The beach at last...

Last week was a long, hard, stressful week. From the uncharacteristic, and never-ending rain that may have ruined my toms, to spending countless hours looking at art-history slides, Spanish vocabulary, Catalan History dates, etc... in preparation for Mid-terms, come Friday I was exhausted. Not only was I exhausted, but I was also extremely anxious to get out of my apartment after having been cooped up studying, and dying to relax in the sun after having been running in the rain for a week. Mallorca was the answer to this pitiful week.

Thank goodness I had the idea a few weeks back to plan a trip to the beach after Mid-terms; at the time I had no idea just how grateful I would be. Come the end of my last exam Friday afternoon, however, I was jumping out of my skin... all I wanted was the beach. Because our taxi was arriving at 4:00 am, in order to make the 5:50 flight, three of the four us made the "wise" decision not to go to sleep beforehand. Sadly enough, despite our attempts at playing "truth or dare" minus the "dare," listening to music, watching TV shows, and eating tons of candy, being the pathetic college students that we are, we only made it to 2:30. At 2:30 I snuggled up in the twin bed with Maggie, while Nicki was in the other bed, and thoroughly enjoyed an hour and a half nap, that seemed to only make me more exhausted. Nevertheless, we woke up, made it to the airport, and survived another TERRIFYING flight (terrifying to the point that the passengers applauded when we safely made it to the ground), making it to Mallorca at 7:30 in the morning.

I had no idea what to expect from Mallorca, however, upon arriving I was absolutely thrilled. Being a small island off the coast of Spain, I immediately found all I needed: salty air, an ocean, palm trees, sand, and a pretty iffy hostel to sleep in. Lucky for us, it was about 9 am when we reached the hostel, therefore we had the time to take a nap before beginning our day. Though we probably could have slept all day, we set out to find food, the ocean and the sunshine.

After a quick lunch at a small café, we found the water. Although we had yet to find the beach, we just couldn't resist laying on the boat dock, and soaking in the sun. It was about time for a nice sun burn :)

After "laying out," napping a bit more, and singing along to our ipods, we decided it was time to continue our exploration, and took a taxi to what we believed was going to be an entertaining area of Mallorca. Once we arrived, however, we discovered that 90% of the shops had gone out of business, and that we should call our taxi driver and ask her to come back - thank God she was sweet enough to give us her card. While waiting, we got Ben & Jerry's out of pure excitement that they had it in Spain, wandered a bit, watched some kids play on the carousel, and headed back to where we were to meet the driver. Sadly enough, after the small adventure, we were desperate for another nap, and headed back to the hostel for "snuggle time." 

After prying ourselves out of bed for the second time that day, we enjoyed a nice Italian dinner (only thing we could find), then called it an early night.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and set off to find some coffee and croissants. After filling our bellies, we headed up the mountain to experience the BEAUTIFUL castle, and the breath taking views that it provided. We spent a while just walking around in complete awe, unable to comprehend how such beauty existed, and why it wasn't appreciated more often. Seeing the beach, next to the mountains, with a warm sun shining above them both is officially my favorite. There is nothing with which you can compare such beauty.


Finally, we pried ourselves off of the mountain, in order to make it to the boat ride we so badly wanted to take. It started pretty sourly, when my favorite pink, Juicy sunglasses were stolen from right in front of my closed eyes. As I was waiting for the boat I decided to sunbathe, only to discover that for the few minutes that my eyes were closed, a sneaky thief stole my glasses, which put a damper to the beginning of the ride, however, it soon got better. Not only was I able to have two conversations with strangers in clear Spanish, but then I also got to enjoy Sangria, sunshine, laughter, and the ocean with my favorite girls. And though the "captain" asked if we wanted another free ride because we were entertaining, we turned him down, and went to eat lunch on the water.

The rest of the day consisted of a short shopping spree to find more sunglasses for my burning eyes, another nap/snuggle time, then a second dinner with our favorite waiter at the same Italian restaurant as the night before. Once stuffed, we went next door to receive the free drinks we were promised at a small bar, only to find the free drink was a bribing tactic to bring in more customers... we had the ENTIRE bar/dance floor/ etc... to ourselves for the night :) Though pathetic, it was actually pretty fun and got us tired enough to enjoy another wonderful nights rest in the hostel (after of course, getting to talk to Tavarres on Skype, YAY!!)

Sunday, it was time to go home... or I guess not home, but rather my current home away from home. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by my excitement to return to Barcelona, despite the fun I had on my travels. This one definitely was the most relaxing, and "rejuvenating," full of sleep and sun-bathing, rather than exploring and sight-seeing, nevertheless it was the beach, and it was wonderful.

I am truly amazed that there are only 7 weeks left until I am back at home with you guys. I say that each week, but I think it just keeps flying by a little faster each day. I miss and love ALL OF YOU dearly, and grow more appreciative of you with each communication struggle I have, rude person I encounter, feeling of fear and confusion that I feel... and will be happy to be back in the States when it is time.

All my love.