Day 3 (Soller, Valldemossa, Fornalutx)

Today was AWESOME. First, I woke up too early to report, after maybe 4 hours of sleep, but I was so psyched I didn't even notice. I took an old fashioned train up to Soller, which is along the northwest coast. The train is super rad.

Soller is up in the mountains, tucked away in a beautiful little valley. I took so many pictures, it's kind of disgusting, but there's no way I can post them all here. You'll have to check out Flickr for the rest. the link is in Day 2 or something.

Soller and really Mallorca as a whole are supposed to have amazing oranges. When I got off the train in Soller, there was a street market, and there were people juicing their oranges right there. I'm not a huge fan of orange juice but OH MY GOSH

I know my pictures are limited, but this was SO DELICIOUS I assumed that some of its magnificent flavor might be potent enough to reach you through here. You're welcome.

I then caught a bus that ran along through several small towns, including Deia and Llucrasomethingcara. They are all amazing, and there are random turrets and such, and who doesn't love a good turret? I ended up in Valldemossa, a small medieval town. And it was pouring rain. I was literally soaked. But it was still quite warm and I braved through. And found THIS:

This round little piece of love is some sort of potato bread topped with powdered sugar. Be jealous.

Munching on my tasty treat and wandering about literally covered in white powder like a 5-year old, I came up to the old monastery. It is very cool and old, and Chopin stayed there with his man lover for some time. Here is his piano!

Bask in its glory. There was also an old apothecary, all creepy and such. I'm pretty sure old medicine just made everyone sicker. I get sick just looking at it.

After wandering about some more, I made my way back to Soller, and wanted to get to Fornalutx. It's only 3.5km away, and is supposed to be a pretty walk, so that's what I set out to do. About maybe 5 minutes out, an awesome old guy on his scooter stopped, and gave me a ride into town! At least I think he was offering me a ride, I just heard a ramble of Spanish and "Fornalutx", and I smiled and hopped on. Maybe he just took me there to get rid of the crazy girl that jumped on his scooter. I snapped a photo as he dropped me at the main plaza:

Thank you kind sir!

I found a staircase, and climbed it. Then it led to another, so I was like, hey, why not? And then that happened about 15 more times, and I ended up halfway up the mountain. The view was spectacular, and I saw some chickens, but I got very lost. It's alright though. I eventually found my way to the restaurant I wanted to find, and had calamari stuffed with meat. It was so good I almost died. It was also the first real meal I'd had since arriving in Europe, so the joy was overwhelming. I don't care if it looks gross to you, it was little happy dancing squid heads to me. Tasty ones.

Yummmmm. Belly full, I began the hike back to Soller. I got maybe 10 minutes this time, and a taxi pulled beside me, and yelled... something... I understood "Soller" and "gratis". I hopped on in! He chattered away in Spanish as I stared wide-eyed and said "uh-huh". The thing about being here is, even if you tell them you don't speak spanish, they still blast off full speed ahead. I got lucky and suddenly my brain clicked, and I got this much:
He is from Yugoslavia,
He was married in New York and his wife is very pretty,
He has family in the US and Canada,
He has lived in Mallorca for 20 years.
He also asked me a few questions, like why I was visiting, where I was from, etc. You would be impressed. I am properly acclimated to this foreign land. I am an expert now.

Back in Soller, I took the old school trolley to Port de Soller, a beautiful port with a beach I wanted to swim at very badly.

Then, sadly, I had to tram and train my way back to dear Palma. I fell asleep several times on the train though, so it was probably about time I headed back.

Day 2 (Palma)

I pulled out my computer to start posting this literally like 6 hours ago. Although the distraction is not to be regretted, I apologize if this post is somewhat sleepy and disoriented. I woke up around last night to my roommate running into my bed trying to find the lightswitch cleverly hidden in the back corner (to turn it off, because we had all apparently fallen asleep with the lights on- actually probably because no one could find the lightswitch. This is a very long parenthesis message). I was confused by this, not by the sudden mild chaos, but the fact that moments before I had been thinking, oh my gosh, it's light out, I need to get up! Then, in the now darkness, I checked the clock to find it was in fact 4:35am. So my body is in a constant state of time confusion.

So it is for this reason I decided to come home around 6ish, get stuff posted, get my things in order, and get to bed early, as I will be up at 6am tomorrow. But, instead I made friends! First, it was Michael from England and Jasper (pronounced Yasper) from Holland. We talked for like 5 hours, then some Americans showed up, a whole bunch, but I only photo'ed Tim and Justin. In the photo I am about to post, they are in the order I just listed them.

They are awesome. I guess I am working backwards--
----
I would just like to add at this point that I got distracted for another 2 hours. That is all.

Anyway, before I got back I wandered back out into the city like a starving puppy. I decided on a sandwich which appeared to be mostly cheese, olives, and jalapenos. For some reason, despite my strong dislike for olives or that much straight up jalapeno, that is what I chose. I also picked some shiny apple pastry thing for good measure.

Shiny. I only really ate the outside part of the pastry, along with the apples on top, because it was filled with some weird pasty stuff that was merely mediocre. What is it with me not finding a proper dessert?

So the sandwich turned out NOT to have jalapenos after all. I became aware of this as I bit into it, immediately after I decided that no one "jams" (as in the sweetening and preserving of foods) jalapenos. At closer inspection, I can only conclude that they peel and flatten giant slugs, and slice them diagonally to put on sandwiches. Don't mistake me. The sandwich was delicious. Although I was starving and probably would have happily eaten jammed, smashed sliced slugs, it continued to be tasty one I had worked past my hunger-driven delusions. Upon further thought, the mystery ingredient was probably figs or something, but you never know. I am in a strange new world.

Hm. Before that was probably just my chunk of morning-time. This included sipping some sort of drink like blended frozen watermelon, which was very satisfying, and trying to find what I thought was a large outdoor market with produce and the like. I do think after the many awkwardly flat stairs, I found where it was supposed to be, but only found some little shops with clothing and fancy doo-dads. But I was content. The stairs were pretty enough to see, and I was properly sugared up with my watermelon granitada.

Then I meandered my way through the town to the sea. It was beautiful. It's quite nice, you can feel the sea breeze winding its way through the narrow alleyways as you get closer. I then hit up the Palau de l'Almudaina, a palace for those of you who don't speak gibberish, which has been around since prehistoric times. That's right. T-rex's built this. Just kidding. I just mean before recorded history. And by "I" I mean "the word prehistoric". I also saw the Catedral, not a typo, I'm being cultured. It was huge. And... like most big awesome cathedrals are. And then I saw the Banys Arabs, pretty much a tiny little Arab bathhouse. It had some pretty gardens, too. Here are a few pics:

 This is the cathedral. It is huge.

 This is inside the palace. I would show you the outside, but it is right next to the Catedral, which is enormous and pretty much completely outshines it like a diva. This is called the hall of the fireplaces. 3 guesses why. Right after this photo, I was going to take one of the AWESOME gold helmet with a huge dragon on it, but was promptly yelled at that photos were not allowed. Whoopsies.

 This is the bathhouse. You cannot take a bath in here anymore. Well you can certainly try, but the tourists watching the video next door might give you some looks. And I don't like looks when I'm bathing.

This is the outside of the bathhouse. I kind of liked the doorway more than the actual bathhouse, so I decided to share it with you too.

HIGHLIGHTS
So you know how in Europe, their cigarette boxes have those huge messages like "SMOKING KILLS" and the like? Well, I found out that is not the only thing that can kill you.

Ta-daaa! And at first what I thought was a Hitler-stache, is actually a little slot with someone peering through. I hope you can see clearly enough to get the whole effect.

I have also included a cute graffiti and a cool picture of Jasper.

I don't think I mentioned this before, and I am far too lazy to go back and check, but I have been finding some quite cool graffiti arts. I am posting them on my Flickr account. Oh yes, and for those of you who have checked out my Flickr already, I apologize, you will find nothing. There was some sort of error, and they should be up by tomorrow night.

Part 2 of double double (Palma)

Day 1
I am here. I found my bus at the airport, despite there being 8 different signs for buses in a parking lot full of buses. I took it into Palma, Mallorca. On the bus I found this:

Which I took to mean, "If you are fat or have a cane, push this button". It's a different culture.

So I missed my actual bus stop, because I think the bus route lists getting gasoline as a stop, which didn't happen anyway. I almost missed the next one too, because the bus driver is a madman, and when I tried to get off the bus, the other passengers just stared at me blocking the entire walkway, and thank goodness someone yelled SPARTA! and the bus driver stopped and opened the doors again. I don't know what his connection is to Sparta, but it got me off the bus, so I'm happy. Like I said, it's a different culture.

So I get off the bus... and have no clue where I am. I don't want to bore you with super longness, so I'll give cliffnotes. ALi gets lost. She wanders around for a while, LOOKING like she knows where she's going, and it pays off because she eventually finds a street she knows. ALi gets to her AWESOME hostel in a BEAUTIFUL plaza, all in caps. Here be some pics

 The plaza

 The hostel

This is the super creepy cat that greeted me at the plaza. It doesn't move.

 The hostel is full of cool art and furniture.

 My room is through that door. I sit out here and do stuff. Because I can.

The hostel worker only speaks spanish, so ALi whips out a strange sort of Italian/High School Spanish/Made-up-words hybrid and confuses him. He can't get the card machine to work and blames her cards, so after 5 minutes she gets him to understand she just needs to find an ATM. He gives her instructions about 4 times, and she promptly runs in the wrong direction.

It's fine. He stopped her and sent her the other way, not that it did any good. After winding through the web of alleyways that is Mallorca, she found an ATM and somehow found her way back home, but not before encountering a friend along the way:

That's right. He's copyrighted.

I took a picture of a crumbly old wall, partly because I actually think it looks cool, and also because it is what actually got me un-lost.

Mallorca (or at least Palma so far) is beautiful. There is amazing architecture and every alleyway seems more interesting than the next, which is is how I got lost the third time. Except for the "passageway of Joan XXIII". Apparently people thought she was just small and dirty, because that's exactly what it was. I skipped it.

I kept seeing these around the city:

and can only conclude that the Daleks take care of Mallorca's garbage. Or eat it. Do Daleks eat? Apparently yes, Mallorca's garbage.

Speaking of eating, it got late and I was tired, so I bought some street food. I got a meat pie and some flaky powdery sugary thing... the dessert was fine, but the meat pie exceeded my expectations. It had jalapenos, and onions, and... beeef?.... all wrapped up in tasty flaky layers of buttery crust. I was actually going to take a picture of the inside, but got caught up in a blind blur of delicious fury. I hope you understand. But here are pictures of the outsides. They don't do it justice.

<3 <3 <3

 Meh.

Also, I had a date:

he was sticking his tongue out at me the whole time, but I accept him for who he is. Then a little boy ran into the plaza and chased all the kitties away.

OH! I sure hope you read this whole thing, because now you're in for a treat. Here were the highlights for today- First, in a huge busy plaza on a crowded street, a woman pulled up her little girl's dress, and picked her up in a chair-like position so she would go to the bathroom on a tree. I did not take a picture of this. Despite her putting her daughter on display, I don't think people take kindly to that sort of thing.

Secondly, here's a sweet moment:

Note: That girl is not actually his daughter, granddaughter, or of any sort of relation to him. She is in fact, a random girl that he pulled off the street to force into an impromptu Marimba lesson. No joke.
 
There are tons more pictures, which you can see on my flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alimook/. Just look for the albums labeled "Mallorca" or wherever I am in the future. Also, I may be a touch slower getting them up as it takes a while.

DOUBLE DOUBLE (Travel)

No, I am not going to write about the delicious, well loved In-And-Out food, though worthy it may be. I am doing a double post, for today and for yesterday. I was not able to post yesterday, because I was on a plane. And then get mad if you use the internets there. SO.

Day 0. I got to the airport. I got my tickets. They put my picture on them, but I don't think it really looks like me...

So I was super excited. As is to be expected. I got on my plane, and there began my love affair with Air Berlin.

Seriously currently number 1 on my awesome airline list. Which is funny because I was just talking that morning about how airlines are sucking more and more. First of all, they were super nice when I did not understand their silly garblespeak of a language, and thought maybe I could get by with lots of smiling and pointing. They brought drinks by probably 12 times during the flight, including sneaking a water bottle into my seat pouch while I was sleeping, so as not to disturb me through the night. I know, right? All I needed then was a cuddle and the night would have been complete.

They also fed me. TWICE. I took pictures. I think the lady next to me thought I was a starving orphan, amazed at the sight of food. I ignored her.

I think there is a strange phenomenon that happens, when we get free food in cute packages, that no matter what it is, we're going to like it. I won't describe the food, because it is probably very boring, but I was very excited about eating it.

I have not gotten to the best part yet though. This was an overnight flight. When I got to my seat, there was a pillow/blanket set. Very nice of them. Seems standard, but airlines these days, I appreciate the basics. But then later, came the goodie bag. I was handed a little drawstring bag with some gibberish on it with a word resembling comfort on in. Only it was more like wiercomwurtagenhogenbagen. Because that's how they do. I bolded the part that resembles the English word "comfort", because I'm super smart and know that the "w" in German sounds like an "f". Like wuck trying speaking German, pardon my French I mean German.

Back to the goodie bag. It was all smashed small in another plastic outer bag, so at first I thought, oh... a bag. Not that I didn't appreciate the gesture. Maybe it was to put my pillow and blanket into, I thought. I was wrong. I opened it. First comes out a sleepy mask. Very nice, particularly in changing time zones where the sun tries to burn out your body's time clock directly. Then, some earplugs. Earplugs really gross me out, but I smiled all the same. Then, they even included a travel toothbrush and toothpaste! Though thinking about it, that may be for their benefit as well, having to deal with cranky hordes of adult-babies with morning breath.

But that's not all. It was the last item that won my heart. I pulled them out in all their glory...

SOCKS!!! Yes. I wear flip flops to the airport, due to the near violation that is now security, but airplanes are always air-conditioned to the EXTREME, with the vents right by your feet. I actually did pack my own pair of socks for just that reason, but I thrust them aside in a dramatic fashion at the sight of such a romantic gesture.

Air Berlin, I am forever yours.

Oh yeah, I also had a small connecting flight, like 2 hours MAYBE, and they still gave me this:

A result of another awkward interaction of me smiling and pointing at another sandwich, trying to communicate to just give me any old sandwich they happened to have within arm's reach. It was delicious. They're German. It's got like 3 different cheeses on there.

As a closing thought, did anyone else ever used to do this?

I used to pretend I was a ninja Turtle. I did again this time, but mostly to brave the evils of a strange unidentified growing wet spot outside the bathrooms. And there was no way I was taking the socks off.

So I barely have enough attention span for this. Actually I don't, I got distracted like 3 times. But I am going to post day 1 on a new post, to provide a short break.

Day -1 (Intro)

Alright. I am no blogger. But I hate journaling more than blogging, and I hate not having a record more than blogging, but less than I hate journaling, so here I am caught in this strange middle ground of an online sort of not-journal, disguising itself as a blog. I <3 the internets.

I leave for my grand Euro-Adventure tomorrow, and I plan to keep track of every boring detail. Things have been bought, tickets acquired, hostels booked, CouchSurfing status verified. Well, really only about a third of the trip is set in place, but that seems to be the nature of the trip. I'm a go-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of a girl. Want to see my backpack? Well, I hope so because I need to learn how to put pictures on here, and that's what I'm excited about at the moment.

Ok So I just went to take a picture and got overexcited, so you not only get the backpack in all it's glory, but you get me modeling it for you. Enjoy.

 Backpack <3

Yup. A whole month+'s worth of life supplies, all crammed into that magic little packpack. That's not a type-o btw, some little kid used to say that and it was so cute it beat up the real word out of my brain.  Anyway I got way too into my little photo shoot, and Iri got all grumpy. She gave me this look:

I will miss her :(. And I suppose my friends and family. I suppose.