South America to the Canary Islands. The connection between South America and the canary islands was new to me. I found the information they shared with us interesting!

At 6 o’clock the the whole crew ate lasagna. Afterwards was the last hours to step onto land, and that is exactly what I did. Two friends and I brought a blanket which we put on the beach where we sat and watched the sunset. I couldn’t ask for a better way for this stay at Las Palmas to end.

Elina