When I went to Gran Canaria for the first time many years ago, without knowing what to expect, it was a very spontaneous plan, just to get away from it all for a while. It didn’t take long, and I met a group of guys around my age on the very first day at the beach. Like old friends, we did many things together, a trip to Las Palmas on the second day among others.
While we were wandering around the streets, planning to plunge into the nightlife, we talked a lot and laughed so much. At some point, at the crossroad, as the traffic light was about to turn from green to red, I hurried to cross the street, while continuing my story. When I looked up, I found myself looking into unfamiliar eyes, beaming at me. Someone else was standing in front of me, my friends were still on the other side of the street.
At first, I tried to talk in German to him, but no chance. He tried to speak in Spanish to me, no chance. Then I tried English, still no chance. So he tried French and again, no chance. But already at that moment, it was clear that we understand each other even without words.
My friends joined me and we moved on to the “molino rojo”, without the bewitching stranger. But so it happened that we bumped into each other again there and maintained eye contact for the entire night.
When I went home with my friends, he briefly came to me whisper an Adiós into my ear.
For the remaining ten days of the vacation, I was under the mysterious stranger’s spell, there was no other man as fascinating to me as him. It was obvious: “love at first sight!” I could not stop thinking about him until my last evening on Gran Canaria, when suddenly a Spanish guy approached me and made it more than clear to me that I had to go over to the bar with him. So I went along.
And there he was: Miguel, the guy from the traffic light, whom I just couldn’t get out of my head. His friend, who brought me to the bar, helped us out as a translator, and explained to me that they had been searching the island for me for days! After a while, we didn’t even need translation any longer, because words were just of minor importance later on. The next morning, Miguel took me to the airport and we stayed in touch for quite a long time afterward, until we lost sight of each other due to changing houses several times.
But one thing is certain, it does exist and it happens when and where you least expect it: love at first sight!