"C" Means Hot

This past week, Sarah and Lisa, a couple of my friends from home came to Palma for Spring Break.  I picked them up at the airport on Saturday evening where we encountered our first travel hiccup-Lisa’s luggage was still in Barcelona.  I felt so bad, as I’ve been through that before, and it’s such a hassle-especially after you’ve been traveling for about 24 hours.  Luckily, her bag arrived the next day and the airport was kind enough to drop it off at my apartment! 

Throughout the week, I introduced them to a bunch of tapas, sangria, and, of course, sobrasada and ensaïmada, all of which they seemed to like.  I was really proud of them for being so open-minded about new foods, they were down to try anything!  Way to go Sarah and Lisa!  I had the week off work, I had made up my hours before they arrived, so I got to spend the entire week taking them around Palma.  We visited the Cathedral, Bellver Castle, a few of my favorite restaurants, and of course the Ruta for tapas. 

From Monday-Wednesday we rented a car and drove around the island a bit.  There are quite a few towns that I haven’t been to yet, so we wanted to explore a little outside of Palma.  Our first stop was Valldemosa, a quaint little village that is basically my epitome of what Spain should look like.  It’s mostly stone buildings, small, cobblestone, narrow streets, and serves some of the best coco de patata that I’ve ever tried.  The dessert is a bun-shaped cake (but not as dense) that is made of potatoes.  You get a cup of chocolate, which is kind of like hot chocolate pudding, and you dip the cake into the chocolate.  It is to die for.  I will definitely be going back to Valldemosa, even if it’s just for the treats.

We also drove a little bit through the mountains up to Cala Gat, another small village.  I usually don’t get car sick, but the roads in the mountains are very narrow and winding, Spain can’t make anything easy.  We stopped along the road to take pictures of the ocean a little cove we found.  The water was so blue, even though it was overcast that day.  After Cala Gat, we decided to call it a day and head back to Palma for the usual evening tapas.

I am so thankful that they came to Spain.  It was a long trip, especially since they both had to jump right back in to work and school when they returned to the United States.  It was really good to see people from home though. 

There were many funny stories from this week, but I’ll share the one from which this post title comes.  In Spain, faucets are labeled “C” and “F”, standing for “caliente” (hot), and “frío” (cold).  Well, Sarah tried to take a shower one afternoon, after our water sporadically shut off, only to tell me, “Good news: you have water.  Bad news: it only comes on freezing cold”.  Well, fabulous, because I was next up for a shower.  I decided to just hop in, make it a quick one, and be out.  I turn on the shower, get in, and burn myself.  Thinking the cold didn’t work, I JUST turned on the hot and was scorched.  Hmm… After the shower, I went back into my room, told Lisa she could have a warm shower and told Sarah (again) that “C” isn’t for cold here.  She reiterated that she knew that before, but her shower was freezing.  For the rest of the trip, anywhere we saw a faucet, we reminded Sarah that, in Spain, “C” means hot.

March Madness

Hi all!  So far, March has been a whirlwind month.  Beckie, Amanda, and I all went to Berlin, Germany for part of our March break.  Though we left sunny weather in Palma for chilly Berlin, our trip was amazing, complete with a ‘start-of-journey’ shot at the Palma airport. 

The hostal we stayed at was right in the center of the city and within walking distance to a lot of famous sites.  We took a walking tour of the city, which lasted about 4 hours but was totally worth it; our guide really knew her Berlin facts and took us to a bunch of places we definitely wouldn’t have found on our own.  Among others, we got to see the Reichstag (Parliament building), the Holocaust Memorial, and what remains of the Berlin Wall.

Next stop for us was German food, one of my favorites now.  I was really proud of all of us because we each tried something new, even Beckie, who is a picky eater.  I had bratwurst and sauerkraut as one of my first meals, but tried wienerschnizel again too.  Yes, I ate all of what is in the photo below.  All of the food is so delicious, albeit probably not healthy at all.  Especially when followed by fried apple rings and apple strudels.  Yum.  It’s not an understatement to say that my pants were snug after this trip.  

One of the more sobering parts of our trip was our concentration camp visit.  We toured Sachsenhaussen, which was the camp built specifically for Berlin; which they built in the middle of a residential area.  The houses around the camp were usually for SS guards and their families, or for others that were of elevated Nazi rank.  Our guide told us this was usually done because on the rare chance that a prisoner successfully escaped, the first house he/she would go for help would be that of an enemy. 

The next day, we walked along the East Side Gallery, which is actually part of the Berlin Wall that has been painted with murals.  It was really cool to see as there were so many artists, from the east and west that participated in this art.  One painting that I thought was cool was that of the German flag and the Israeli flag superimposed on each other.  There was also one of what looked like it could be an American flag-of course Amanda and I had to get a picture with that!

After we got back from Berlin, my school had Carnival.  It’s kind of like Halloween in the States, everyone dresses up in costume and they have parades.  I joined Maria Angeles’ class of first graders that were dressed as Tintorers (dyers).  The school theme this year was ‘antique jobs’, so, there were dyers, miners, people that collected ice, wine makers, cobblers, etc.  The kids and I had a lot of fun walking around our block in the parade, and they all looked so cute with their tie-dye shirts and clown wigs.  Also, I might mention that finding tie-dye materials in this country is about as easy as scaling Mount Everest.  Literally, I went to 5 stores looking for colored dye and my only choices were brown, black, or navy blue.  Thank god we went to Berlin, where I found red and brought it back to Spain.  Needless to say, crafts here are kind of hard to do.  I wish they had a Target…Below is Maria Angeles' class (first grade), and me with Xisca.  Her third grade class were dressed as llatra, which are people who weave products from a palm tree like plant here in Mallorca.  The last photo is of a second grade class who were candle makers.