Mallorca <3

Hey Everybody!

Well I'm back from Mallorca and it was beautiful! Couldn't have asked for a more relaxing holiday.

Our journey started by catching the train to Barcelona. Steph and I were on a mission: to find paella for dinner. Despite paella being a traditional Spanish dish, we have yet to find a place that serves it in Vic. So when we come to Barcelona, it's time to break the bank on it. After we had paella, we realized that we still had a solid 10 hours to kill before I plane left at 7 am, which meant 8 hours until we could even check in at the airport! Since it was Thursday night, there wasn't a lot to do and we were carrying our luggage as well so we decided to go to Starbucks and spend as much time as we could there before leaving. (Going to Starbucks is also a must when in Barcelona!) After Starbucks kicked us out (not literally!), we had to figure out how to the aiport: train or bus? We decided on bus because it would take longer. Turns out it was cheaper too! It worked out well because we also got to see different parts of Barcelona that we hadn't explored yet. We had fun on the bus actually and time went by kind of quickly so Steph thought she'd ask if we could just continue to ride the bus for a few more loops. Seemed like a good idea for us but the driver told us we'd have to keep paying so naturally, we choose to save our money and crash at the airport the next 7 hours. We set up camp by a 24-hour food store and made a huge mess! In the beginning it was kind of funny and we weren't all that tired.

By 3 am, we were both beat and could barely keep our eyes open. We both can say we will try not to ever do that again. Anyway, once we were able to check in, we found some decently comfortable benches and had a nap before we caught our plane. I didn't sleep as much as I would've liked to but I was scared that we'd miss our plane. But anyway, we made it to Mallorca at 730 am (yes only a 30 min. flight!) After navigating the public transit to our hotel, we were finally there and checked in! Vacation had begun!

Our hotel was really nice. It sat right on the beach and all you had to do was walk out the doors and you could see the Mediterranean Sea. Our room was nice with a view over the hotel pool. But the best part of our hotel... breakfast buffet and dinner buffet! All included in our room price. And the buffet, well, it was amazing. All kinds of food. After checking in on our first day, we realized that we were in time for breakfast. We definitely took advantage of it! After we were done, we threw on our swimsuits and headed down to the beach. It was 10 am and it was already hot! We were so tired, yet sleeping in the sun was something neither of us could do. I went swimming, Steph's from Florida and used to bath temperature waters so it was too cold for her. Neither of us was wearing a watch but time went by slow that day. We thought we were packing it in around 5 or so. Turns out it was around 2 but we didn't realize this until we were all showered and ready to explore town a bit.

We were in a small town called Santa Ponca (pronounced Santa Ponsa). I don't quite know how to describe it. It was beautiful but it didn't feel like I was in Spain anymore. The whole community was English speaking. Even store owners had British accents and when we spoke Spanish to them, they would reply in English. The town definitely didn't have a Spanish feel to it at all. Either way, it was still amazing to be there. We ended up finding this one street that was pubs galore. All Irish and English patio pubs. Also mixed in were tons of souvenir shops. As time went on there, Santa Ponca turned out to be a really nice place and we had a great time.

Now to tell you about our dinner experience... Our first night, Steph and I went down for dinner at 7 pm and when we looked around, we realized that we were the only young people in the entire dining room. The only other people that were younger than us, were children no older than 8. We realized that we'd checked ourselves into pretty much an old folks home (not that we minded that much, we were there for a relaxing holiday anyway). It was just surprising. We were told later that the month of May and October are the months where no young people visit, its almost always an older crowd. We made a mental note for next time. Anyway, we'd been up all night and all day and we're exhausted. After dinner, I decided to go for a walk around Santa Ponca and ended up way far away from our hotel. It was a nice walk though. It is a pretty town. I got back to the hotel and went straight to bed. The next morning Steph and I joked about how we were the first people to go to sleep in our "old folks home" as there was entertainment the night before that almost everyone went to.

The next day, we got up in time for breakfast and decided to sit by the pool today and just kind of chill out and relax some more. We didn't do too much the second day but during the night, we decided to rent a car for the next day and explore another part of Mallorca that wasn't too far away.

We left the next day around 1 pm and drove 15 minutes to another beach that wasn't too touristy. It turns out that there were a couple of little beaches there. One was quite busy so we decided to carry on to the next one. We had to hike along the rocks and the water. It was a really nice walk actually. But as we were about to come down from the rocks to the next beach, we realized that it was more of a nude beach!!! But I guess we are in Europe! We went and sat on the beach but didn't participate in the nudity, a little too out there for us.

We had a great day driving around. It was nice to not just be limited to staying around the hotel.

Our last day there was spent laying by the pool all day! The only time I moved was from my lounger to the pool and back to the lounger. I definitely got the most sun on the last day! But no sunburns for me!

Anyway, since my blog won't let me write captions on my pictures, I will post pictures from Mallorca on a separate posting!

Until next time...