Mallorca

So Monday 21 July we got up really early and walked to the airport. My flight left at 6:50 or something like that so it was a really early morning. Our little group was Rosa, Toni, Alicia and me. Rosa and I waited in the long line and checked in, and then Toni and Alicia went to see if they could hitchhike with our plane there, since that is what pilots and flight attendants do. Thankfully they could and we all went to Mallorca. We got there and Toni drove us to Petra, the birthplace of the founder of California. I didn't know who the founder of California was so he told me Fray Junipero Serra. I was shocked!! Father Serra was also the founder of several California Missions, including the Carmel Mission, which I had visited, studied, built a model of, and written a report about! And I remembered. I was really excited to be visiting his hometown. We were going to eat breakfast there, but unfortunatly it was the morning after an all night party for the town so everything was closed. We walked around a bit, saw a famous church, where supposedly on the inside has all the cities and saints of California in order, example, San Diego to San Francisco. It was closed as was the house and museum where he was born and another church. Apart from everything being closed, my experience was slightly ruined by Alicia and Rosa, who could care less about podunk pueblos, but I really liked it and thanked Toni for taking me there. Then we stopped to eat breakfast at a truck stop place and had the typical island breakfast, Pamboli. Pamboli is several large slices of bread with tomato, pickled vegetables and your choice of toppings. I had good ham and cheese. It was delicious! I also loved hearing Toni speak Mallorquin, the dialect used there, which we would hear all throughout the trip. Then we stopped and bought a melon and headed to Toni's house. It was a really nice house in a great location in another pueblo, La Colonia de San Jordi. He is in the process of remodeling and fixing it up, as it it his secondary home, so Alicia and he started to clean and put things together. Rosa and I went to the store and got water and few other things, and then while they were cleanign we fells asleep for a nap. Around lunchtime we woke up and we went to get lunch. Then we went to a beach, which was really nice. The beaches in Mallorca had white sand and the wather was really warm. It was great for swimming and playing around. Also behind you, there was nature, bushes and trees, a change from the buildings typical to other parts of Spain. So after a bit on the beach we headed home and Toni and Alicia showered. They had to head back to Madrid (hitchhiking on another plane) to work the next day and left. Rosa and I then showered, ate dinner, watched tv and went to bed.

Tuesday 22 July I woke as someone rang the doorbell and came into the house. Turns out it was the painter, who was under the impression there was no one there. He felt horrible, but I told him not to worry and to continue with his work. I went for a run, went to the store and bought some cereal and milk and came home and ate breakfast. Rosa finally woke up and we went to the port to reserve our tickets to Cabrerra the next day. Then we walked to the beach and were there for a while. Mallorca has a high population of Germany tourists, and two little German boys came up to me and said something to me in German. I told them I didn't speak German and they proceeded to stare at us the rest of the day. Rosa and I tried to play paddle ball, but we're both horrible. Then after a bit we went home and bought something for lunch at the store. The painter came back and we headed back to the beach. On the way home, we stopped in a few shops, got home, showered and went to bed. Things were going well with Rosa. It was strange to be on vacation with someone I barely knew, but we got along well enough, despite a few differences in what we wanted to do.

Wednesday 23 July we got up early and headed to the port to go on our trip to Cabrerra. Cabrerra is an island off Mallorca that is part of a National/Natural Park. You can only go on these special trips and so we headed off at 8 or so. When we got there, the first thing we did was head up to an old castle, used for Moorish defense. It was a difficult walk in flip flops, including towels, water and food, but we made it and there were pretty views from there. One thing that was cool was seeing a ton of Baleric Lizards. These were little black lizzards native to the Baleric Islands, and since there were no cats or predators in the National Park, there were tons of them! Then we went and headed to the beach. I got bored after a while and headed up to a museum about the island, and a monument to the French people who died there. The island had a long history of different uses, from farming, to wars. One of the things I was really looking forward to was a snorkeling tour, where they gave you a waterproof MP3 player. The tour was cancelled for the day and when I got back to the beach, Rosa was out snorkelling. She got back and we ate lunch and she went out snorkelling again. We only had 1 snorkel to share, which was a little frustrating. When she got back I went out and discovered that there were underwater signs for a self guided tour. There were 5 or so big signs that were placed in different areas and described the different types of sea life that lived there. It was getting close to the time we had to leave so I swam really fast to see all the signs and get back. It was a little freaky because I was by myself, and in Mallorca there is a lot of seagrass, so at some parts I was almost touching it, which is always kinda freaky. So I saw the whole tour and booked it back, which was not the best idea because I had just eaten. I started feeling sick about halfway back, but forced myself not to barf because I didn't want fish to come and attack me to eat my barf. I finally made it back and we rested a bit before packing up and going back to the boat. I never threw up, but felt sick. On the way back, the boat stopped at the Blue Cave. It is this cave on the side of the island that for some reason the water is a deep, rich blue color. The boat stopped there a while and let people jump off and swim if they wanted. It was amazing and such a neat experience. I snorkeled a bit there too and got back in the boat. Then we headed back to town and back home. There were 2 guys on the boat staring at Rosa, who is a little boy crazy, and I tried to get her to talk to them, but she was too afraid. At home we showered and took naps and then went out and shopped a bit. I bought a magnet for the pueblo we were in and we talked as we walked around the walkway that takes you from he beach to the port. Then back at home we fixed dinner, watched Ever After on tv and Alicia called us to say that she was coming to suprise us. I made dinner for her and she got there late. We chatted for a bit and watched tv and then all went to bed.

Thursday 24 July we woke up and packed sandwiches to go to another special beach. It was a protected beach where you could only drive there if you were from the pueblo or walk about an hour there. So we trekked to the beach and laid out, swam and played paddle ball. All of a sudden it started to rain. So we frantically grabbed all our stuff and huddled under a sign that had a tiny roof on it. Just as suddenly as it got cloudly and started to rain, it stopped and the sun came out. By that time we were upset and didn't want to set camp up again, so we ate under the sign, packed up and headed home. On the way home I stopped by the aquarium which was really cool. Rosa and Alicia didn't want to go, and they had been getting on my nerves by calling me gitana all week, which means gypsy, and translated culturally, something like thug. Apparently they think I have a low cultural level and find it hilarious to call me on it. Anyway, I enjoyed the aquarium and a break from the girls. Then I got home and showered and we got all ready and dressed up to go out. We were going to go to Palma, the capital, which I wanted to do to visit the cathedral and see some of the sights there. I knew they just watned to go to party but I figured I could at least see it. So they other girls finally got ready and we all headed out, Alicia driving Toni's new car he just bought from his Aunt 2 weeks ago. The radio was blasting Kylie Minogue and Alicia was pulling out onto a street, when I noticed a green box car coming towards us. I said, the Spanish equivilant of "Oh crap!" as I watched in slow motion the car crash into us. The car hit our passenger side front bumper and spun us around 90 degrees. It was scary but no one was hurt and Alicia instantly started crying hysterically. As in most small towns, there were quite a few passserbys and people looking on. One of which told us to shut off the car and get out in case in exploded, which we did. Apparently Alicia had turned the wrong way down a 1 way street and therefore didn't see the non-existant signs that should have told her not to pull out into the street. People were so nice and comforting telling her that she ran the stop sign, and then when they figured out what she really did, telling her that. It really is strange how rude and dumb people can be when they feel like they have to share their opinion. Then we waited for the police to come, Alicia all the while in hysterics, with no chance of calming her down. So began the event of the rest of the evening, and ruined our trip to Palma. The police came, Alicia had to call Toni, who was on horseback riding trip in the mountains of Colombia and wouldn't be back to the hotel for several hours. It was a huge mess because the police filled out the forms as Alicia driving Toni's car, and the other driver driving his brother's car. My favorite part of that was Alicia asking Toni, who she has been dating for about 6 months if his name was Toni, Antonio or Antoni, because she didn't know. A close second favorite part was when she had to fill out the liscence plate number for the car. She didn't know it, so I went over and picked the liscence plate off the ground and brought it over to her for her reference. I could only laugh because it didn't happen to me. After everything was taken care of Alicia called the guy to see if they could fill out more forms putting Toni as the driver and the brother if the wanted. So we sat in a cafe and waited for Toni to get back to the hotel, to figure out how to tow the car without using his insurance's towing service, since they couldn't have Alicia tow the car for an accident Toni had while he was in Colombia. She also has barely met his parents or family, so didn't want to call them to help because that would be too embarassing. So finally, his sister just happened to walk by, and she called her mom, who arranged for a tow truck to come. It finally did, and towed the piece of mangled metal that used to be Toni's car to the mechanic. Then we went and ate dinner at an Italian resturant, where the waitress spoke to us in German. Then we stopped by an internet cafe so Alicia could print up pages to fill out other reports fro the next day. Back at home, I packed up and got everything ready to leave early in the morning. Now that we didn't have a car to take us to the airport, we were going to have to take a bus to Palma, and then to the airport. Thankfully Toni's parents offered to take us to the airport, so we had time to do stuff during the day. We finally went to bed.

Friday 25 July, I still got up early because I wanted to go running. I did so, ate breakfast, showered, and got everythign packed up. Then Rosa and I went to the port and I bought a magnet for Mallorca, then we bought a bottle of water, which was more expensive because it was cold and walked to another store where I bought some shoes. They are red and the typical sandals of the islands. Then we came home and watched tv while Alicia tried to sort out her life. Turns out the other guy couldn't meet to sign the paperwork so she was going to have to stay behind and work everythign out. Toni's parent's convinced her otherwise and took us all to the airport. We checked in and ate an expensive airport lunch. Another great part of the morning was that Rosa woke up with a small bite on her eyelid, that made her whole eye swell up. Throughout the day her face kept getting bigger and more swollen. Our flight was really late taking off which at first I wasn't worried about because I had almost 2 hours to make my connecting flight. Turns out I got there pretty late and after asking, I found I had to go halfway across the airport to my gate, which was already boarding. I said a hurried goodbye to Rosa who now looked like Sloth from the Goonies and ran to find my gate. Alicia was able to come back to Madrid with us and was also trying to take my flight to Las Palmas for Magdalena's birthday. She got denied because the jerk pilot said he didn't take flight attendants from other companies. So I got on the flight and left Alicia to decide what she was going to do. We said goodbye, not knowing if it would be our last. I got on the plane, exhausted and a short while later my SpanAir flight reached Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Magdalena, my old roommate came and picked me up and we talked the whole way home. It was great to see her and catch up. She was pretty tired because she works so much but we got home and walked Guanchi her giant presa canaria, an enormus beast of a dog. Then she started making dinner for some people to come over for her birthday. Jose, her boyfriend came home and then her friends Sergio, who I knew from Granada and Koki came over. Later Jose's mom and sister came over to give her presents. I also gave her some presents from Alicia and me. We all chatted and later the boys went out for a drink, but Mada and I were tired so we stayed home and went to bed. So ended my adventures in Mallorca and began my time in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.