Hello dear readers! So, if you haven't already noticed, I'm just sticking to talking about what I have done over my weekends here in Mallorca. My weeks are pretty much the same. I have classes on three days of my week and my internship on the other two. In my free time, I go for runs, watch movies on my computer, go to the beach, check out cute little bakeries or go for walks with my friend, Emily. I only have about three weeks of school left and then I'll have my internship five days of the week for six hours each day. I'll have my afternoons free which will be super nice and of course I have weekends off. Having weekends of for internships is definitely not normal in the hospitality and tourism industry, so I am definitely going to be taking advantage of that and going to the many different beaches here in Mallorca or going on adventures to explore the island. So this past weekend my friend, Emily (also a fellow Boilermaker), and I hung out quite a bunch. On Friday (4/24/15) after our internships we went for a walk. The days have been so pretty here that it is a waste to just sit inside. So we have now been going on a lot of walks. I'm pretty sure we have seen almost every part of Palma. Haha. | On Saturday, we went to a beach called Ses Illetes. We packed our lunches and spent the whole day there for the most part. It started off cold, but luckily got warmer as the day went on. After we were finished at the beach, we went back to Palma and walked around some more before we went home. We also discovered that a gelato store called Amorino opened up Palma. So we went there and got sorbet. Amorino is pretty famous for shaping ice cream/sorbet into a flower if you order it in a cone. I have yet to get some in a cone, but I will next time and post it on Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, you can see all of my photos there. It's a little difficult to post all of them on here. I just highlight a few. But if you would like to see all of them, just go to my Facebook profile and you can easily see them there. So going back to my day on Saturday, when we both got home, Emily and I realized that we were sunburnt. My back was so splotchy! We will definitely be applying more sunscreen the next time we go. On Sunday, we continued our weekend adventure early and headed to the town of Manacor to get a bus that took us to Cuevas del Drach. This was by far one of, if not the coolest things that I have seen since coming here. One of the photos that I took is with this post. What was unique about seeing the caves was that we got a little orchestra performance as well. A quartet playing a couple of classical pieces on a boat in the dark with only lights around the boat and lights on their music stands to see. I took so many photos inside of the cave. Again, they can all be seen on Facebook. After we visited the caves, we went to a little town called Porto Cristo. This town was a refreshing change from the busy city life of Palma. There were still a lot of tourists, but the atmosphere was very much calmer and quieter than Palma. We walked around for a while and sat people watching on the beach there. This beach was so cool. The location was what made it different than the others that we have been to. On one side was the marina where all of the boats were docked and on the other was a cliff with homes that jut up right to the cliff edge. You can see one of the pictures I took to the left. After our walk we found an ice cream place and ordered by far the biggest ice creams ever. Haha. They were so good though! We both got back to our home stays very tired around 7:45 PM. Thursday night I will be on a flight to go see my friend, Nina, in Berlin. She has a ton of stuff for us planned. So from my side of the world and until next time, hasta luego! |
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Okay, so while I am in the blogging mood, I will catch everyone up on what I have done since I have been back in Palma after my Semana Santa break.
Last weekend (4/18/15), we had one of our last CIEE events. That Saturday morning we had a paella cooking class with a local chef. Along with paella (a Mallorquin specialty, it is a yellow rice dish made with saffron, meat, and seafood) we made sangria and gató de almendras (almond cake). I had so much fun in this cooking class. The chef gave everyone different tasks to do. The food that we made turned out really well! After the cooking class, my friend Emily and I walked around Palma for a while exploring some different parts that we hadn't quite yet made it to. That night we went out with a couple of our other friends to two different bars. We went to an Indian bar called Chakra and surprisingly that was our favorite one that we have been to since we have been here. The drinks were really good and we were given free little snacks. On Sunday the Spanish students from our meetings and events class invited us to go get paella. So again, we had paella for a second time that weekend. After paella and going to get gelato, we played beach volleyball for a couple of hours. I haven't played volleyball for about five years, so I of course was sore after playing for just a couple of hours. Haha. My high school volleyball and club volleyball skills are not long gone, but definitely not what they used to be. I had to leave a bit early so I could study for my second Spanish midterm. (I got an A on it!) This week is going by very quickly. We have a couple of field trips planned for our meetings and events class tomorrow and this weekend. A week from tomorrow I will get to see my friend Nina in Berlin! I am very excited to catch up with her and her family as well as to be able to spend some time away from school for a bit. I promise this is the last blog post for the day. Haha. So from my side of the world, hasta luego and until next week! So after a week of being away and getting settled back into the daily routine of classes and work, I finally have some time to blog. :) Wow, it has been a long time dear readers. The focus of this blog post will mainly be about the wonderful trip in which I went to Dublin and Paris with my family.
To start off Semana Santa, I had two days in which I was by myself in Palma to explore some of the activities that were going on. A lot of my friends left on Wednesday night (4/1/15) or the next day. That Thursday (4/2/15) I went to one of the procesiones that was occurring during this week in preparation for Easter Sunday. This was a really neat cultural experience. I only stayed for about two hours, but what made this procesiones unique was that there were floats that were either pulled or literally carried by people underneath them. These floats depicted Jesus, Mary, or other religious symbols. The other part of the procesiones was that different churches or religious organizations dressed up in different colored clothes that honestly look like ku klux klan costumes, but that is far from what they are. Haha. I'll make sure to post some photos under the photos tab. Some of the people were even not wearing shoes. This is done to symbolize some of the pain that Jesus felt. My family arrived on Saturday in Palma. We walked just about everywhere on this day. We did some shopping, ate a ton of good food (We ordered so many pastries at one of the bakeries that I go to here in Palma. I wanted them to try everything. Haha.) , and of course caught up on what I was doing here and what was going on back in Indiana. On Sunday, we went on the hop on hop off bus here in Palma. That night, we had a flight to go to Dublin, so the next morning we started off our two days stay in Dublin. Dublin: On Monday (4/6/15) we did the hop on hop of bus. These busses are such a great way to see the city in a short amount of time. We started our day off a little later so we could catch up on some of the sleep that we lost. We stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin which is a historic Marriott property. By far, this was my favorite hotel of our trip. We got a free Irish breakfast buffet the both days that we were there. Unfortunately we could only enjoy it one day. With the hop on hop off bus we stopped at the Guinness Storehouse and the Jameson Distillery. We couldn't do as many things as we would have liked, due to my time for scheduling for my Purdue classes being during the middle of our day. But, that night we got tickets to do a night bus tour with a tour guide that told us a lot about the city and even sang some Irish songs to us while he played his guitar! The next morning was an early one for us. This day we had scheduled a rail tour to the Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty Castle, and Galway. We took a train to Limerick Junction, got onto another train, then boarded our tour bus for the day and started our journey by stopping at Bunratty Castle. The Irish landscape is sooooo gorgeous! We saw so many different shades of green. But, the highlight of the day was definitely the Cliffs of Moher. Erin, Devyn, and I wanted to take pictures close to the edge but Mom freaked out a lot when we took a few pictures. She kept telling us to get back from the edge. Haha. No Ravers were harmed in taking any pictures on our trip. :) We got back to Dublin late that night and went straight to sleep. The next morning we had an early flight to Paris. Paris. We arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning (4/8/15). We got to the hotel after what felt like the longest taxi ride ever feeling very hungry and needing to change into our dresses for the day. (That night we had reservations at the Eiffel Tower for dinner). Our hotel that we stayed at in Paris was called the Hotel du Louvre, which is also another historic property but through the Hyatt brand. The hotel was right next door to the Louvre! You could step out onto our balcony and look up and down the street and see the Louvre buildings. This day we went on the hop on hop off bus as well as the hop on hop off boat. This way Dad, Erin, and Devyn could see a majority of the city before they had to leave the next morning so that they could get back to Indiana in time for color guard practice on Friday. One of the highlights of this day for me was that we visited the famous love locket bridge in Paris and even purchased a lock, placed it on the bridge, and threw away the three keys that came with the lock into the Seine river. The other highlight was getting to eat in the Eiffel Tower for dinner. We had such a fun time at this dinner. We had our own mini photo shoot at dinner. A man with a very professional camera came around to each of the tables and told us to pose in a bunch of different ways. We thought this was very funny and couldn't stop giggling as he told us how to pose. We returned to the hotel very tired and full. The next morning was when Dad, Erin, and Devyn left for Indiana. This meant it was a girls weekend from Thursday to Sunday for Mom and I. On Thursday, Mom and I continued to see Paris with the help of the hop on hop off bus. We saw so many different things. We went to Notre Dame on this day. The stained glass was just gorgeous. We also went to the Fragonard Museum where we purchased some French perfume. This night for dinner, we also had the best meal of the trip. We went to a seafood place where we got honestly the best price for the amount of food that was given to us. The next day we went to the Louvre. There were honestly so many things to see in this museum! We ended up staying in there for about six hours just taking everything in. I am very glad that we spent the extra money to get audio guides for the Louvre because all of the side descriptions on the works of art were all in French. So there was really no way to know any history about the works without our audio guides. The audio guides were Nintendo 3DSs. I thought this was very cool, mom on the other hand, not so much. Haha. She got very frustrated with it. We also purchased macaroons on this day. (Many were purchased throughout our stay in Paris. Macaroons are just so good!) On Saturday we went to the Palace of Versailles and shopped along the Champs d'Elysees. The Palace of Versailles was gorgeous! We spent extra money to see the gardens which I think was a very smart choice. You got to completely see the back of the palace and see a portion of the gardens. They were so massive! If we had some more time there, it would have been nice to walk around a bit more. When we got back to Paris, Mom and I decided to do a bit of shopping. We went into the Longchamp store and a couple of other stores along the Champs d' Elysees. Mom purchased a Longchamp bag that was a special pattern for the city. We also went into the oldest macaroon store (Laduree) in Paris. These by far were the best macaroons that we purchased. We got back to the hotel after dinner earlier due to having to get up early for our flights. Sunday (4/12/15) ended our vacation. Mom and I shared a taxi until her terminal and then I continued on to mine. The Charles d' Gaule airport is huge! Mom and I were technically in the same terminal but on two different sides of the street. She was in 2E and I was in 2F. I got back in Palma mid afternoon and spent the rest of the day unpacking and just relaxing. I was very exhausted. In all, I had a great trip and am so very happy that my family was able to visit me half way through my study abroad. I have 2 and a half months left here in Palma. This next month is going to be filled with projects and exams. Then after that comes working five days a week. So I will really only have my weekends to explore Palma and Mallorca. Time is flying by so quickly. I can't wait to see all of my friends here soon and to be able to tell them about all of my experiences and about my trip in person. For all of the Boilermakers that are reading this, good luck with finals in these next couple of weeks! So from my side of the world, hasta luego and until next time! |
AuthorMy name is Jordan and I'm a sophomore studying Hospitality and Tourism Management at Purdue University. For five and a half months, I'll be studying, interning, and experiencing what it is like to live on the Balearic Island of Mallorca located off of mainland Spain. Archives
April 2015
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