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.