PALMA de MALLORCA

Today I took an excursion to the capital of Mallorca, PALMA. It´s a beautiful city and I enjoyed spending time walking around, visiting the cathedral and various other places, and reading the paper. Tomorrow I´m going back to go to the train station to transfer to the other side of the island to the town of Capdepera... I will then go to work in the store/restaurant. Fingers crossed...........!

Below are some pictures I took in Palma today!

A little café that specializes in hot chocolate and ensaïmadas - really good sprial pastries! The café is like over 100 years old!


This olive tree is in the middle of a plaza and is very famous - it is estimated to be more than 800 years old!!!

View of the waterfront, with the port in the background.
This is the interior of the Arab Baths, the only remaining structure from the Moors´700 year occupation of Spain. All that remains of the baths are two rooms - this one consists of 12 columns supporting a dome with skylights. The lights made the room hot - it was the "caldarium" of the baths. The tops of the columns are recycled from other buildings at the time, probably Roman. VERY cool!!
The cathedral of Palma!

This chapel of the cathedral was recently reworked by a contemporary artist. Kind of cool, kind of weird...

That´s all for now!!! Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

World Cup

Spain just won its World Cup game agains Portugal! I watched the game in a bar near my hotel. Lots of locals... it was really fun!

I spent the earlier part of the day walking through town and laying under an umbrella on the beach, reading. This was a really difficult day. :)

Tomorrow I´m taking a 30 min. bus ride to the capital city, Palma de Mallorca. I will bring my cam so prepare for many pictures and hopefully some good stories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLLA BACK, AIGHT?

ARRIVAL

I just arrived in Mallorca! Got in an hour later than planned, and there was a near disaster with my luggage, but it was found and I am now at my hotel! I am going to head out and check out the town and the beach but thought I´d share a few pics first. There will of course be MANY pics in the coming days and weeks.......... :)

View from the plane - I just happened to look out the window right when the Atlantic met the coast of Spain! This is the coast of the northwest corner of Spain.

Pictures of my hotel room view and my little balcony.

Taking on the World: SPAIN

And so begins our next big adventure!

Of course, me being me, I see this trip as a sequel of sorts to the last big adventure Sean and I had in South America (all those entries are still on this blog!). True to form for a sequel, this time around there is a brand new location, a new character (the vibrant and dashing blonde Elizabeth Dennemann), and a wacky road-trip premise (we're renting a car and driving aimlessly along the coast from Barcelona to Santiago de Compostela). However, some things never change: there are bound to be some disasters along the way, winery tours will be excessive, and I'm sure a ridiculous photo shoot will have to be staged at least once.

Blog posts will be just by me at first since I'll arrive in Spain two and a half weeks before S and E arrive. In fact, I'm leaving the apartment in about twenty minutes to go to the airport! My first two weeks should be pretty interesting since I am spending the time on Mallorca - one of Spain's Balearic Islands on the Mediterranean Sea. I will spend a few days relaxing on the beach in a small town outside the capital before heading to the other side of the island to the small resort town of Capdepera. There I will be working at a store/restaurant for the rest of my stay there! I will not be paid in cash but rather in free room and board. It's a little different... but that's the kind of experience I wanted! It should definitely be interesting. Sean and Melanie both agree there is a 30%-40% chance it will be a catastrophe and completely collapse within a day or two...

...I put the odds more around 20%.

LET THE SEQUEL BEGIN!!!

Preliminary pictures to enjoy:

Packing fun!

Picture of where I'm staying the first few days. It's a picture of the Google Maps street view there - click this link to have a look around!!

Pictures of the store/restaurant I'll be at for two weeks:

More to come soon!