Mallorca Without a Map Part I

So this one time (literally this is the only time I've traveled like this) I decided at the almost-last-minute to travel somewhere by myself with no one I knew in the place where I was going. This one time was last week, when I decided on Monday or Tuesday that when Brian left for the airport on Friday morning I was going to go with him and fly somewhere. I decided to go to Mallorca because it's close, pretty cheap, and my best friend told me in June I had to go and see Gaudi's cathedral. (My response at the time was something like "Well, it's on an island, but maybe.") Plus it's also, you know, an island in the Mediterranean. (Technically it's in the Balearic Sea but I'm pretty sure there's not actually a difference.)

Friday morning Brian and I both woke up early (before the sun, but that's anytime before 8) and headed to the bus stop around 7:45. We took the airport express bus (which only costs 2 euros) from a stop just ten minutes from my house to the airport, where I said goodbye to Brian at terminal 1 and stayed on the bus all the way to terminal 4 (where I had previously not found Brian on Sunday, as you may recall). Right after Brian got off the bus the radio started playing "It's Raining Men" and I laughed really hard to myself, wishing he was there to share in my love of classic American music. I got to my terminal around 8:45 and then had nothing to do for three hours, as my flight wasn't until 12:05 (about an hour after Brian's international flight, thus the long wait time).

My flight of course hadn't been assigned a departure gate yet, so I decided to get breakfast at McDonald's (SORRY) because there was a sign for it right by where I happened to be standing when I got through security and I desperately wanted American breakfast food, and I hadn't been to a McDonald's in Spain. At first I just got a coffee, which was actually excellent (and only a euro!), and then I caved to a sausage and egg mcmuffin. And enjoyed every bite of it and will not apologize for it. While I was sitting there I saw a guy about my age sit down and plug in a computer with an adapter, pegging him as an American (based on his computer plug; the UK uses a different plug than America or Europe because they're difficult like that). So after I finished my breakfast and a little journaling, I got up to leave and as I passed him asked if he was from America. He was. :) And so I, who never talk to strangers on my own, spent an hour and a half talking with Rocco, who's from California but goes to Northeastern in Boston. He was traveling to Rome to visit his sister who's been living there for about six months. So fun to make a new friend, and a great way to pass the time until our flights took off. We talked about college, and graduating (he's also a senior), traveling, and 9/11. It's fascinating to me how tragedy are common experiences we can rally around with strangers, even ten years later. That led to talking about being a generation older, about how there are kids who are ten years old now who never knew a world with the twin towers, without these endless wars. I felt like we could have talked for ages, but eventually it was time to head to our gates for our flights, so we hugged and went our separate ways.

The flight was only an hour and somehow I ended up with a row to myself. I slept a little and read a little Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal and of course listened to Mötley Crüe. I landed in Mallorca, and thus began my adventure with navigating without a map or any form of useful information.

Cátalan

English

German

Spanish (Salida de no retorno made ma laugh)

I knew I needed to take the number 1 bus from the airport to Plaça de Espayna (Cátalan... whyyy) and then change to the 3 and take that to my hostel. So I managed to do that without getting lost, and after a picturesque (though cloudy) drive through central Mallorca, I arrived at my hostel.

Palm trees and the sea!

The hostel room. There were two other beds, but no one ended up sharing my room, so I had it to myself for three days. :) I got settled and then decided to go for a walk along the main street and found a bit of beach called Cala Nova.

Still life with sandals.

Cloudy moments at the beach.

After a while sitting at the beach, I was quite hungry (having not eaten since McDonald's) so I ended up at a Jamaican place called Jamrock where I chose the menu del dia. My main course was jerk chicken (which was spicy, hallelujah! Spanish food is generally pretty plain), and a salad with avocado.

After I ate, I went back to the hostel intending to take a nap. Instead I met another guy staying at the hostel, originally from Turkey but who had lived most of his life in London. We chatted for a while and then decided to take a walk until we couldn't walk anymore and just explore the city. So we wandered, first back down to the beach where I had been before, to see how far along we could walk. My friend took this picture of me:

We kept walking until it got dark, and stopped for a bit at Cala Major, and saw sights such as these.

Eventually we made our way back to the hostel, and as I had been up since very early that morning, I went right to bed to get a good night's sleep before the next two full days. Which will be coming soon! (Along with the update about the last couple days of Brian's visit.)