You Me and Tuscany: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

I'd go back to Mallorca any day. Wait, let me rephrase that: I'd love to go back to Mallorca when the temperatures are just a bit warmer. Now, hold on- before you go on thinking how much of a travel snob I must be to only enjoy a vacation if it's prime beach weather, let me explain. Perhaps it's because we're Canadians and we just assume Spain = hot and sunny! But what's that? Spain has winter too?

Haha, the weather really wasn't that bad. Just a bit colder than we'd expected. For some reason, even though we fully knew that temperatures would be roughly around 10 degrees celsius, we packed sandals (just in case!), and bathings suits (just in case!), and sun tan lotion (just in case! Although, it got confiscated at the airport because it was in our carry on. I can just picture the Airport worker laughing to himself when he saw the lotion. He was probably thinking, "Oh, those naive Canadians..."). How were we supposed to know that we'd be wearing our wool socks all week and getting hailed on while huddling together under a palm tree (that really did happen! Though the hail did pass fairly quickly).

Now when I look back at our 6 days spent with my parents in Palma de Mallorca, I can't help but smile and chuckle to myself. We had such a fun time, despite some minor surprises that caused slight changes in our plans. In the end, those "surprises" are what made the trip memorable, and to be able to laugh about it later is all part of travelling.

The adventure began on Christmas Day. We had just wrapped up an awesome but jam-packed week of showing my parents around Cambridge, and were now ready for some relaxation time in (sunny?) Spain. We had booked an Airbnb right outside of the old town in Palma de Mallora, which is the main city on the island of Mallorca. I'm happy to say that we all arrived in one piece. A few of the shenanigans that went on before arriving were:

1) A quick change of transportation plans because someone decided that no trains would run on Christmas Day (who knew?). Luckily we were able to book a van cab and had the nicest driver, who took us the scenic route and chatted to us the entire way!

2) Almost lost Mom at the airport. We stopped for a quick bite to eat and being the #1 Mom that she is, she stayed behind to clean up our table in the food court. Meanwhile, the three of us are basically running to get to our gate (we were running behind!), not realizing that poor Mom was left behind. She said she didn't want them thinking that Canadians are slobs that can't clean up after themselves. I love her! Luckily, it didn't take long to notice that we were one man down. Mom, I apologize again for the added stress.

3) We finally made it into Palma, but there was one problem: we still hadn't been able to contact our Airbnb host to let her know we were here so early (I believe we arrived around 11am? And in Spain, that is eeaaarrrly!). Zack and I had made the arrangements for accommodation, so I told my parents everything was fine and that our host would "just know" to be around for us. Meanwhile, we arrived to her apartment and there was no sign of her, and I'm actually panicking big time in my head. We buzzed the other apartments but no one was of any help/couldn't speak English. I assumed the worst, and thought "great, we're going to be stranded here for who knows how long!". The street itself though, was a delightful little promenade, lined with restaurants and outdoor seating. While we waited, the owner of an Italian restaurant chatted our ears off (okay, maybe it wasn't so bad, but I just wasn't in the mood to chat. We later found that he lingered on the street day after day, and probably didn't spend much time away from his restaurant). But after what seemed like no time at all, our host appeared! She let us in to her beautiful apartment, and we knew right away we made the right choice. We ended up enjoying her space tremendously during our stay.

Above is the street where the apartment was located.

That's our balcony just above the Tapas & Paellas sign. You can see my Dad entering through the door.

This is one street over from our apartment.

Palma de Mallorca ended up being a fantastic place to explore for the amount of time we had. We were able to relax and sleep in, but also explore the old town, visit two castles, tour Palma's magnificent cathedral, and on the last day we hired bicycles and cycled 20 km down the coast line. We scouted out some prime picnic locations (usually while braving the wind) and enjoyed the scenery of the Mediterranean waterfront and the mountainous backdrop. On one occasion, getting to our picnic spot involved taking our city cruiser bikes down some pretty rocky terrain. At the time, I'm not sure my parents really appreciated us telling them that the pathway was "easily do-able". Let's just say our bicycles weren't meant for that type of terrain and we sometimes forget that my parents are 30 years older than us. Sorry Mom and Dad. But the view was worth it in the end wasn't it?

Mallorca itself can be quite touristy, as it's a prime vacation spot for people from England and Germany, however the city of Palma offers a great Spanish cultural experience and is safe enough to walk around at night and not feel like you are putting your life at risk. We visited the market on Saturday and bought ourselves some cheese, chorizo (which became a staple snack for us that week) and some fresh salmon to cook that night. However, the market was more than just a place to come and get fresh meat and produce. At what seemed to be every corner, there'd be a tapas bar. Tapas bars with loads of Spaniards enjoying food and wine. Oh- and I can't leave out the fact that we thoroughly enjoyed wine that week. When it's only 2 euros/bottle (and it actually tastes good!) how can you go wrong? I will clarify though, that to find these prices you must go to a supermarket. At most restaurants, it will easily be 5 times the price. We did go out to restaurants while we were there, but we also did a lot of cooking ourselves at our Airbnb apartment.

At the market.

Out for Spanish Paella

Our flights were scheduled to leave on New Years day in the morning, leaving us with New Years Eve as our last and final evening in Spain. So, what do four Canadians do on New Years Eve in Spain? Well, this brings me to the grapes. Yes, grapes. It's all about the grapes on New Years Eve in Spain. My first memory of 2015 had to do with me, Zack, my mom, and my dad all shoving 12 green grapes into our mouths at the strike of midnight. And it was hilarious! At midnight on NYE, you'll find the entire population of Spain doing this- eating 12 grapes for the first 12 seconds of the year. Grocery stores even start selling grapes in small packages of 12, or some people put them in a fancy cup. The whole idea behind this is to bring you prosperity for the next 12 months ahead of you. The tradition is something that is done all across the country and enjoyed by all ages. Of course there are different methods of doing this... some line their grapes up in front of them and eat them in an orderly fashion, swallowing each one periodically over the 12 seconds (DAD). Others, shove them in their cheeks frantically because they can't possibly swallow that fast (ME), others struggle to even allow themselves to stop laughing for one second to eat a grape (MOM). I officially love this tradition. I've already decided I want to do it again next year, it was such a hilariously fun way to ring in the new year. Except next year I will double check that the grapes I buy are seedless. Rookie mistake.

This is the after photo. My dad still looks fairly composed. My mom, not so much.

So here is the part where I wish I could say "I could wrap this up with saying how hard it was to say goodbye. OR... I could wrap this up by saying: stay tuned for more adventures! We may or may not have boarded a plane to......" (Quoted from my last blog post). But unfortunately, this actually concludes our time of adventuring with my parents. As much as I wish we could have boarded a plane to (insert another European destination), Zack and I found ourselves back in England on January 1st. As hard as it was for me to see this all come to an end, I realize just how lucky I am. I am lucky to have loved ones in my life that I miss, rather than having no one to miss at all. I'll end this post with a quote that I've found to resonate with me during this stage in my life.

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

-Winnie the Pooh

If you're missing someone today, take a second to think about what Winnie the Pooh has to say. :)

Here are more photos of our time in Mallorca: