This morning I left Kevin’s place while everyone was sleeping, and only 1.5 hours after I had gotten to sleep. I walked to the train station as the sun rose over Berlin around 5:45am. Morning is not exactly my favorite time, but with a Belle & Sebastian soundtrack it was alright.

Flying from Berlin to London was uneventful, painful as per usual. I spent so much time in airports today and not enough time sleeping at any point. On the four hour flight to Fuerteventura, I was lucky enough to be sitting next to the most obnoxious British guido ever and in front of the world’s most unhappy child. So much noise so constantly! I spent the last 20 minutes of the flight in frightened anticipation of an earache that never occurred, because I bought earplugs in the London airport. The days of painful flying are gone! Yay!

Fuerteventura is very eerily beautiful. It’s kind of Mars-like. I am literally on a desert island (but not stranded, I hope). My hotel room is completely kick-ass, minus the lack of free internet (they lied in their description). It’s actually a small apartment, including a king-sized bed, kitchen, full bathroom, living room, TV, and balcony overlooking the water and the mountains. The one downside is that there are tiny ants absolutely everywhere in the kitchen. Ergh. But they even provided cookware, so I bought groceries and made dinner tonight. This is apparently a German hotel, and almost everything is in German around here…so I think Fuerteventura happens to be a big German ex-pat settlement? Random. I thought I was done speaking German this week!

Tomorrow I’m planning on renting a bike (only 8 euros a day!) and seeing how far I can get around the island. I bought Murakami’s Norwegian Wood and started it on the plane, so I’m looking forward to finishing it on the beach. (Not exactly a beach read, but oh well.) The sun is down now, and I’m just waiting for the stars to come out, since this may be the most remote place I’ve ever been…then off to sleep. Finally.

— Lauren