Well, my second week-long Spring Break is coming to a close, so it's finally time to get back to blogging. I have resolved that I am going to update my blog at least two days a week until I leave, but hopefully more. I will be heading home seven weeks from today! It seems like I have a lot of time left, because most people from my program have already left (since I am taking my classes with Spaniards, my semester is longer), but I bet I'm going to look back seven weeks from now marveled at how it all flew by.
I started out my break with a trip to Mallorca with my two abroad besties Caela and Luisa. We had been looking forward to this trip for what seems like ages, so when it finally came last Thursday, we were pretty ready for a weekend of relaxing on the beach.
We arrived to Palma, Mallorca's capital and biggest city, on Thursday night. We headed over to our awesome airbnb apartment and then got a late dinner consisting of some delicious flatbread pizzas.
After our first night of rest, we woke up and decided that since Friday was pretty cloudy and cool, we would make it a day of sight seeing around the city. We were all pretty impressed with Palma. It has a very "high end," trendy vibe. It is a huge travel destination for Germans, which was very apparent from our first night in Mallorca.
Our first stop, after grabbing a light breakfast at a cool, "hipster" coffee shop, was the cathedral. The cathedral was huge and beautiful, with some artistic contributions from Gaudi. What made it unique from the hundreds of grand cathedrals around Europe, though, was that it is situated right next to the turquoise water of the Mediterranean. (The last picture in this post shows a view from the water)
We took some time to soak in the sun that peaked through the clouds for a while as we sat in between the cathedral and the sea. The rest of our day included lots of walking around the city, with stops at the Contemporary Art Museum and at a yummy tapas restaurant, where the highlight for all three of us was the mini hamburgers!
After another great dinner out at a champagne bar with lots of charcuterie plates, we rested up for our first day at the beach! On Saturday, we decided to take a little trip out to Cala Mayor, a beach just 20 minutes west of Palma. My amazing Spanish friend, Luisa, is always on top of things, and her Mallorca research did not dissapoint. Cala Mayor was just just incredible. The water was a clear turquoise with soft white sand. The company was very... European? There were lots of topless women and men in tiny speedos, but, hey, when in Mallorca?
On Saturday night we made a nice family dinner in our apartment--one of the many perks we enjoyed in our place! Although it was a bit more expensive than a hostel, it more than made up for it in what we saved making breakfast and packing lunches for the beach every day. We finished off a bottle and a half of wine and got some ice cream from the place on our street.
Sunday was our last full day in Mallorca, and we decided to take a farther excursion to Porto Cristo, a small village on the Eastern side of the island. The weather wasn't quite as nice as the day before, but we still enjoyed a long day at the beach with naps, books, and a picnic.
We also took some time to walk around the town a bit. There were lots of gorgeous homes and properties with views to die for...
We enjoyed a nice dinner out with more drinks and wine, of course, for our last night. I had another delicious flatbread pizza that I want to recreate some day. It had pancetta, a fried egg, lime, and more things that I'm trying to remember...
For our last day we did our very best to get up early to spend our last few hours at the beach before our flight at 4:30. We opted for the nearby Palma beach, which was only about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the city beach. It obviously provided a great background for some photos, which we took full advantage of.
See the cathedral right there?
One Ryanair flight later, we were back in Sevilla and ready to take on a week of the Feria de Abril! I will be posting about Feria tomorrow, so stay tuned!
A
