Exotic island adventures!

Before I get started on this epically photo-filled 50th blog post, I would just like to point out that I have successfully narrowed my photo count of this 2.5 day journey from about a thousand down to 437. Yay!

[*EDIT* I KNOW there are several html and photo spacing problems in this post. They're far too tedious to fix and I'm tired. Blogger hates me. Please forgive.]

So. Mallorca! Sarah and I safely arrived in Palma at about 10.30pm on Sunday the 14th. We somehow ended up surrounded by families with many small children on the flight over, which was sometimes adorable and sometimes not. Actually, mostly not because it was after their bedtime, but whatever. One cute moment happened when we landed and the kid at the window in front of us looked out at the light colored tarmac and asked his parents if it was snow. No, dear, just no.

We missed the last bus by a few minutes and had to take a cab to the other side of the city where our hostel was, which was pricey but extremely smooth and convenient. The hostel itself was surprisingly fantastic. For only 16 euro a night, Sarah and I had ourselves a clean, private room and bathroom with a wonderful shower, towels, bedding, free breakfast, fun and helpful conversations with the cheery British owners, basically everything we needed. Thank goodness for that.

Monday was supposed to be rainy all day, so Sarah and I took a bus to the other side of the island to explore a big cave there, Cuevas del Drach, which I believe translates into CAVERN OF THE DRAGON DUN DUN DUN! Well, maybe without the dun dun dun. I always enjoy exploring subterranean playgrounds of stalactites and stalagmites, though I fear my visit to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico this summer set the bar too high as far impressiveness goes. However, the climax of the adventure came with a classical concert played by musicians being rowed around a huge underground lake in illuminated rowboats, after which WE got to ride in the boats. The presentation was a little cheesy, but the concept? AWESOME! How many people can say they've had a boat ride on a subterranean lake? Photos were strictly prohibited, but I... accidentally discovered one on my camera later. I wonder how that got there. Hm.

We hung out in the somewhat run-down town of Porto Cristo for a while while awaiting the bus to return us to Palma, during which we went to find ice cream and instead found that asking for the "frutas del tiempo" (please forgive my Spanish failures) meant exactly what it said as we each received a plate upon which was an apple, an orange, and a kiwi. Just for the record, I have never eaten a more irresistibly delicious orange. We had another food adventure that evening while trying to find an open restaurant in the rain in a dead part of town. Finally we gave up and went to the local bar across the street from the hostel. I didn't know what any of the food options on the chalkboard were, so asked Sarah to get me something fish. A fish is what I got, head, eyes, tail, scales, all that good stuff. I tend to really enjoy fish, but had just never eaten one that still resembled its original form before. The little old manager kept coming over to talk to us in a mixture of Spanish and German and I got the impression that he didn't think I would eat it. I showed him!

It was actually wonderfully scrumptious, cooked in with an orange stuck inside it with lots of yummy flavorings. Sarah ate a quarter of a chicken. The waiter was impressed. Then he brought us shots of some syrupy pink alcohol tasted like anis seed. It was a cultural experience!
Tuesday's weather looked much nicer, so Sarah and I decided to take a vintage train ride to the mountain town of Sóller. The sea outside the hostel looked lovely.The hostel staff gave us a neat tip about the train, being that if we went to the front there was a car with squishy couches and things that we could sit in rather than the uncomfortable wooden benches in the rest of the train. Scooore.

The ride up into the mountains was gorgeous. There were lots of little villages surrounded by orchards in bloom, the sun was shining, and all was well in the world...

...until some guy accidentally closed my thumb in the door while I was standing on the platform between the two cars to take a picture. I pulled it out and thought, "Oh, that's inconvenient" at the sight of my purple thumbnail, then lost most of my vision and hearing as the pain hit and I found myself trying to stay conscious to avoid falling off the open platform of the moving train. Maybe it's a little sad that I was trying not to faint in an effort to save my camera before myself, but it was true nonetheless. I finally made it back into the car after clutching the wall outside for a while and freaked out poor Sarah with my dysfunctional state. The adorable chubby German woman next to me noticed something was wrong and offered me some cooling spray. She was surprised when we started speaking German with her. It was sweet. Once we arrived in Sóller, Sarah took me to a pharmacy and used her great knowledge of Spanish wound vocabulary to procure me some ibuprofen gel. I would post a picture of the lovely colors and swollen-ness of my thumb, but that would be gross. : )



After that there was nothing left to do but enjoy our day! And what a day. We first explored Sóller's cute central square and church before settling in to an outdoor cafe for tea and paella. I was particularly amused by the cat that came to beg at our table at the arrival of our delicious rice and sea creature dishes. I always assumed that cats had too much dignity to beg.







Once fully satiated, we began our hike up to the mountain village of Fornalutx, which is said to be one of the most beautiful villages in all of Spain. First we had to exit Sóller via its little winding streets and alleyways.
We were delighted to see that the town was surrounded by voluptuous orange and lemon orchards and hundreds of olive groves in full bloom. These lovely visions of spring in February made our spirits soar after so many months of cold German winter, particularly with huge mountains in the background.






It was only a few kilometers to Fornalutx, but we took our time as each stretch was more beautiful than the last. The village itself really was that beautiful - a curvy maze of stone and happy foliage with hidden staircases and incredible views the higher you climbed. There were a few other tourists, but not many. The village was sleepy and quiet in the warm afternoon sun. The residents must have been taking their afternoon siesta, though this cat we came across had the best siesta spot of them all. I shudder to think of how tourist-infested it must be in the summer.


 

Clear sunny skies, clouds blowing over dramatic mountain peaks, babbling brooks, blooming orchards, clucking chickens, and even fleecy sheepies!

On our way back to Sóller, we were amused by this interesting flocking of chickens, roosters, turkeys, and geese under the orange trees.

Then they all came over and begged us to feed their bird bellies and their vanity.

We finally made our way back down to Sóller where we located the local ice cream shop and gave them lots of business. Our next adventure involved trying to locate the bus back to Palma. All the maps we had seen were not helpful on this front and poor Sarah was forced to perfect her travel help vocabulary as she asked many different locals for aid. After finally finding the stop, we realized that we had taken a much more complicated route than was necessary, but we got there on time and that's what counted. The bus ride itself was incredible. We drove up tiny winding roads over mountain cliffs up and up until we reached the peak and all of the Mediterranean at sunset appeared before us. We drove through other mountain villages in the pink evening light, past little clifftop monasteries, and then back down to Palma's flat urban sprawl.
We spent the next couple hours wandering around Palma trying to locate a restaurant for dinner and when we still hadn't found anything open at 9pm, we ended up in a cafe type place for tea and decadent hot chocolate, which was very similar to the pudding-like hot chocolate in Prague. The kind you have to eat with a spoon because it's just that thick and rich. Full and sweet, but not too sweet. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Sarah also managed to get a couple sandwiches from the cute little elderly waitress, who chatted with Sarah about our stay in Mallorca. She was very sweet and brought us two gigantic oranges as we were leaving because we looked sad and she didn't want us to have a bad time in Mallorca. She didn't say that specifically, but that's what we figured.

The next day was equally sunny and delightful. After checking out of the hostel, we wandered around more little winding streets in the old part of Palma for a while.



One attraction we visited in the the old part of the city were the Arabic Baths, which are estimated to have been built in the 10th century and are the last remaining sign of the ancient Islamic traditions on the island. Neat!











Still having some time before having to be at the airport, we enjoyed our sympathy oranges in the sun by the seaside. Then we found picnic food at a grocery store and took the bus back to the airport for our late afternoon flight back to the frigid north. We had flown into Mallorca at night, so I was happy that we got to fly out of in when there was still sun. We noticed clouds gathering over the little island as we flew over it, which eased the parting somewhat. I for one still felt like crying when we stepped off the plane to sub-freezing temperatures back in Deutschland. That's what we get, I suppose.



 


We got home safely and survived the cold back to our respective dorms. I was annoyed to wake up the next morning with a nasty cold and had to go to the doctor pronto as my thumb had only worsened. The cheery doc told me that it wasn't broken, thank goodness, but he did end up [[SKIP TO THE END BRACKETS IF YOU DON'T WANT THE AWESOME DETAILS: boring a little hole into the middle of my thumbnail so that the blood could come spurting out. Like a fountain. IT WAS SO COOL!!!]] ...fixing it to the best of his extent.

After that I had to jump back into organizing my Blumberg trip, as I'd heard back from a lot of the host families in my absence. Most of them said they'd be happy to host me, though I had to find replacements for a couple that were busy. I still haven't heard back from everyone yet but have a good start. The first family I was hoping to stay with (Starting tomorrow) was unable to host me, so I made the executive decision to postpone my departure for two days until Monday. I was even more relieved to have made this decision after the sickness in my face woke me up this morning with a vengeance. Hopefully that will take care of itself, as I am not in the possession of any medical aid. Oh, well. I just spent three glorious days in Spain!

Please excuse any typos. Usually I reread these things before I post them, but now it's siesta time.