Alcohol

Alcohol is a big thing over here. A lot of people drink a lot more than they should. Bear in mind when you go out that a spirit and mixer (vodka and coke, gin and tonic etc) is about half alcohol and half mixer, so if you are not used to drinking you will be under the table after a couple of drinks!

Canarians often have "carajillo" for breakfast which is half brandy and half black coffee with plenty of sugar. Not the healthiest start to the day.


Photo by Editor B

Canarian Wine

The wine is quite hit and miss here. The lower end restaurants and bars will offer Lyria (avoid at all costs), Viña Sol (dry, bland and unexciting) and San Valentín (medium white wine, not great). The better restaurants and bars might have rioja or nicer wines. Malvasia is a white wine from Lanzarote which is well worth tasting. You can get dry Malvasia or medium Malvasia and both are really nice. Expect to pay 7€ in the supermarket or 17€ in a restaurant.

Spanish Lottery

I was lucky again last week. I won 104€ on La Primitiva. I won 96€ on it a few weeks back. I think I've spent about the same as I've won if you take it all into account but it gives me a bit of excitement for 5 minutes while I check the results. (And normally a bit of disappointment immediately afterwards).

How to Play the Spanish Lottery

There are 2 choices if you want to play the lottery in Gran Canaria. First of all you can go into a lottery shop. Alternatively you can buy a ticket from one of the lottery sellers who walks around. The lottery is a bit thing here and most Canarians love a flutter!


Photo by Alvy

With La Primitiva, which is the one I usually play, you pay 2€ per line and you get 1€ if the "reintegro" comes up (an extra number), 8€ for 3 numbers and varying amounts for more than 3 numbers in a line.

There are others too, such as El Bono and the Euro Millions. With the current pounds to euros exchange rate and the quietness here it is causing, a win would be much appreciated!

Checking Your Numbers

I check the La Primitiva results here and you can click on "ver" which means "see". Alternatively you can go to the lottery shop where you got the ticket to check the numbers. You can probably watch the draw live but I don't watch Spanish TV so I wouldn't know! I have my fingers crossed for tomorrow night though... I have 6 lines... maybe a hat trick for me!