"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.