Summer Travel: Palma de Mallorca

Along with a close friend, I was boarding a three-hour Ryan Air flight in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Our destination? Palma de Mallorca.

Considering I’d been playing “Mallorca” by Loft for almost two weeks straight, this couldn’t have come any sooner for my travel partner.

When we landed at Palma de Mallorca Airport, everyone on the flight started cheering. I didn’t know what to do, so I obviously joined in.

With duffel bags in our hands and excitement in our minds, we made our way for the exit. It was early evening, and we caught a cab to our hostel (Hostal Apuntadores) to meet another close friend who had arrived a few hours earlier.

The terrace at our hostel.

We arrived at the hostel, dropped off our stuff, and headed out for dinner.

After about ten minutes of walking, we found a small place to meet our immediate needs (ie. hunger). After dinner, we hit a corner store where 1 litre bottles of San Miguel beer were on sale for 67 cents. We grabbed a couple and headed back to our terrace (as seen above).

With an immaculate view of downtown Palma, we made a quick toast on the terrace before heading into town to check out the local nightlife.

The first bar we went to, we didn’t stay long. It was full of tourists and seemed like a bar I would go to in Toronto. Naturally, we wanted something a little more authentic.

What happened next is one of the best travel memories I’ve ever experienced.

We entered a small bar, where very upbeat (but unfamiliar) music was playing. We decided to stay. That’s when awesome happened.

Out of nowhere, a guy went to the front of the dance floor and started leading the crowd in synchronicity. This must have been a regular occurrence, as 90% of the patrons immediately joined it.

At the time, I was standing at the bar, Heineken in hand. I looked over at my friend Willie and said, “If we’re ever going to do this, it may as well be in Spain”. He nodded, and before we knew what was happening, we were performing dance moves no grown man should ever attempt.

Us trying to follow the leader.

This is how I imaged a drunk Zumba class to feel. After 20 minutes, I was sweating profusely and my cold beer (now warm) had never tasted better.

We finished our beverages and headed to the next bar. At this point, my memory is about as blurry as the photos taken. I’m fairly certain we met a group of girls and proceeded to do anything possible to get the fedoras they were wearing (this may have included dancing up on one of the girl’s 50-year-old mother). I’m not entirely sure how we made it home.

One fedora down, one to go.

Mission complete.

Next, it was on to day two. This consisted of another couple litres of San Miguel and hitting the beach. We met up with a couple American girls, who were family friends with of one of my travel mates (guy in the red). These girls were in Spain on exchange and decided to make a weekend trek to Palma. After some introductions and small talk, it was a picture perfect beach day.

These bathing suits would never fly in North America.

We had alcohol, women and (most importantly) aggressive bathing suits. We sat on the beach for almost five hours as the girls read passages of 50 Shades of Grey aloud (which, at the time, was both mind boggling and hilarious). We were drinking and basking in the Spanish heat.

This day was as close to perfect as it gets.

As night settled in, we went for dinner and the alcohol continued to flow. The girls were flying to Barcelona in the morning, so we had a quick goodbye after dinner before heading out on the town.

We got back to our terrace and decided to have a couple of drinks before heading out. At that point, we met two people from France who spoke very limited English. Lucky for me, my two buddies were both French immersion students, and were able to communicate in French.

We headed out to a local bar, where the drink special was outrageous. The bartender took a 1L bottle of rum and a bottle of Coke and turned them upside down until they were empty. She then asked me for 15 Euros. I happily paid and began to drink.

We must have ordered five of these drinks. I honestly don’t remember. I guess the appropriate thing to say is – we ordered enough.

I ended up lost that night, thinking it would be a good idea to run ahead of the group with my post-bar food. Apparently, I wanted to go for a swim. Thankfully I didn’t and we made it back to the hostel in one piece.

Fast forward to 9 am the next morning.

Partially from the hangover and partially because of a fall the previous evening, my face is hurting. Badly. Regardless, it was time to tackle day three in Palma. We had an early flight to Rome the next morning, so we decided to make this our tourist day.

Suffice to say, I was thrown back by the beauty of Palma. It was the perfect combination of old and new. It was a party atmosphere at night, but an old Spanish town during the day.

I don’t know the history of these pictures below, I just know they were cool.

View of old Palma.

See you next time Palma.

If you’re looking for a great trip destination, I would strongly recommend Palma de Mallorca. Everything (including the flights, hostel and food) were very affordable.

Unquestionably, it’s #CAVEapproved.

Remember to follow me on Twitter at @CAVEJordanS