Palma De Mallorca - How many laws can we break in one trip?

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?)

What's Cooking Good Looking?

It finally happened....my dream come true.....what I've been waiting for since my first taste of paella.....

COOKING LESSONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part of my BC program includes getting cooking lessons from one of the BC site coordinators in Madrid, Paloma.  In small groups, we went to her house and she taught us how to make paella, tortilla española, and flan. My love of food is no secret (my dad has made comments about how I talk about food more than anything else on social media....lol) so this day was pretty much the coolest ever.

Paloma did most of the cooking and we helped out here and there, but luckily, I learned that making each of those dishes is quite easy.
**Again, roommates - prepare yourself for some authentic Spanish food next semester :)
**Parents/family - I'll be bringing some sort of Spanish food to Christmas this year, so get ready for that! :)

All in all, the meal was a definite success and I am so pumped for when I'm back home and I can spread the amazingness of Spanish food to everyone back in the States! I'll probably butcher some stuff and it may come out weird the first few times, but it'll be worth it because Spanish food is just so good and needs to be shared.

Tortilla Española

My serving of paella

Flan

Enjoying our meal!

Barthelona

Last weekend, I hopped on a plane and jetted over to Barcelona! (FYI...went by plane because it was cheaper than taking the train. Thank you Vueling Airlines.)  I was so pumped to sit my butt down at the beach and not do anything experience all the culture the city had to offer.

First thing you notice upon getting off the plane is the Catalan.  People from Barcelona don't speak Spanish, they have their own dialect that is surprisingly different.  I had no idea just how different it was until I saw the spelling and heard pronunciations of words that sounded more French than Spanish. Second thing I noticed upon getting off the plane......it was raining. (I had a small panic attack, remembering images of misery from Salamanca...so I took a moment, collected myself and gave myself a peptalk saying RAIN WOULD NOT RUIN BARCELONA FOR ME.)

We got to the hostel.....and were slightly underwhelmed at the location.  It was in the middle of what appeared to be a super sketchy area which was just wonderful.  However, the hostel had wifi, air conditioning, and we had our own private bathroom, so I could not complain.

The first day, we walked around and explored parts of the city.  We saw the famous Casa Milà and Casa Batlló, both designed by Antoni Gaudí.  We then walked down Las Ramblas, a street famous in Barcelona for it's shopping, food stands, and little shops.  At night, we went out to dinner at an Argentinian burger place and had the best burgers ever.  We also drank mojitos with brown sugar, which made them a weird brown-ish clear tinted color. (delicious nonetheless.)  We finished the day by trekking to the beach area (first time I had ever seen the Mediterranean!!!) and exploring the night life of the city. In Barcelona, a lot of the clubs are located right on the beach, which I am definitely a fan of.  With the beach, there's a different attitude in Barcelona than in Madrid...it's more of a relaxed, beachy vibe as opposed to Madrid's big city vibe. (I'm not biased at all 100% biased, but I like Madrid better.)

The next day, we hit the big sites.  We saw La Sagrada Familia (one of the coolest cathedrals I have ever seen in my entire life, pictures do not do it justice unfortunately) and then went to Parc Guell, again both of them designed by Gaudí.  Parc Guell can only be described as a whimsical architectural place that looks like it's something out of candyland.  It also has one of the best views of Barcelona, where you can see the entire city (including La Sagrada Familia) and the sea too. (Classic solo pics were a must.)  After a long day of being tourists, we finally made it to the beach.  It was a beautiful warm day and we got to just lay out, swim in the Mediterranean a bit, and relax.  At night, we went out to a bar called Espit Chupitos, where they only serve shots.  But they have a million to choose from.  The names of the shots I took were: Boy Scout (you roasted a marshmallow on the bar and used it as a chase after the shot), Orgasm, Titty Twister, Son of a Bitch, we just told the bartender: "suprise us" (literally have no idea what it was...), and finally....HARRY POTTER!!!!!!!! I took a shot called Harry Potter so I think it's safe to say now that my life is complete; when I die I'll be a happy person.  After that we went out to a club and then it was time to pack our bags and head to the airport at 6am to catch our 730 flight.

Parc Guell

View of the city from Parc Guell

Espit Chupitos- some of the options of shots

Boy Scout Shot (Roastin mallows!)

All in all, it was a great weekend trip and I am so lucky I was able to make it to Barthelonaaaaa (gotta love the Spanish lisp)

They Can't All Be Winners

This entire trip I've had the mentality of "if it's cheap, why the hell not?!"  This is how I ended up booking a 30 euro day trip to Salamanca, a small university town 2 and a half hours northwest of Madrid.  Why would I not jump on the opportunity to spend only 30 euros?? It was with a program for university students that would introduce you to the city and then take you on a pub crawl and give you discounted drinks. What could go wrong with that? (spoiler alert: a lot can go wrong.)

I woke up, so excited to be traveling again!.....until I noticed it was raining. and cold. Up until this point, we had had 80 degree and sunny beautiful weather THE ENTIRE MONTH. And it decided to rain today...perfect. So I grabbed my rain coat, sucked it up, and told myself that a little rain was nothing!  

Upon arrival to Salamanca (still raining) we went up and saw the famous cathedral.  It's soooo pretty!! We did get lucky because after walking up steps after steps after steps, when we got to the top, it stopped raining for just a few minutes, long enough to snap a few pics!


For the rest of the day, we thought we were going to have a tour or something of that sort so we knew which sites to see, but the person in charge just left us to our devices and told us to meet back for the pub crawl.

So we walked around for a bit, explored the city, walked around some more................






......and there wasn't really much else to do.  We saw Salamanca's Plaza Mayor (again, it stopped raining long enough to take a picture, see below!) which was pretty cool but even that did not take too long.  So, the most logical thing to do was to find some food.

This trip became a food discovery day trip.  We went from restaurant to restaurant, trying different pastries, desserts, tapas, dinner, sangria, etc.  By far, the best thing we ate was a gofre, or a waffle. We went to this dessert place and ordered a gofre with chocolate syrup and ice cream.  This is the best dessert I have eaten thus far at study abroad (besides chocolate y churros which kind of don't count for dessert because Spanish people eat them for breakfast...)  There also must have been some cinnamon sugar baked into the waffle or something because there was an added taste in the gofre that made it so much better than a normal one.

After our 7 meals (you think I'm exaggerating...), it was time for the pub crawl.  Finally, time to drink and everything would be better again!!!

Wrong. The pub crawl ended up starting at 10pm, which in Spain is equivalent to starting a night going out at 8pm....aka no one is out except for weird people. They took us to a bar and we were the first people there (like it wasn't even open yet when we got there) They gave us a free shot (which I can't complain about) but then we stayed at that same bar for two and a half hours.  After an hour of being weird and goofing around, there really was not too much else to do.  We were full on food and so drinking a lot did not seem too appealing, and so we just had to wait it out.

We left the pub crawl at around 2 to head back to the bus.  While we had decided not to drink a lot, others in our group from different universities did not feel that way.  So thankfully the bus driver had plastic bags, because there were girls puking, girls falling down on the bus, people singing songs, and girls crying left and right. The biggest (pardon my french) shit show I have seen in quite some time.

I wish the weather had been better so we could have explore more and I wish I had researched the city prior to leaving so I knew the main things to do and see.  Salamanca seemed like a great place for students because it is a university town, but because I was not familiar with the city, I felt like I couldn't get as much out of it as I could have..
I have absolutely no regrets about going because I would have been more mad at myself if I had not gone and had wondered what it would have been like.
If I had studied abroad there, there's no doubt I would have loved it!
However, it did make me realize how lucky I am to be in Madrid and how much I love my city :)

Sooooo while it wasn't the most amazing trip or anything, I can't say I'm mad that I went.  There's no time to have regrets while abroad, so I'm embracing the failure of the trip and loving that I can laugh about it now.

Toledo!

View of the whole city

On Friday, the whole BC en Madrid group (rolling 40 deep) had our first group trip to Toledo, a city about an hour outside of Madrid.  A really long time ago, (I technically could go look at my notes and get precise dates...but that would mean moving out of bed sooooo not about that...) control of the city changed hands between many different groups so there are Christian, Muslim, and Jewish influences all throughout the city.  It's a city with TONS of history, which makes sense that we would go there.  The trip was educational and counted as class time because I am taking a class in Madrid that's basically an art/history/culture class with the BC Professor who lives here in Madrid.  The class is only offered for BC students, and the majority of the group is taking it.  Therefore, since the trip was for a class, we couldn't just zone out and take a few pics  were lucky enough to take notes and pay attention to all the explanations of each site!

La Catedral de Santa María de Toledo

All in all, the trip was a great start to the class and a good way to introduce us to some of the places and things we'll be studying in the coming weeks.
Because I took notes, (hopefully) my pictures will be labeled correctly here! Although with my luck I misheard things or got things confused and nothing is right here...which in reality would not really affect anyone, considering I'm pretty sure you will not care too much about the pictures of buildings that you are about to look at.  But oh well, enjoy some of the sights of Toledo!

San Juan de los Reyes

(Found a street called Toledo de Ohio. This would be cool if Ohio wasn't so icky.)

Nuestra familia! (Isabel came with us)

The group! (missing a few here & there)

View of the Catedral from the street

La Mezquita Cristo de la Luz