La Laguna is the coolest town of Tenerife
Its full name is very mellifluous – san Cristobal de la Laguna. The town is to our liking. Not by its architecture, although it’s very beautiful here and the entire quarters in colonial style are preserved, but for the local residents. The locals are especially distinguished in exceptional way: there are a lot of them, i.e. tourists are almost imperceptible in the streets; people of all ages are dressed fashionably, stylish and freely; confidence of enjoying life is just sensed in them.
You look at every counter-face and see a pleasant or smiling face. During lunch, especially on weekends, everyone goes to restaurants, bars and cafes for family dinner. Many families 30-40 year old with children, fashionably dressed up elderly couples, young boys and all the people we came across. Perhaps we managed to capture such excitement since we watched the vacationers in Los Cristianos resort a few days earlier: it was quite the opposite of what is described above, it was not inspiring, and we couldn’t bear that environment.
So, La Laguna. This is the first capital of Tenerife located in the middle of the island, without access to the ocean. The current capital, Santa Cruz, was once just the port for the capital La Laguna. It was deliberately assigned and established in the center of the island so that it would be harder for pirates to get to the capital, since it was easier to attack near the coast. These are the islanders’ problems.
All the old central part is included into the UNESCO list because entire quarters of outstanding architecture are preserved here. It’s really very beautiful here, especially good-looking are the unobtrusive terraces with same stools and tables; the same everywhere) How?
And we as well liked the tablets near each public institution: Bc – bar, cafe; H – hotel, and R – restaurant. You know what’s what at once.
The main square with a church.
The facades covered with glossy-matte finish and cool wooden doors and windows.
People here are cool, so there are cool modern facilities. Oh, how we missed that) And we did find! A small (literally) burger café La Bourmet.
It opens up at 1 pm! And do you know how long does it works? – till 4 pm 🙂 And it seems from 7 to 11 pm then. Some guests join the queue and wait until a place gets free. That was that day – no one wanted to sit on the terrace for strong wind and almost storm outside.
There are three or four tables inside and several places at the bar counter.
Just burgers on the menu and a bunch of drinks, including beer. Everyone orders beer or Coke. And burgers, of course.
Burgers. There are four types of rolls: black, with linen, with herbs, and another one 🙂 There are four sauces that are also delicious, including with mango. Particular attention should be paid to french fries. It is the most delicious real potatoes we have eaten; it is even cut manually, which is evidenced by different size, thickness, and width. Dipped in a sauce or even without it. We liked the potatoes so much that we got into it and tasted the burger afterwards.
The patty was moist and delicious. The herbs roll was a bit crispy and also delicious. And caramelized onions under the patty supplemented the delicious impressions.
Sweet home potatoes. Included into the price. By the way, the price is 5-7 Euros. In Istanbul, we first tasted the burgers in a burger café for 10 dollars without potatoes and sauce.
What is more, cute mini burgers are made here) for 2 or 3 Euros with slightly less serve of potatoes and the sauce right on the stone tile looks like a meringue drop. You can taste four small different burgers instead of one big almost for the same price.
And of course, there is delicious coffee; you can readily order cappuccino, although we became very accustomed to barraquitos.
There was cloudy and too strong wind on the first day we were walking here. So we were sitting in another café, which is used as an Internet point and there’s even a small conference hall there – it was a blessing for us to sit in the farthest corner and what is most important with shelves, books, and the Internet! We were offered there, as we call it, a loaf with chemical filling for dinner, so we drank barraquitos and waited till 1 pm to go into the burger café at hand. And here is a good coffee-to-go facility – so we were very sorry not to have settled in this town.
The old town is all in narrow streets and two-storey houses where mostly shops and dining establishments are.
All the same tables and umbrellas, interesting signs and the town Christmas decoration. So we waited for the evening to take shots of the New Year decorations.
Of course there are shops with famous clothes brands and other interestingly decorated shop-windows – it’s stylish everywhere!
La Laguna is a small town, so we quickly got acquainted with it and went to the nearby Punta del Hidalgo. But there was nothing impressive and the wind was very strong.
So we returned into the evening La Laguna.
It’s very crowded in the evening here; the locals ride on rollers, bicycles; they’re walking and talking with the friends.
This town is perhaps most brightly and most interestingly decorated for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
December 31, it’s the New Year soon, so we didn’t think for long but headed for La Laguna. We arrived, and there were a lot of people in the streets dressed in different funny costumes or sportswear. We guessed that would be a kind of marathon.
We visited again the Internet cafe to work before and headed for burger café before 4 pm ). And the marathon began at 6 pm; they managed to place 3000 marathoners and crowds of fans in the narrow streets. It seems they had to run 5 km.
We were just making fun of the marathoners’ costumes for 3 or 4 minutes until all of them had run past us. Of course the first major personalities were the best athletes and stood in the first line, and all the rest were different – some were sportive, while others participated for other reason at all. This was an important event being covered online for TV.
The number one – was the main, he was shot by the operators on a bike and all the rest were running after him.
It was very difficult for many of them. But the atmosphere was joyful; people greeted each other, hugged, smiled, peered into the distance – like in an episode with the airport footage for the movie “Real Love”.
Another creative facade with decorations for the holidays.
After the marathon crowds of participants, fans and everyone else departed into the nearest bars to have a drink and talk with each other.
If there was the crowd it meant that there was a bar somewhere deep, where one could buy alcohol. Moreover, many establishments were about to close, so those willing had to hurry up. Most establishments operated normally as during the common day. That is, it wouldn’t do to sit at a table in a restaurant in the old part of the town. We could have missed something. The main thing was the communication with a glass of beer or wine or sangria in our case.
Then year 2016 has come.
With love, RH.
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