Me and eight other kids decided to spend a weekend in Palma, Mallorca! We left Friday morning and got back Sunday night, so we had plenty of time to explore. Palma is the capital of the Balearic Islands and is located on the biggest island, Mallorca.
Let me just complain a bit. So we flew RyanAir because it was by far the cheapest option. I think the round-trip flight and the hostel for two nights cost me a little over $100. However because RyanAir charges practically nothing, they feel the need to be really obnoxious with everything else. For one, their website is a mess. They also send you like 56 emails between the time you buy your ticket and the day you leave. You can only take one bag on the plane and it has to have pretty much nothing in it. If you want to check a bag, it's an extra 60 euros. If you don't have your boarding pass printed out, its an extra 60 euros. I don't understand that fee but what really annoyed me is that the non-EU citizens had to go to the RyanAir check-in counter and have their boarding pass stamped. I thought the whole point of already having your boarding pass was to avoid the check-in counter completely but apparently not. Thank god I didn't have to do it because it just would've put me into a bad mood lol.
If that didn't already put me in a bad mood, the weather report for the weekend definitely did. It was supposed to rain Friday and Saturday and then possibly on Sunday. So we were really looking forward to a really wet weekend. When I told my host parents what the weather was supposed to be like, told me we were dumb to go to Mallorca and that we should've picked the Canary Islands haha. Anyway, we learned that Spanish meteorologists are just as bad as the Americans! It rained for an hour or so on Friday and then didn't rain again until Sunday!
After arriving late thanks to our wonderful friends at RyanAir and taking a couple buses from the airport, we finally checked into our hostal, the Hostal Ritzi. Although everything was a little old and there wasn't really hot water, it was an awesome place to stay. Allan and I got a pretty big room on the top floor which was awesome...except that it was on the top floor. So we had to walk up like 5 flights of steps to get to the room. Not cool lol. After settling into the hostal and using the internet for a bit, we decided to go out and explore Palma. It's actually a pretty neat town. There are ice cream shops everywhere, so its safe to say that we all spent a good amount on ice cream :) And Palma has their own Plaza (actually plaça in stupid Catalan) Mayor! Not really exciting but it was there haha. The cathedral and palace right next door was pretty awesome though. One thing I will never understand about Spain is why you have to pay to get into the churches. I love seeing all the different cathedrals in the cities I go to, but I'm not about to pay 6 euros to get in. A donation, maybe. But not an entrance fee. That's dumb. So we decided to pay 4 euros to get into the Palace of La Almudaina. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside but it was pretty interesting. Another site that was used by Moorish and Christian kings.
Plaza Mayor! |
Cathedral! |
The palace and cathedral |
Mallorca was pretty awesome. I got to see yet another place in Spain that I hadn't been to before, I got to spend a weekend with some awesome friends and I even met new friends. I love those kind of trips. Especially when the weather was as great as it was, for the most part haha. The one thing that surprised me about Mallorca is how...international it is. Everyone speaks Spanish, Catalan and at least either English or German because there are Germans EVERYWHERE. It was crazy. I mean even signs and stuff were in German. It was kind of weird but hey, they need a warm beach to go to too right? Anyway, I think it's safe to say I had a wonderful time and I'd love to go back. But maybe I'll try the Canary Islands first :) Haha.
On another note; I've been getting kinda homesick lately. I'm loving it here but I'm starting to want to go home too, which I never thought would happen. I miss my family, my puppies and my awesome girlfriend Millie. Can't wait to see them all again. Less than two months!
Hasta la próxima!