Mallorca
05/2019
After a whole lot of discussion about what would be a nice play to discover and take some time off my friend and I booked a flight to Mallorca. I’ve been to Spain before, but never on the island of Mallorca. Our plan was to do a full circle of the island by rental car and have two Airbnb places to stay at.
On our first full day we went to what was told to be the beach with the bluest water on the whole island. It was not exaggerated! It was even warm enough for us to have a quick dip there.
We continued along the coast to a more rugged piece of coast, through Ses Salines where we had a great iced coffee.
Our second day consisted of a small trip to Cala Figuera, followed by a visit to the national park Mondragó. Unfortunately that was when I started feeling sick for whatever reason. So sick that I could barely find any joy in the beautiful place we’ve been in. Weird and embarrassing as it may be to write about it, after we arrived back at our Airbnb I had to spew and felt horrible for a while. Our host was lovely, brought me some hot lemon and saw to it that I felt better.
Since they invited us to join them to go to a dance party that night I was just trying to feel better so we could go. And it was worth going, too. The dance party was quite a while away from where we were staying, on a farm outside of a town. There was good music to dance to. Being no dancing people we took some time to warm up to the idea, but eventually mingled in between the dancing crowd. There was good food to be enjoyed, which I did thoroughly after feeling sick all day. When we all got too cold to continue dancing and being there we headed home.
Entering the third day it was already time to say goodbye to the hosts we learned to like a lot. We did not want to leave at all. On our way to the next accommodation we stopped to have a nice paella for lunch and decided to stop another time, further along, to do a little hike.
Taking a path from Cala Agulla we wanted to walk up to something called Torre de Son Jaumell, a little tower ruin on top of a hill. Unfortunately neither of us was any use when it came to following the instructions given by the hiking book we were following. After missing the right path we were stuck at a cove. Obviously not being the right way, we turned back and took another route. We were greeted by a path that was steeper than we’d expected and even had some parts where you straight out had to climb a bit. At least we knew by markings from other hikers that there actually was a path. We guessed that it might not be the path we were supposed to take. Nevertheless – we arrived at the top of the mountain to have a beautiful view over what seemed like the whole island! On our way down what path we were supposed to take was revealed to us – it would have been way easier…
Upon arrival at our next Airbnb we had a rather strange welcome. Our host was really mad at us for opening the gate without calling her on the phone first, she kept mentioning that over and over again and we got a really strange vibe of her. The room we had was not great, we had to walk through the living room, where she was sleeping, to get to the bathroom and bedroom. The house smelt of smoke and the room was damp. So we were not keen at all to stay there for the remaining days.
After a crisis meeting at the Indian restaurant in the town nearby we decided to book another accommodation at the place we were going to visit on the next day and let our host know that we will only stay one night. In the morning we got talking to her and after a while she seemed nice enough, still strange but nice. It did not change the fact that the Airbnb was not in a great condition tho, so we set off to go to Sóller, a very well known little town in the mountains of Mallorca.
As someone who has not been driving a car for years, driving through the mountains felt like a personal hell. Especially in spring time there are abundances of cyclists covering the roads in groups. They are hard to overtake since the streets are narrow and curvy. After a few hours of driving a sheep jumped down onto the road, right in front of our car. The only thing that kept us from hitting the sheep and catapulting into certain death was the fact that I was so slow because of how scared I was from all the cyclists, that I was able to brake in time. That was no fun at all. We took a short break to relax our stressed minds and continued.
Driving through the mountains seems worth it when you get to arrive in a town like Sóller. Picturesque. And so was our Airbnb, located in the heart of the town in a little alleyway. Our host recommended a place to eat a town further up the hill, which we walked to in the golden hours of the day. It was just perfect. The way the hills were bathed in golden sunlight and the trees hanging full of brightly colored lemons and oranges. I was in awe.
We would have loved to stay a few more nights in Sóller but it was already time to head back to the airport. The way was not too long, tho, that gave us the opportunity to stop by Port de Sóller for a swim.
Valldemossa was also a town I did not want to miss on our way through to Palma, so we stopped there for a short walk through town.
When we got back to the airport to hand over our car we had a bunch of hours left before our flight, so we got bus tickets and headed into the city for dinner. I did not know that the famous party beach was not actually in the city but close to the airport. So the city of Palma was much to my surprise quite nice and a good addition and ending to our stay on Mallorca.