Capdepera Market & Castle

SPAIN WON THE WORLD CUP!!! Last night I went down to the plaza to a bar to watch with the locals and German tourists. It was very exciting and a lot of fun to be in a large crowd when Spain won. Since this is a sleepy small town, though, there were no huge gatherings in the streets or parties or anything. Plenty of cars driving up and down the streets waving Spanish flags and honking their horns all night long though. :)

So, as I said, this is a pretty small town... between this town and the two neighboring ones, there are only 11,000 people total. Because of that, there isn't a whole lot to do, which can be relaxing in a way, but has made me ready for a change of pace later this week, on Friday, when I leave here and meet Sean and Liz in Barcelona on Saturday!!

In the meantime, I did do some fun things this past week. Wednesday is market day in town, and the restaurant where I'm working has a stand there... I went with Sylvia, one of the four owners, to sell some organic sugar and accost German tourists with menus for our lunch special(and then be openly ignored). I also mistook a local for a German tourist... I realized my mistake when I said "Guten Morgen!" and he shot me an icy glare and responded with "Hola." He returned a few minutes later from his errand... Marlboro Reds carton run!!! Wooo!

I also got some time to explore the town's castle, which was built around the year 1300 by King Jaume II. Very very cool! The cylindrical tower at the center was built by Moors much earlier as a watch tower, as it is at the highest point in town. In the 1800s it was shortened by half, gutted, and retrofitted as a flour mill. Neat.

Enjoy some pictures of the market and castle!!!!!

MARKET SHOTS:
Produce!

Olives and pepeprs!

 Our market stand.  The umbrella was a necessity - it was only 8:30AM but we were already sweating a ton.

CASTLE SHOTS:

From the distance...

One of only two entrances:

The watchtower/mill:

 

The well to the cistern.  One of the earliest parts of the castle complex:

The alarm bells to warn of siege!!

This crucifix dates back to the gothic period and was carved out of orangewood.  Part of the original church on site.

These walkways circle the whole castle to provide easy access to all defensive points.  I walked along them for awhile.  The ground below got lower and lower and lower, and I kept going... 

...until this steep slope that was higher than the tree tops!!

 

VIEWS FROM THE TOP!

The town church:

Mallorca is very hilly and mountainous, as you can see in the distance:

From the highest points of the castle you can easily see the Mediterranean.  This was a lookout point for enemy ships coming from Menorca, the neighboring island, and was used as a lookout point long before the castle was built.

Close-up shots of the town below:

BOOM.

Capdepera and THE RESTAURANT

GREAT NEWS!!!

I'M NOT DEAD!!!

AND THE 20% CHANCE OF THE RESTAURANT PROJECT UNDERGOING A COMPLETE COLLAPSE DID NOT COME TO PASS!!!!! :)

OK, so now I'm in the town of Capdepera, on the east coast of Mallorca. It's a really pretty, very small town!!! The restaurant I'm working for is an organic restaurant with a small general store inside. It was founded less than a year ago by four friends who all moved to the island for various reasons around two years ago. They rented an old run-down 18th century house and have fixed it up really nicely. They live in the upper floors and the lower floor is the restaurant. This floor opens into a large garden which they have turned into the restaurant's terrace, where almost all of the seating is. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! Aside from the four of them, they rely entirely on volunteers to staff it, which makes things really interesting. In exchange for working 5 or 6 hours a day, we get a room (the house has several spare rooms), three meals per day, and two days off per week.

The work is pretty easy so far - reminds me of the same kind of thing I did at Mio's. Lots of cleaning, chopping, and the other night I worked on some tomato plants in the garden!

The people who run the restaurant are extremely nice! I was a little nervous about this whole thing (basically, "What the hell was I thinking when I signed up for this???!"), but now that I am here it is going really well.

Here are some pics:

The terrace:

The bar area inside. Very traditional-looking Spanish bar:

La cocina:

The patio is also home to the group's two black cats. I have coddled them several times but have not yet hoisted...

Here are three quick shots I got of town earlier today. The castle from two angles, and an old well with a horse trough next to it:

That's about all for now. Stay tuned!!

The beach at Can Pastilla

I forgot to post these - this is the beach where I stayed my first few days here I stayed in a small town outside the capital. I figured the capital would be teeming with people and be very busy at all hours, so this smaller town was more my speed. The water was beautiful here!

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!