Palma de Mallorca - A Broken Toilet, An Island Drive, and The Perfection of the "Spermish" Language

As I have resolved to do throughout the end of the calendar year (at least at some point during the day, not necessarily in the morning), I did some yoga when I got up this morning. However, not before getting up and going to the bathroom and realizing that the toilet was running continuously afterward. European toilets don't have handles to jiggle, so I tried to "jiggle" the buttons. That didn't work, so I thought that lifting up the lid (like you would normally do, duh), would allow me to get a closer look. Welp, just to let you know if you ever happen to lift up a European toilet lid (if they even have one, which isn't always  the case), there is a trick to getting it back on correctly so that they buttons work properly. I apparently do not know what this technique is, so not only was the water continuously running, but I managed to make the toilet unusable as well. Thankfully, this is not my house, so, I casually informed the front desk that it was broken on my way to walk over to the car rental agency at the other end of the complex...

It was a rainy morning here on the island, so what better to do than to rent a car and get lost for the day? I thought that the answer to that was "nothing", so that's exactly what I did. (Thankfully it did clear up around 11:30/noon-ish.) Since this is the only 24 hour period that I'm going to have a car for, I might as well take advantage of it. Around 10:30 this morning I was off and driving around. I did get a GPS (because apparently I didn't think enough in advance to actually bring my own that is currently sitting in my car in Germany), but I didn't use it except to find my way back. What I did do was follow random signs loosely guided by markers on a map that sat in my passenger seat. And then I just went wherever the hell I felt like. It was awesome!!!

Although I'm not 100% sure of everywhere that I went, I do know that I basically hit most of the southern and southeastern parts of the island, with a little inland thrown in for good measure. The areas that I know I hit were (briefly) S'Arenal, then somehow I made my way over to Colònia Sant Jordi, then on to Ses Salines, Es Lombards, Santanyí, Cala Figuera, Portopetro, Cala d'Or, S'Horta, Portocolom, up to Portocristo for dinner, and a final stop in Manacor before heading back to the resort.

Along the way, I stopped several times, mainly only for a few minutes, but for fantastic views. Sometimes I was overlooking a cliff, sometimes a harbor, sometimes it was just an awesome view on my drive. It didn't matter, really; if I felt like stopping, I did. It was a bit weird, however, because I was really able to see just how essential tourism is to the island. Apart from Manacor, which is (I think) the second largest city on the island, everything was a veritable ghost town. I saw a few people walking here and there, but honestly, every single town that I stopped in or drove through had more shutters closed than open, and sign after sign of "Se Vende" (for sale). Almost all of the stores were closed, whether it was a restaurant, a tourist shop, or a grocery store. Honestly, it was a little bit creepy. But, on the bright side, the traffic was non-existent, and on more than one occasion, I literally stopped in the middle of the street to look at my map or take a picture.

Some of the views were just as beautiful as they look in pictures and the movies, and can't be described. It was truly awesome, in the actual and proper sense of the word.

One of my last stops for the day was Portocristo. I decided that I would stop there for dinner as my last coastal city for the day. I found a parking lot quite easily since no one was there, and took my chances as to whether or not I needed a permit. I didn't see anything stating as such or any type of a meter, so free looked good to me. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who wasn't totally sure whether or not the lot had a hidden charge, as an older (maybe late 40s, early 50s) gentleman came up to me and asked me if it needed a permit or it was free. Originally I answered that I didn't know, but after looking around to make sure for myself, I walked over to him and told him that I thought it was free after all. Thus began the "Spermish" conversation.

"Spermish" is my inappropriate way of combining Spanish and German into one word (get your mind out of the gutter as to where the conversation went!). One of the interesting things about knowing a little bit of multiple languages is that the more you know of one and have trouble with another, the more they seem to interject themselves together. Interestingly enough, the conversation started out with the man asking me if I was from Germany, although I didn't quite understand his explanation for why he thought that. I told him that I did live there but that I was originally from CA. Our conversation then evolved into him asking me if I was staying there, me telling him it was my first time on the island, him saying that he would like to get a coffee with me but there is nothing open, me agreeing with him but saying that I was looking more for food, and then eventually a "have a nice day", with a couple of other random nuggets thrown in there for flow. The interesting thing about this conversation was that it was about 85% in Spanish, and what I couldn't find the words to speak or understand him in Spanish, it became a German conversation. There were about four words of English spoken when he realized I was from the states and told me that his English was very bad. The whole thing made me chuckle and really want to refresh my Spanish. I think it's my favorite foreign language out of all the ones that I semi-know. :)

From there, I walked about 100m and found a restaurant that was open and serving food, which was semi-surprising because it was only 16:00 (4 pm). The waiter, as ends up often being the case when I travel by myself, was quite friendly with me. Throughout the course of the hour or so that I sat there, he offered to let me stay at his house for the evening (because I was so far from where I was staying normally, and he had a big house), asked to exchange numbers, tried to impress me by letting me know that he was friends with a famous tennis player who had sat at the exact table that I was at an hour ago (sad for him I don't care at all about tennis and had no idea who he was talking about), and finally got the point that it wasn't going to go anywhere, but did formally introduce himself as I was leaving, before wishing me a good vacation. However, I will say that the sangria at the restaurant was, by far, the strongest I have ever had, and I think he spiked it with rum (or at least put some extra in there) to the point where I couldn't even finish it within the hour because it was upsetting my stomach. And the fried baby squid was legit. Super fresh and perfectly fried with just enough fresh seas salt and a dash of lemon juice. Mmmmmm :D I did make the mistake of having a cappuccino after dinner (which seemed to have been "spiked" with some chocolate as well), and have been quite wired ever since. Hopefully I'll get some sleep, because tomorrow is going to be an early day!

After the restaurant, I made a stop in Manacor (mainly just walking around a bit and then saying a Rosary in the church - Our Lady of Sorrows) before making the 45 minute drive back (which took me 5 and a half hours to progressively get to throughout the day) to do some relaxing and planning for the morning. I have the car until just after 10 am tomorrow, so after looking at the map, I have decided that I'm going to get up and drive the approximately 2 hours to the northern-most point of the island to watch the sunrise. Then, I'll have just enough time to drive back, gas up, return the car, and spend the rest of the day relaxing (and maybe taking a nap). I may not be able to see the entire island while I'm here, but I sure am going to do what I can!

Hasta mañana!!

(And in case you were wondering, my toilet was fixed by the time I returned to the villa...)