After busy weeks of travelling, exams, and projects, it seems like I finally have time to sit down and blog again. At the moment, I am travelling with my parents (yay holidays!) and we’re in London, England! One of my last destination before going back home to Vancouver. Oh how I’m gonna miss Europe when I’m gone…

After a weekend of macarons, pate, and wine, I quickly traded all that for sun, beaches, and swim shorts at Palma de Mallorca. It is an island just off the coast of South-East Spain and it was beautiful, even in October! At first, Cicely wanted to go to the Canary Islands, which is also very pretty with black sand beaches, but It turned out to be very expensive since a lot of the places on the island required a tour guide and it would be difficult to travel without having a local around. So we settled for Palma and it turned out to be a six-people trip since Larissa, Shandon, Travis, and Melissa (Cicely’s classmates from Pamplona) also wanted to come! This also meant that we could rent a decent priced apartment all to ourselves, as well as a car to cruise around!

Before going on about my weekend, my professor Alex (Spanish History Class) brought us around on a tour to St. Jaume  and visited the cathedrals nearby. It was pretty interesting to learn about the significants of cathedrals and basilicas, as well as the history behind that area. Afterwards, a bunch of us headed for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Rosa Negra, because it was Camille’s birthday. I had their 4 euro passionfruit margarita and it was so good, I ended the night with two of them! Sophia, Cherrie, Matt, and I wanted to try a variety from their menu, so we shared. We ordered a ceviche, the grilled chicken tacos with guacamole, seasoned slow cooked pork burritos, and shrimp, mushroom, and onion quesadillas. Everything was very good, but my personal favourite was the seasoned slow cooked pork burritos, it was juicy and jam-packed with flavour and the pork was tender and generously stuffed in a two whole hand burrito!

I started my weekend with Cicely over at my apartment after her trip in South of France. She complained about having too much cheese and wine, well that’s a first. By now, she knows the ins-and-outs of the city, so I didn’t have to show her around or do any of the touristy stuff. However, I brought her to a really nice tapas restaurant called Ciudad Condal. It was absolutely my favourite tapas place and the price is extremely reasonable for students like me. It was also a special occasion as it was Cherrie’s birthday (I met her through this exchange!) and she’s a huge foodie and a fellow blogger, who I will introduce in another post. Some items I highly recommend is their smoked salmon tapa, seafood salads, deep-fried cheese coated with peanuts, and this streak skewer which came with foie gras, but anyways I am positive that everything on the menu will taste great. The salmon was glazed with olive oil and topped with finely chopped pieces of tomato and onion. It tasted very fresh and the portion was thick unlike most pieces of smoked salmon. The seafood salad was mixed in a creamy mayo and seasoned lightly to bring out the flavours of the crab meat and shrimp, but not overdoing it.The streak was cooked medium rare and the foie gras just melted in my mouth. The deep fried cheese was very gooey and nutty, a genius combination and boy, was I stuffed! Paired with a couple glasses of wine and that’s what I called a good night!

The next morning, Cicely and I took the Renfre to the airport, which is usually a 30 min train ride and during the trip, Cicely was worried that her luggage would go over limit of RyanAir standard of carryon (it has to fit into their ‘box’), so I told her to stuff her coat pockets with things to lighten and make room in her suitcase. In the end, we safely boarded the plane and no one had a clue that Cicely had chargers and plugs stuffed in her coat. We were both feeling ecstatic during the flight, especially Cicely, who kept doing things. What I mean is, she cannot sit still at all. One minute she is trying to sleep, then reading her book, then next thing you know, she is ordering food and drinks (1.5 hr flight time), and lastly, she gets up to pee right before we are about to land. That crazy girl is always up to something, but good thing she is fun to be around with haha.

The flight was very short and in no time at time, we were in Mallorca renting a personal vehicle for the weekend. At first we wanted either an Audi or BMW, but we settled for a Volkswagen. I must admit, I was a bit rusty since I haven’t driven since a year ago (transit in Vancouver is pretty convenient, so I never had the need to drive). So naturally I was a bit nervous and when I drove on neutral instead of drive (oops!), Cicely stopped me and took over. The drive from the airport to our apartment was only 15 mins and our place was about a 5 min walk from the beach. The apartment was decent sized for six-people, however, their wifi was not the greatest, which meant that I couldn’t contact my group or upload my work onto the school’s website. Other than that, the place was pretty well-equiped and the most important part was that the bathroom was clean! Very cool indeed. It was just Cicely and I who were the first to arrive since Travis and his girlfriend flew in later in the evening. During our ‘free’ time, I did my homework and Cicely went out and explored the nearby markets and streets for food, drinks, and restaurants. We also had lunch at a cafe by the beach, I had a wings platter, while Cicely had a salad, and we both shared a sangria.

In the evening, Travis and Melissa finally arrived and we picked them up from the airport and drove to an nearby waterfront Italian restaurant for dinner. I had steak with rice and I shared a melon and ham with Cicely. The food was alright, nothing special and my streak was cooked too well (I like it bloody), but the melon and ham was really fresh on the other hand (hard to mess this up).

The next morning, we had breakfast at a local cafe and it was superb! I had eggs, toast, bacon, coffee, and freshly squeezed orange juice for only 4 euros! What a steal! We then drove to a hidden beach and on the way, we drove by some cliffs and mountains. The view was break taking and the ocean water was crystal blue! It almost looked like it could fade into the sky. At the beach, we took out a sailboat and of course, Travis sailed us around, while we frantically grabbed on for our lives so we don’t fall into the water. It was my first time going on something like this and it was very thrilling and scary at the same time. Because the beach was an hour away from the city centre, we had to rush back to the airport to pick up Shandon and Larissa, and then we headed out for dinner. Surprise surprise! I had steak again haha! The steak was a lot better at this restaurant and the owner was very friendly and gave us complimentary tapas to start.

The next day, we drove to another hidden beach. It was very rocky and although the view and scenery was nice, it wasn’t a beach where I could lay down and relax. So we ended up driving to another nearby beach. We saw swans and donkeys on the way which was a bonus I guess! The second beach was a lot better, the water was nice and clear, and the sand was soft, not to mention, the sun was at its prime time for an afternoon tan. I snorkelled for the first time using Shandon’s gear and although, I’m blind as a bat without my glasses, it was really cool swimming with the Mediterranean fishes!

That night we ate at an Italian restaurant and I had a seafood-carbonara linguine. It was also the night when Cicely flipped out! Reasons being that when Larissa and Shandon got their food, they found a piece of plastic in it after having two-three bites in. Then they brought over a new plate and this time, they found GLASS! Yep, that’s right, a piece of glass. We told the manager and they apologized and by then we just wanted to pay and leave. When the bill came, Shandon and Larissa’s food was taken off and we thought, “wow how nice of them to take it off”. But just minutes after, the manager rushed back and said the bill was not correct and he added back Shandon’s food on the bill. Cicely full-on raged and told the manager that it was a piece of glass in their food and it went something along the lines of: “There was a piece of glass in there! They could’ve swallowed it and it could’ve killed them! (the managers looks slightly confused at this point) It could’ve have slit their throat. *while pointing at the glass windows in the restaurant* It was glass like windows, there was a bleeping window in their food!!” Who could argue with that? I mean Cicely had such a mouthful of colourful language and words and I believe the manager got the point at the end since he didn’t charge them for their food.

Even though dinner took quite an unexpected turn, we still enjoyed ourselves with a couple glasses of vino and bags of chips (Damn you Cicely for turning me into an addict!!). We watched funny viral videos on YouTube and jammed to “The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)” by Ylvis, such an awesome video!

The next morning, we rushed for breakfast and got ready to set sail on a catamaran! Before this trip, I had no idea what this was, nor did I know what people do on a catamaran. We chilled on the deck with everyone’s favourite, Don Simon and spread ourselves out for an afternoon tanning session. This trip also included a bbq and bottomless sangria, sweet deal right?! We also got to swim around in the Mediterranean water and explore a close by island. It was super fun and definitely worth the money! The weather couldn’t have been more perfect and it was easily the highlight of my trip to Palma.

Then we met up with Larissa and Shandon to drive to another hidden beach where Travis and I transformed Cicely into a beautiful, majestic mermaid! We worked so hard and hands down, it was definitely a master piece. Gaudi got nothing on us! And since it was our last night in Palma, we’d thought we try something different and went to a Mexican restaurant. I felt famish after a full day of non-stop activities. I had spicy-crispy wings and a delicious, juicy pork burger with a side of homemade potato chips. It was the bomb dot com, my mouth and stomach couldn’t be more happy.

And at last, it was time to go home and since my flight was at 6am, I barely got some shut eye and left the house around 4am. For a moment, we had a mini panic attack since it was daylight savings and we thought we overslept an hour more. But turns out, our (smart) phones auto-adjusted and we safely made it to the airport in good time. All’s Well that ends well. So that was my perfect weekend getaway, how was your weekend? What would be your perfect getaway?

Cheers!
Kevin