This past weekend, we headed out in the Mediterranean to Palma de Mallorca, a Balearic Island. This entire trip can be summed up in the word spontaneity, starting with booking the flights (46 euros THERE AND BACK) and knowing absolutely nothing about the island. (One google image search and I was sold.)
We got to the island, freaking out because we had booked 2 hotel rooms for one person each soooooo we would have to somehow sneak in 6 people. I'm not even going to pretend that throughout our entire breakfast, we came up with the lie that we were visiting friends studying abroad here. (Shout-out to Holy Cross for sending people to Mallorca because that fit perfectly with our plan!) Turns out it didn't even matter because the hotel owned two buildings, and our rooms were in the building that did not have the reception are! Hence, two hotel rooms were shared between 6 people. Classic study abroad.
The first day, we had absolutely no plan whatsoever. This is how we ended up getting fish pedicures... Apparently it's a thing where you stick your feet in a little bath and this type of fish called "doctor fish" come and nibble away the dead skin on your feet. It feels like when your foot falls asleep and is tingly, so it was SUPER weird. I also hate fish soooo it took a little getting used to, but once I did, it felt kind of good!
We also got a free drink and a discounted group price, so it was definitely well worth it.
Then we explored the beach area. It was a sleepy little beach town (because it was October which is the off-season) with so many little shops with the weirdest souvenirs ever. We shopped around for a bit and then saw some people riding around in bikes....
 |
| Oktoberfest with palm trees! |
Naturally, we decided to find a bike rental place and hopped on some and road them down the beach for an hour or so. While we were riding around, we passed a huge tent and people dressed up in German attire and lo and behold, we found the Platja de Palma version of Oktoberfest.
We couldn't just skip Oktoberfest, so after the bikes, we stopped by and enjoyed a stein and some pretzels. I can now leave Europe saying I went to Oktoberfest so mission accomplished. (it counts guys, I swear!)
 |
| Sunset on the beach! |
That evening, we went into the city center to go out to dinner! Turns out you have to pay for paella by person, so by saying 6 of us were eating it, we would have had to pay for 6x13 euros! So instead we lied and said only 4 of us were eating so we only had to pay for 4x13 euros. (another lie to make things cheaper - check.) That night, we found postcards with really cool tropical looking places, like places with cliffs and coves and small beaches. We asked someone how we could get there, and they jokingly told us the best option we had would be to rent a car and drive across the island.
The next morning we woke up and decided we were going to rent a car. No matter what, we were going to see these cool places. We rented out the only automatic car in the rental company, and then set off for Formentor, cliffs that were on the opposite side of the island. We road tripped and got a little lost once or twice (we did get a traffic circle tour of the city, so that was cool I guess.) and then an hour-ish later, we started driving up a mountain. We finally got to Formentor, and it was worth the spontaneous decision to rent a car. It was by far one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and I am so glad we were able to. The view was incredible and pictures do not do it justice. We drove back down the mountain and found a small beach called Platja de Pollenca, where we randomly saw paddle boards and decided to go paddle boarding! So....paddle boarding in the Mediterranean can now be checked off my bucket list! We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and were just getting ready to go when one of the girls I was traveling with got bit by a spider fish.
What's a spider fish you ask? Well, it's a fish that hides in shallow water, waiting for its prey to swim over it and when it does, it shoots little stingers up and injects poison into its prey. This led to one girl in a lot of pain and 5 people clueless as to what was going on. Apparently it's very common, because the lifeguards were very unconcerned and knew exactly how to handle the situation. What could have been a horrible day was made just a little bit better because the lifeguard was one of the most attractive people I have ever seen. PLUS he spoke perfect English and had a British accent but he looked like a Spaniard. So at least we had something nice to look like while the poison was draining from my friends foot! (thoughts from a glass-half-full kind of gal.)
After, we drove back and made it back to the rental company with 15 minutes to spare before we were charged extra! (phew) We laid low for the rest of the night and then were up at 5am to catch a 730am flight.
 |
| BC in Platja de Pollenca, Mallorca |
I would have to say this was my favorite trip so far. Everything was so spontaneous and there were no huge sights that I felt pressured to go and see. It was super relaxed, and everything was spur-of-the-moment, let's do it because we feel like it kind of things! Definitely planning to go back there later in life because Palma de Mallorca was such a great place!
(was this last paragraph corny enough for you?)
