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“Don’t forget moments like this”
If you go on vacation, do it only in good company. A year ago, while on vacation in Cyprus, we met a nice couple with a daughter. We flew from Katowice and met in the hotel lobby. We quickly found a common language, it turned out that we had a similar sense of humor, we loved swimming in the sea and hiking to get to know the area. After a wonderful week, we decided to spend another vacation together.
This year my friends chose Spain. They dreamed of the Canary Islands, so we started searching – first we chose an island, then a hotel. The ladies in the travel agencies assured us that Gran Canaria is an ideal place for water and beaches, so we started looking for a suitable hotel (necessarily close to the ocean, all inclusive and at least four-star standard). When everything was found and paid for, all that remained was to wait for the desired departure day.
My nose, Gran Canaria, Hispania
We met our friends in the parking lot and went to the airport together. My attention was drawn to a small bottle containing what I thought at the time was sand, which my friend had been wearing around her neck. When I asked her where she got the sand, she replied that it was her mother’s. I quickly remembered that she had told me in Cyprus that before her mother died, she wanted her ashes scattered over the ocean. I now understood where the stubbornness to travel to the Canary Islands came from.
After arriving at the hotel, we collected our keys and went to the room, where we were taken by a nice Spaniard with a meaningful name…
As it turned out, the €5 I gave him “for his troubles” later led to help from a hotel staff member.
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
The next day we went to the ocean. It was stormy and the waves kept crashing into us, but my friend insisted on taking pictures of us anyway. When she finished, she gave her husband the phone, and he put it in a bag hanging around his neck, containing 50 euros. A few minutes later, it became clear that the wave had torn the box and its contents apart.
My friends came out of the water looking for their lost item, and my husband and I wondered if there was any point or hope of finding the phone at all.
We got back to the hotel. My friend locked her accounts for a few hours, called the clerk to block any payments, and joked that a shark was trying to figure out what it had just swallowed.
It seemed absolutely unbelievable! I started speaking to the interlocutor in English, but soon heard “Spanish only”. The man hung up and we went straight to the reception. Jesus was standing next to me, so I quickly ran with the phone and started telling him what had happened. He looked at me with wide eyes, and to this day I don’t know if he thought I was joking or if my English was just that bad. But after a while, he picked up the phone, called, talked for a long time and finally said that the call would be answered on Monday. We thanked him and asked the researcher to take the 50 euros that were in the bag.
My husband and I had our anniversary on Sunday. We went for a very long walk with friends and when we just wanted to relax, our friends invited us to their house for a while. It turned out that they had prepared a surprise for us. There were about a dozen candles on the hotel balcony. On a small table there was a cake bought from the supermarket, with our names and information about the anniversary on it, and next to it there was a bottle of champagne for the children. I moved on. No one has ever done anything so nice for me.
The next day we went on a trip. We went on a boat to see the island from the ocean, to swim, and of course to scatter our mother’s ashes. For four familiar hours she held on to the plastic bag because she was seasick, but when she felt better, she went up to the deck to fulfill her promise to her mother. Moments like these are unforgettable too.
After returning to the hotel, I asked for my friend’s phone number. It was waiting for her in the room, in perfect condition. It was 100 percent charged.
The rest of the days passed in high spirits and good fun. It was so wonderful! Next year we plan to spend the holidays together again.
