June 25-26 – Alcúdia and a Swimming Pool

Apologies in advance for not posting this sooner. I'm going to post back-to-back entries from the past 4 days so make sure to read them all! :)

Fri. June 25th

On our last Friday together, our group decided to go to Alcúdia for the day. Alcúdia is located in northern Mallorca and is one of the peninsulas of the island. We got the 11 AM bus and the bus ride was about an hour long. We didn’t know too much about the city, so we talked to a woman in Spanglish at the information desk. She told us that if we wanted to go to the beach or catch a bus to Formentor (the other peninsula), we would have to walk to the Porto de Alúdia (the Port). So we walked about 15 minutes to get to the port.

After we got there, we realized that the next bus to Formentor wasn’t until 2:45 PM, so we decided to go the beach for about an hour. The beach was gorgeous. The water was very clear. The water closest to the shore was a turquoise blue color and further away it was a dark blue color. We saw people parasailing, wind surfing, and using paddle boats that had slides on the back of them. I went in the water for a bit and then read my book and relaxed on the beach. Around 2:20, we headed back to where the bus stop was to go to Formentor. Some of our friends from the program have previously been with their padres and they said that there’s an amazing look-out point off of one of the cliffs, so we were excited to see that. We then realized that the bus ride was going to be 40 minutes long and the next bus wouldn’t return back to Alcúdia until 5:30 PM. We were starting to hesitate about whether we wanted to do this or not, but then our decision was made for us when the bus never showed.

Most of our group decided to head back to the beach, but my friend Ashley really wanted to see the Roman ruins that were in Alcúdia so I headed back to the town with her. Unfortunately for us, we found out that the ruins and the museum closed at 2 PM for the day. (Wish the information desk lady had thought to pass that info along when we asked about the ruins…). However, we found a small fence and wall and were able to walk around the perimeter and catch glimpses of the ruins. It wasn’t the same as seeing them close up, but it was better than nothing. Afterwards, we walked around for a bit and explored the city. We came around some ancient castles/fortresses and one had a staircase that led to a path the circled the fortress above the ground. So pretty much we were able to walk around this pathway and look down on the houses and roofs and get a pretty awesome view of the city. It was really cool and I took some pictures.

We returned back around 5:30 PM to catch the bus home and met up with the rest of the group. Most of us slept or listened to music on the ride home since the sun really tires you out. After I got back, I hung out with my padres for a little bit and then ate dinner and watched the fútbol game. My friends and I were pretty tired so we decided to rest up and save our energy to go to the discoteca the following evening since it would be our last Saturday night in Palma.


Sat. June 26th

I got to sleep in until 11:30 AM today and it was pretty awesome. I definitely needed to catch up on sleep after my mini finals week. I had made plans with my family to go to Toni’s mother’s house because she has a swimming pool. Sira, the granddaughter, slept over our house the night before so I played with her for a while before it was time to go.

Toni’s mother wasn’t there so it was just the regular crew: Loli, Jaime, and Paca; Eva, Toni, and Sira; Mame, Virginia, Jaime, and Miguel; and me. This would be the first time I was in a pool all summer and I was excited to experience chlorine water after all of the salt water in the Mediterranean Sea. The pool water was pretty cold, but all of the grandkids were fearless. We all swam around together, they would jump and their moms would catch them, and we tossed around a ball too. After about an hour of swimming, everyone got out and dried off and got ready for lunch. I had chicken, tortilla de patata (a round cake-like object that tastes like eggs and potatoes that I actually really like), and eggplant meat (which I first had shortly after I came here). It was all very yummy.

I sunbathed by the pool for a bit and then the grandkids wanted to go in again. This time I got to be one of the “catchers” and Jaime would jump into the water with a big splash and then latch onto my arms. The kids had a lot of fun and I did too. After we toweled off again, Jaime presented me with a piece of paper that had a drawing on it. On the top was his complete name (he has 4 last names). The drawing was of a sun and a swimming pool and in the pool he had drawn little people and had labeled them Lauren, Sira, Eva, Toni, Mama, Papa, Jaime, Miguel, y Abuela. It was the cutest thing ever! I asked if I could take a picture of it and then he told me that I could keep it. I gave him a big hug and thanked him for this awesome present.

We returned back home and I showered and then went on my computer for a little while. After dinner, I had made plans with my friends to meet up that night. We first went to the place where there are beer taps on every table and you can serve yourself beer. We also had the biggest group ever going out that night: there were 13 of us from the Arcadia program and then there were also 2 friends that were visiting so all together there were 15! Afterwards, we watched down along the port to get to our favorite disco: Abraxas. We definitely made the most of our last Saturday night together and danced the night away! We returned very late/early in the morning and I shortly went to bed after I got home.