Palma de Mallorca, Spain

This last weekend, I traveled to the beautiful, Spanish island of Palma de Mallorca with Dan and Lauren.  The island is well known in Europe for being a popular tourist destination (especially for the Germans and the English) and I have really always wanted to go there.  It is located off the western coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea.  This trip just fell into our laps as we were looking for cheap flights and found roundtrip tickets to Palma for around $50, which we could not pass up!  It was a refreshing change of pace, since for the past several weekends we have been taking incredible, but somewhat stressful, trips to various cities around Europe and getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of touring and traveling.  Mallorca was more vacation-like with a just quick 90 minute flight from Madrid, along with a warmer, beach destination to call home for 3 days.  We were able to forego a bunch of "obligatory" sightseeing and focus on exactly what we wanted to do and see!

The Island of Mallorca 

On Thursday afternoon, with our discount Ryanair plane tickets in hand and our backpacks full of beachy clothes, the three of us made the now routine trek from the city of Madrid out to the airport via the metro system.  We sailed through security and landed at our new-found favorite airport watering hole of a large, pre-flight San Miguel beer.  Ryanair would be like the crappier version of Southwest in the US -- very low prices, free-for-all seat assignments, and additional fees for everything, and non-stop advertisements and solicitation during the nerve-racking flight.  I am a pretty relaxed flier, but the roller coaster ride to Mallorca put me on edge and nearly sent white-knuckled Dan face-first into the barf bag.  After a rough landing on the island and a long and slow bus ride into downtown Palma, we were getting closer and closer to our Hotel Dalí.  I had booked the place online due to its price and had no idea what to expect or where to find it.  We encountered a super-friendly, older lady on the bus who offered us some recommendations for the island and gave me three croissants from her purse for me and my "amigos".  After making it to the hotel's area by bus and walking around for 45 minutes, we happened upon the Hotel Dalí and checked in.  I already didn't trust the receptionist, since on the phone he had told me he didn't speak English and instructed us to get off the bus about 3 stops away from the actual hotel, then upon checking in he turned out to be British and requested all the payment upfront.  Desptite feeling cornered and pissed off, we payed the bill and made out way up to the three person room, only to be shocked at how nice it was, complete with free breakfast, a modern bathroom, balcony and (distant) ocean view -- all for only 60 euros a night! We ate dinner at a little Italian place near our hotel and then got some beers to enjoy on our balcony before calling it a night.

On Friday morning, we put a dent in the free breakfast buffet, then headed back to to the airport to rent a car, per the recommendation of Bettina (who has traveled to Mallorca several times) and multiple travel websites.  The car rentals are relatively cheap on Mallorca and offer much more flexibility and freedom to explore the island.  The three of us split up to find the best deal on an automatic, small car and ultimately settled on Goldcar, which offered us a nice, blue, Ford Focus - perfect for the Americans.  We were so excited to drive for the first time in months, but equally as nervous to drive in a foreign country with the confusing metric system, odd road markings and vicious drivers.  Needless to say, we made it to south east coast with Lauren behind the wheel, just in time to catch a perfect afternoon on Es Trenc beach.  We caught the tail end of the high-season and the weather was borderline beach-appropriate, so it was hot in the sun and cold in the shade, but we enjoyed relaxing in the sand and Dan even braved the cold ocean water.  We had lunch and sangria at the beach restaurant, then another little siesta, before heading back home to the hotel to regroup for the evening.  We planned to eat dinner downtown, so we got dressed and I drove us through the city to the historic center of Palma.  We did some sight seeing at the awesome, gothic cathedral and old streets, then settled on a unique Spanish Tapas place for dinner.  It was great!  We all chose various small dishes, "pinchos," and split larger ones, "raciones." I took the waitress' suggestion of one pincho, the Gulas and Cangrejo Gratin.  I knew cangrejo meant crab, but the rest I was willing to risk.  When it arrived, I tasted delicious, but contained these strangely colored, noodle-looking things, which I had to ask the waitress about.  After our discussion and some consultation with my dictionary, I learned that gulas were young eels and I had had basically multiple mouthfuls of little baby snakes.  ugh... luckily, I had a whole glass of Rijoa red wine to wash it down and help laugh it off!

Dan and Lauren with our Ford Focus

El Trenc

Gothic Cathedral of Palma

Las Gulas, Young Eels

We decided to beach it again on Saturday, since there was relatively nice weather and we figured we should get all that we could.  We chose a small, secluded beach in Portals Nous, really near our hotel.  After driving there, walked down a rocky cliffside and set up camp on the beach.  Lauren and I went straight to the siesta-ing, while Dan proceeded to play in the ocean and roll around in the sand like a little child.  He ended up "building" a huge hole (castle) in the sand, covered himself from head to toe in sand (which later ended up in the Ford Focus) and successfully attracted every little kid on the beach to trample around our area.  Luckily Lauren and I found a nice beach bar with Coronas to keep us happy until play-time ended.  We packed up and headed to the yacht harbor of Portals Nous for lunch.  I check out the Tahini Sushi restaurant, which was another recommendation of Bettina's, but didn't quick fall within our budget... so, among the multi-million dollar yachts, Louie Vuitton luggage and Range Rovers of the harbor, we settled on a pizza joint and split a big, delicious pizza, before returning to the car to move on.  Our next stop was the further south town of Magalouf.  It it much larger and more commercialized, but had a really big and deserted beach.  We assume since it was later in the day and beginning to cool off, most people had headed in.  We had the beach to ourselves and relaxed there for about another hour.  For dinner, we returned to Palma and due tot he disappointment of Tahini Sushi, we scoured the town for a more affordable sushi place.  We put our name on the list at Wasabi Sushi, had a beer while we waited and ate another great meal!  It had begun to rain pretty hard in Palma, so after misplacing the car for about 25 minutes, we made it home to watch some American TV for the first time since being here and went to bed.

Portals Nous

Dan and his friend

Sunday was our final day on the island, so we decided that since the weather was cooler and wetter, we would take a road-trip around the island to tour a little before having to leave.  We began with the highly recommended, picturesque village of Sóller.  Dan drove there and after getting screwed by an unexpected 4.50 euro fare to use a stupid tunnel into the city, we made it to the port.  It was breathtaking!  A quaint little town, surrounded by mountains, with a bustling harbor lined with cafés and restaurants.  We walked around the harbor, took some pictures of the ocean views and then stopped into an outdoor restaurant for a pitcher of sangria and some hamburgers for lunch.  Filled up, we left Sóller to head down the western coast to the town of Port Andratx.  The drive took over two hours (little did we know), but it turned out to be beautiful with winding, cliffside roads and incredible ocean views.  We were able to stop along the way for photo-ops and interesting sights.  We made it to Port Andratx, toured the streets with beautiful homes and walked down the piers of the harbor, loaded with mega-yachts.  It began to rain once again, so we sought shelter in a cafe for some cheap sandwiches and dessert, before heading back home to Hotel Dalí.

Sóller, Mallorca

My favorite photo of the weekend... 

Oceanside Drive

Port Andratx

We had to wake up this morning at 3:30 to drive to the airport and return the rental car before flying out at 6:30.  We landed in Madrid before 8, but were delayed taxying by really thick fog in the city and then delayed again by metro system strikes, which caused disrupted transportation service throughout the city and people backed up by the hundreds at many stops!  Once home, I hit the hay for another couple hours before going to class at 2 this afternoon.  I have no upcoming travel plans for this week, but am happy to be back in Madrid, refreshed after a wonderful weekend on the beach in Palma.  I cannot wait to return there again someday!