MALLORCA, SPAIN

I’m very sad to report that I did not finish all my blog posts about our study abroad trips before I left Spain. I’m currently writing the third to last travel weekend of study abroad on my plane back to America…next stop: CHICKFILA! Never have I ever wanted a #1 with no pickles, a diet coke, and 3 polynesian sauces more in my whole life. While I felt nauseous leaving Spain this morning due to sadness, there is always light at the end of a travel day (a perfect CFA sandwich and hugs from your family)   ANYWAY, let’s get moving on Mallorca—a little gem-of-an-island off of the east coast of Espana.
 
Trip narrative + helpful links to follow!

…

 
If you ever go abroad, you’ll probably receive some texts from friends at home wishing you a great time, but also sharing a contact or two of a mutual friend that will also be studying in that city. If they do this, ALWAYS text the friend that they recommended. Knowing as many people as you can in a foreign city makes it a whole lot more fun. So, as mentioned in my post on Chamonix, we had our friend Clayton (Laine’s mutual friend) come along to Mallorca…plus 4 more of his friends that he introduced us to over the course of us being abroad. Planning a trip with 8 people can be a bit difficult, however, once you find housing and everyone gets their flights booked, it was a breeze (at least for us). During our time in Mallorca, we rented an Airbnb for the weekend….equipped with a pool, a couple of terraces, and it was walking distance from the center of Palma. It was a little bit more expensive than our usual trips, however, with a group this big, we were just happy that we all got to stay together.
 
Laine, Lilly, and I had booked our flights to arrive on Thursday evening. We took off at 9:30 PM from Madrid and landed at almost 11:00 on the beautiful island of Mallorca. Leaving the airport was very easy—they had an efficient taxi system right outside of baggage claim. Our fare was about a 25-minute drive and a 21-euro fee. One down-side about islands is that they usually do not have Ubers or metros…just taxis and buses. When you take a cab from the airport to where you’re staying on the island, try to get the taxi driver’s number. The companies that we called during our time there were unreliable, and we continually received “no’s” when asking if they could send someone to pick us up. However, with that being said, Mallorca is crawling with taxis; if you are ever in need of one, go to the nearest “busy street” (one with stoplights) and you should be on the way to your destination in less than a minute.
 
Once we arrived, we checked out the Airbnb, dropped off our bags, and headed down the street to see if there were any grocery stores open. Luckily, there was a small little convenience shop with its lights on. We grabbed some chips and a couple of bottles of wine, walked home, showered, then settled down for a late-night movie. As soon as the movie was done, it was lights out.
 
The next morning, the rest of the group was expected to be landing around 10:00 AM. We got up around 9:30 and took a little 5-minute walk to our neighborhood grocery store to stock up on some essentials for the weekend. Around 10:30 all 8 of us were all reunited in Mallorca and getting ready for our day at Nikki beach! A few days before our trip, Rosie booked a table for us at this beach club. It included a reserved spot near the pool (with couches), a 200 euros food credit, and a bottle of champagne. I believe that we all paid a little less than $100 for these upfront costs. Once everyone was ready to go and had a couple of drinks in them, we tried calling at least 10 different taxi companies to see if they could send a driver to pick us up. Nikki beach had a rule that those who purchase a table must not arrive any later than 1:30; so when our time started to run out, we made a game-time decision to walk to the street by the grocery store to wave down a taxi….this really would have saved us some stress if we had known it would be this easy! We took two 20-minute cabs to Nikki beach and were soon sipping on some champagne in the glorious sun. 
 
The drink of choice for our day at the pool was a mojito. The servers suggested that with a group our size that we just get pitchers and share throughout the day. I honestly have no clue how many we got, but they were delicious and didn’t stop coming until the end of our day. Probably even more delicious than the mojitos was the food; the 200 euro credit supplied us with some incredible sliders, pizza, quesadillas, and more. We spent the entire day rotating between the ocean, pool, and napping on the couches—truly an ideal day at the beach. Also a bit of a heads up, Lilly and Laine got stung by some jellyfish in the water…beware!

 
Once the sun no longer provided any direct sunlight, it was time to pack up our things and catch a ride home. There was a long line of taxis waiting outside of Nikki beach, so we hopped in one of those and were home very quickly. Once we were all back, everyone showered, and we met on the rooftop for a nice glass of wine or gin and tonic. The views of the Airbnb were one of the best parts, especially in the evening with the sunset. However, Mallorca is a mountainous island and therefore, the houses there are somewhat “stacked” on each other. Because of this, our neighbors could see exactly what we were doing; and even worse, they could hear us perfectly. Let’s just say that we had one neighbor that was not our biggest fan. After we moved the party inside out of a combination of fear and respect for our neighbor, we drank red wine because it’s good for the heart, and even more so with great company <3 . All in all, we had a super fun day together and continued it long into the night.
 

The next morning, we woke up around 10:30 to some incredible smells coming from the kitchen  which were courtesy of Ryan and Akshay. The sweet boys woke up early, went to the grocery store, and were making everyone breakfast (if you’re a boy and you’re reading this, take notes). After we had begun our recovery process, we swam around in the pool for a while, then decided to move the party to town to check out the boat show that was happening that weekend. On our way, we stopped by a pop-up market that was near the Castell de Bellver. They had everything from hand-made pottery to clothing to sachets filled with dried herbs and flowers. After strolling for a bit, we ended up exploring the town to find a spot to eat. Getting a table for 8 can be very difficult, but we lucked out with a little café that had some tapas as well as some American food. Post lunch, the boys decided to go to the boat show, and the girls continued our stroll along the harbor back towards our Airbnb. Since it was getting closer to 5, we needed to head back to shower and get ready for dinner. We followed the previous night’s ritual: come back, get ready, meet upstairs for a drink. Rosie had also made this reservation for us; it was at La Terraza Victoria, a restaurant inside a hotel that just happened to be a 10-minute walk away from our Airbnb. Dinner was fantastic, but I do think that the entire group can agree that it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting. We booked this table based on its reviews of having a fantastic view of the sunset and harbor…we were seated inside and were definitely noted as the “loud Americans” in this extra quiet restaurant. However, the food was great and we were all just happy to be all dressed-up together. 

After dinner, we were in search for a chill bar on Avinguda de Gabriel Roca (a street near the harbor with a lot of bars). About 5 minutes into our search, we had a guy from a bar bribe us to come inside for free mojitos and shots. All I can say is that I never saw the mojitos. We came to find out that this was the strategy for most of the bars on the side of town, but we were down for a little bar hopping action. After about 3 different spots, we called it a night and went back to the Airbnb to finish our wine and play some games.
 
The next morning consisted of cleaning, packing, and a hunt for food. Once we were all ready to leave, we caught a taxi to a nearby brunch spot that was about 10 minutes away from our Airbnb. Once we got there, the restaurant was closed (despite what the hours on google had said). We opted for Cappuccino—a chain café restaurant with great brunch food. I had a delicious ham-and-cheese toasted sandwich and others had some yummy-looking avocado toast and eggs. Once the bill was paid, it was time for us to get in another cab and head to the airport to make our 1:35 flight back to Madrid. The Mallorca airport had very quick security but it did make us walk a long time to our gate. In an easy hour and a half we had landed back in Madrid and wishing we had another afternoon back on Nikki beach.
 
Mallorca was truly one of our most college study abroad trips that we did. Getting to travel with people that you have only known for around 3-4 months is an experience that I don’t think I will ever get to have again. I’m so lucky to have met all of those that I did while in Madrid, especially these people! Lots of love for you guys and for our awesome memories in Mallorca. Guess we will just have to plan a reunion trip soon…?
 
Thank you for reading! Safe travels 
 
<3,
Mary Price

Our Trip to Mallorca in a List:

• Airbnb: 
• Nikki Beach
• Market near Castell de Bellver
• Mallorca boat show (in Palma harbor)
• Food (we mainly cooked)
• Cafe near Castell de Bellver
• La Terraza Victoria (nice; get reservation)
• Cappuccino (walk-in cafe)

Tips:

• If you're looking for a cab, don't bother calling a company. Just go to the nearest "busy" street and you'll find one very quickly

If We Had More Time We Would...

• Explore the island more...I could've spent a week in Mallorca and not seen it all!
• Go hiking
• Go to a few of the castles on the island
• Spend some time beach-hunting (lots of small, little beaches tucked in coves in Mallorca)
• Rent an ATV for a couple of days to get around the island