Mallorca

Friday afternoon we left Priego, which had been converted from a beautiful town to a flooded, smelly sewage mess because of the weeklong rainstorm, and headed to the island of Mallorca, home of Rafael Nadal. The problem with the rain in Priego is that no street is flat (not a single one) and the sewer system sucks, meaning most streets become rivers and the sidewalks are slip-and-slides. The smell happens because the sewage system cannot actually handle all the rain and standing water accumulates. I’m very lucky because my nose cannot detect the smell all the time. The first time it happened, I didn’t actually notice the smell at all. Cecilia and Erin came home and told me about it.



So, Ana drove us to Lucena (about 45 minutes away) because it was on her way home to Córdoba (she goes home almost every weekend). From there, we hung out at the bus station for a few hours before catching a 1.5 hour bus to Málaga, where we took a city bus to the airport. The Málaga airport was overrun with Brits and Germans. We ate dinner and boarded our plane (the flight was a little over an hour). Upon arrival in Palma, we noted the warmer temperatures (!!) and lack of rain (!!!!!!). Friday night, we dumped our stuff at the hostel and wandered around downtown Palma. We were staying right near the Cathedral and the water. We walked along the Mediterranean where we were hit by the spray as the waves crashed against the rocks. Some seaweed actually landed on Erin’s mouth and in Cecilia’s hair. After living on the Cape for the summer, I welcomed all sea-related nastiness (like seaweed) with open arms. Priego has made me appreciate the water even more, and realize how much I miss it.




The next morning we woke up early and had some pastries for breakfast. We tried ensiamades which are the island’s signature pastry. Light and fluffy, they were tasty but not really worth the calories. Our better choice was a palmita covered in dark chocolate. We’d had these before, but this one was the size of my head. After our high-calorie lunch, we walked through a flower market to a produce market where I got some clementines grown on the island. We walked around a lot and went inside the Cathedral, which was really nice. The stained glass was extremely bright and an ornate light fixture shined above the altar. One side chapel was a somewhat art piece with the windows nearly covered and the walls were done to almost look like an underwater scene.

Saturday afternoon was spent shopping. I actually bought clothing – a pair of pants and a shirt. Erin bought several pieces and Cecilia an outfit. It was fun, but really tiring. We also went to the supermarket at El Corte Inglés, which is one of my favorite places. They have a huge imported section and tons of weird foods. They also have a decent natural food section. The problem is that we don’t have one in Priego and can never buy much. This time we only bought fruit and pretzels for Sunday. Saturday night we went out for tapas. The restaurant across the street from our hostel had pinxos, a smaller version of a tapa, generally a piece of bread with something on it. They are held together by a toothpick. You pick which ones you want to eat and collect your toothpicks and then pay for the amount of toothpicks you have. I had one that was just grilled vegetables (eggplant, pepper, onion, and a mushroom). My other ones all had fish, mostly cod with something else (roasted pepper or parsley). At the next place, an Irish pub, we just had drinks. The next place we went to had more pinxos and tapas. You took a plate from the tray and prices varied based on plate color. I had some tortilla (omelet) with mushrooms. Cecilia and I tried some zucchini stuffed with tomatoes and some fried cheese, which had a delicious fruit sauce on it. Erin got potatas bravas, steak fries with a spicy sauce on them.





Sunday we woke up early again and took a wooden train to Sóller. It stopped along the way so we could take pictures of Sóller from above. The mountains and the scenery on the island were really pretty and we were happy to get out of Palma for the day. There wasn’t much to do in Sóller, so we walked the 2-4 km to Port de Sóller, a “town” on the water. I dunked my fingers into the somewhat chilly water and we walked around the town. For lunch I had a giant fish empanada from a bakery. It rained on and off, but the sky stayed blue most of the day, which was a pleasant change from the weather in Priego. We climbed up to a lookout point and took pictures of the water, which was a brilliant sapphire color. After walking to and around Port de Sóller, we were tired, so we took the tram back up to Sóller, where we stopped into a few shops and checked out a Joan Miró exhibit at the train station. We were dead tired, so we went back to Palma, got dinner and went to bed early.



Monday began even earlier than the other two days. We took a city bus to the airport, where we had to wait 1.5 hours before our flight, which only took an hour. We arrived in Sevilla, took another city bus to the center, ate lunch and walked around for an hour. Then we took a bus to Cabra (3 hours), where we had to wait 30 minutes before a 45-minute bus ride back to Priego. We showered, made dinner and went to bed.

Mallorca was well worth the trip. Even though it took us 8 hours to get there and almost 12 to get back, it was nice to see the sunshine and have slightly warmer temperatures. It was also great to see a completely different side of Spain, even though we heard more German and English spoken than Spanish. The other thing that was different was that most of the signs were in Catalan, which is the first language of many of the islanders. Having never seen nor heard Catalan, I was able to understand most of it (because it’s similar to Spanish and French). I could go back to Mallorca; there are so many places to go hiking and there’s so much more to the island than just beaches.