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Published: March 4th 2007
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Tapas
Drinking Anis at the tapas restuarant, it was so good to have a night out with old Welly mates! Well, finally another chance to put up an entry in my “travel” blog, as I managed to break away from the hum drum of work to chalk up another country; Spain.
Actually I’ll start with the latest London news which most (if not all) of you will know which is that Michelle made the trip over and as of the 21st of Jan has joined me here. The last couple of weeks knowing that her arrival was only just around the corner was really tough and the days dragged out for an age, but finally the hour arrived. Michelle had booked a hotel for the first couple of nights and I devised a little plan to make her arrival all the more special.
I used my natural charm to sweet talk my way into her room earlier in the afternoon and setup my laptop with some relevant tunes and spread candles and rose petals all around the room. I had a tactic arranged with the desk guy that I would fake a need for the bathroom so I could rush up ahead as Michelle checked in and quickly light the candles and set the music playing. Then it was
Paco!
Such a cool guy! We even convinced him to join us in a shot. off to Heathrow.
Tardiness has never been a problem but turning up at the airport a full two hours before the flight was due to land was taking things just a bit too far! Then it was another hour waiting by the gate after the plane landed with what turned out to be trouble getting the luggage on the belt. Seeing Michelle walk through the gate after more than six months without her was amazing, just great to have her in my arms again. It was really fun to take her on the train from Heathrow and then on the tube. Luckily Michelle was much too tired and jet lagged to wonder how I knew exactly where her hotel was! And with a quick grin from the desk guy at the hotel I complained of a need for a slash and ducked up to the room. Michelle seemed pretty blown away when she walked into the room, but most of all it was just awesome to be just us again.
Well skip ahead a month and we’ve moved out of my Stratford flat, which was a blessing mixed with sadness as I loved the people in that flat,
Me and the girl.
On tour with Michelle. It was so fantastic to share with Michelle's first expedition into a non-English speaking country. but I had really had enough of living with so many people. You never know though, Michelle and I may yet go back to a sharehouse as it is a really good way to save cash for travel. Travel then it was as we embarked for our first European excursion and the first time I had left the country since coming back in October.
Majorca (or Mallorca) was an obvious choice as both Matt and Roy were currently there working so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet them both for a weekend. It started early on Friday morning and a Sleazy Jet flight from Stanstead (It’s bizarre to have to get used to all the different airports in London!) to Palma where we arrived to sunny skies and a nice 24 degrees. As we went to grab our first bus I suddenly realised I hadn’t brought my phrase book and hadn’t even thought to brush up on a few vital Spanish words, so it was learning on the job and at least I had picked up a couple dozen by the end of the weekend. We met up with Matt and Roy early on Friday and Roy
Living it up in Palma
We also met up with Hayden, and are already looking a bit pissed here... taught me the most important Spanish phrase; “Dos ceveza por fa vour. Ce, ce grande!” Please excuse my Spanish spelling, but that basically means, “two pints thanks mate.”
We ate at a traditional type tapas restaurant where the highlight was the owner of the place, Paco, who knew Matt and Roy and offered the most welcoming and excellent service I’ve even seen. Tapas for those not in the know are basically plates of snack type food designed to be eaten as you drank. Which we started to do with gusto! The house red wine was fantastic and that was a characteristic of anywhere we went in Majorca, so maybe is a Spanish thing. Along with the bottles of wine, Paco began to serve us (on the house) shots of Anis, a traditional Majorcan spirit made with herbs which was deceptively potent. We then moved to a couple of other bars where we kept up with a solid amount of drinking, including shots on the house from a friendly Taranikian bar owner as we celebrated the ‘Cane’s 11-10 win over the Brumbies. We finished up the night about 12:30am with plans to meet at 9am, Matt and Roy having already
Corner Bar
Roy and I in one of the local yachty hangouts. picked up a rental car for the day.
I was woken up at 9am by Matt ringing my mobile and wondering how far away we were from coming down! Suffice to say I had just woken up to what turned out to be the worst hangover of my life. We stumbled into the car and began a horror 45 minute drive north as I fought to keep from calling for an emergency pull over. We spent the day driving around the beautiful scenery of stunning coastline, some crazy roads and oh so Spanish towns. Once I was over the worst of the hangover I got the chance to do some driving for the first time since leaving NZ and it was very odd to be in a left hand drive car, I kept almost opening the door as I went to change gears. The hardest thing was judging where the right hand side of the car was, which did prove important as I drove us down Sa Colabra road where the tour buses came whipping road the hair pin bends.
The day ended at a famous lamb restaurant which turned out to be the most unwelcoming and unfriendly
The drinks we forgot to pay for.
Drinking the caipirinha's that we eventually paid for about 20 hours later. Opps. place I have ever had the pleasure of spending my money. It was amazing quite how bad it was, a grumpy old guy served us, and by serve I mean he growled which items on the menu were “finito” and then glared at us as we ordered before stalking over to shove our plates in front of us! I actually didn’t want to order anything else for fear of upsetting the guy. Anyway, the food wasn’t all that flash either, just good home style farm cooking. Well I got to brave the dirt road drive back down the hill which really woke me up and I enjoyed the whole drive back to Palma as the motorway has a speed limit of 120km/h.
We didn’t have too much of a big night on our last night thanks to the continuing effect of my massive hang over, but did wander around Palma and drop into a couple of other places for a drink.
The next day it was another early rise as unfortunately we had to jet back to the real world. This time we went from sunny 24 degrees back to London (Luton this time) and pissing down rain,
Getting drunk.
I am actually in this picture, yup, that's my finger. strong winds and single figure temperatures... Welcome home.
Well as I write this Michelle is in Austria doing a week long contiki snowboarding trip on which I wish money and work hadn’t got in the way of me joining. Oh well, there is always next season. Hopefully by then Michelle would have found herself a decent job and we will have saved up enough for a good long boarding excursion.
Untill then it’s back to the real world and a boring old job.
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mum
non-member comment
Sounds a great trip and so lovely to see your blog again! Beautiful photos, must have been so fun doing the trip together and then meeting your mates. We've just returned from NZ this afternoon, I'm knackered and keep making typing errors! Is the travelling in Europe very expensive? Or are cheap airfares common? I've had no money on my phone so havent been able to text anyone. I'll top up tomorrow and will be back in communicado land! Love to ya both mumxxxx