Our trip officially started with Will's 600 meter sprint at midnight on Wednesday. We were taking the 12:00 am bus to Gatwick Airport to ensure us plenty of time to catch our 6 am flight. Yes, we realize NOW that we went a bit overboard with the precautions but at 11:56 pm Tuesday night it seemed like the right thing to do! We had brought £40 of cash with us to purchase said bus tickets, assuming that the bus fare from Oxford to Gatwick would be similar to the bus fare from Oxford to Heathrow. Wrong! Try £32 more expensive! We arrived at the stop with 4 minutes to spare... realizing our miscalculation and not wanting to sit around waiting for the 2 am bus, Will sprinted to the nearest ATM while I tried to chat up the bus driver in an attempt to stall the bus. Fortunately, Will's sprinting skills are better than my flirting skills and he arrived back at the bus station at 11:58 pm--sweaty, but successful! We were off.
Gatwick was (not surprisingly) empty at 2 am in the morning. We hung around, attempting to nap until our flight was called. I had originally gloated at being the one with the window seat ticket, but pride goeth before the fall--the seat directly behind the coveted window seat was occupied by a 2 year old terrorist with a piercing scream and surprisingly strong legs. I know this because she kicked the back of my seat for almost the entire three hour flight. I have never been so happy to get off a plane.
On the bus to our hotel. This is what a three hour flight in front of a manic two year old will do to you.
Fast forward through a power nap and shower and we were off to find some lunch before hitting the beach. Little did we know that we were about to taste the best lasagna known to mankind...
You might not be able to tell from the photo, but this lasagna is magical. Miraculous. Majestic.
So good we went back again on our last day! Also, my husband is a hottie. Just FYI.
Folks, that amazing lasagna has completely ruined us for any future lasagna eating. We both swore that not another lasagna would touch our lips after our first bite. It was life changing. I could do a whole post about that lasagna. Moving on...
The blooming hotel courtyard.
These pasty legs are ready to see some sun!
We wound our way through the small town of Cala D'or in search of the closest cove. I nearly jumped for joy when we walked onto the hot sand and gazed at the Mediterranean Sea for the first time.
Our view for three days.
The sun was hot, the water was cold, the sand was toasty, the sky was blue and, for the first time in months, I felt SO WARM! We basked in the sun with our books and when the beach grew too hot we'd wade out into the sea for a cool down. The water was so clear that you could see your shadow moving along on the white sand underneath you. Multiply this pattern of activity by three days and there you have our trip.
"Now's your moment, Floating in the blue lagoon..."
The handsomest, whitest man on that beach. :)
I could live in a villa...
I feel warm just looking at this picture.
But wait, you say! What about the crazy Spanish singers? And the boobs?
Yes, I said "boobs", Mother.
I'm just teasing. How could I leave out that part of our travels? We'll start with the boobs...
We had somehow forgotten all about, shall we say, "traditional Mediterranean beach apparel" (or lack thereof) when we booked this holiday. Imagine, if you can, Will's face when we first stepped out onto the beach and are greeted by the sight of 60 years or older, sunburned, wrinkled, topless ladies. Think "The Golden Girls" in bikini bottoms only and with 65 years of sun damage. Are you laughing yet? Because I sure did! The look of shock and horror was so hilarious that every now and then I'd have to point out another exceptionally worn pair just to watch his face and see him shudder! I'm a super supportive wife like that. As we were some of the youngest people on that beach (by a good 30 years or more) it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We'll be keeping that in mind the next beach vacation we plan. This is also the reason we have so few beach pictures. You're welcome.
On to the live entertainment. It was our first night in Mallorca and after pulling an all-nighter in Gatwick and then spending hours out in the sun I was ready to crash. There was a live band scheduled to play in the courtyard that evening and Will happened to catch the first song of theirs on his way up to our hotel room. Let me just say that one of the reasons I love my husband is his kind heart. The guy will literally give the shirt off of his back to you if he thinks you need it more than he does. So it should have come as no surprise to me when Will walked in to our hotel room and declared "Caitlin, we have to go down there. They are terrible and there is no one out there to support them--I feel bad!" I listened for a minute (they had found the volume on their speakers by now) and he was right. They were bad. Comically so. With a sigh I put my shoes back on and followed him down to the courtyard. The "band" was an older husband and wife duo--him on the guitar and her on the keyboard--and as we sat down the old gentleman, with his thick Spanish accent, leaned into the mic and said, "And now we haf a thong from de Joan Denther." He started singing: "Almoth heafen, Weth Firginya..." and I lost it! Not in the laughing way but in the crying way! I used to play that "Joan Denther" classic every time I would drive home from college, and hearing that first line on vacation in Mallorca, Spain was so unexpected that all of my homesick emotions surfaced in a second. We looked pretty comical--them, with their light-up keyboard, Will trying to stifle his laughter in his beer, and me--blubbering to "Country Roadth" sung by the most unAmerican band ever. I had fully intended to only give them a few courtesy minutes of listening and then go back to our room to sleep. We stayed for over an hour, singing and clapping along to "Imagine", "Bad Moon Rising", "Islands In The Stream", "Obladi Oblada" and "You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog".
And that, readers, is our Mallorca trip in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed reliving it through writing it all down. :)
i love your story-telling capabilities
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