Relaxation in the Baleares

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This weekend we took a super easy trip to Mallorca, one of Spain's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. It was off season here, too, so everything was super cheap, tourist free compared to what it's like in the summer, and still much warmer than it was here in Bilbao over the weekend. Palma de Mallorca is the main city there, and we stayed in one of the next towns over, Palmanova, which we got into Thursday night, had dinner in town, and went to bed relatively early. Friday was our nicest day there, so we took our homework and stuff to the beach and enjoyed the sand and sun. The island is breathtakingly gorgeous and we had no problem just soaking in the scenery for a couple hours. We went to some of the shops in town and sat down for a snack on the beachfront. Siesta comes every afternoon in every town in Spain, so during the afternoon we took a boat ride that went along the coast of the island and some of the nooks, caves and lighthouses along the coast - the island just kept getting prettier! After the cruise, we found an adorable open-air cafe that had what is apparently the afternoon special in Mallorca: cafe con leche, liquor, and a slice of cake. It was a delightful afternoon treat! We decided to go into the main city of Palma that night for dinner and drinks, and again, being off-season, we were able to go to what is usually one of the most expensive clubs in Mallorca for free. It was a lot of fun, but going out at night in Spain is exhausting - nothing gets going until 3 in the morning!

Saturday, we still got up early for breakfast at our hotel before taking the bus back into Palma to see some of this historic city. Even the big city of the island is beautiful. There isn't a single straight street in Palma because if the port city were ever to be attacked, no attacker would ever have a straight shot with a gun or arrow. There is a gorgeous church that we visited, Catedral Seu, which is the only cathedral in Europe that is reflected in the water. We also found a traditional artesan market where we got to watch traditional Mallorcan products being made and then sold; it was really cool to see. We sat down for a sushi lunch, which was amazingly fresh since we were so close to the ocean, and then took a bus back to Palmanova, where we walked around a bit and tried to do some more homework even though we were still distracted by the gorgeous landscape. Saturday was a big day for , or soccer, in Europe, and every pub in town was playing the games. We found a nice quiet pub, owned by an incredibly kind Scottish man, and spent the evening chatting with him, watching the game, and enjoying some pub grub. We went to bed relatively early and slept in, enjoying the last night of our relaxing trip to Mallorca.

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Photos

Palmanova2
The view from our hotel