Our weekend of fun in the sun was well worth the trip, and we all came back with some good memories, a little sun on our cheeks, and a few unwanted bug bites….

Thursday night the group of us girls that were heading to Palma for the weekend went to Madrid to get a hostel for the evening before our flight Friday morning. We all met at the hostel upon our arrival in Madrid and got settled in before we went out for some food and drinks. The hostel that we stayed at was called Cats Hostel and was an old palace. It was really cool inside and had an Indian style feel to it. Although the rooms were not exactly made for royalty, it was worth the money to have a bed and shower before we traveled on Friday. We went into town and got some food at a little restaurant that had outside seating. I wasn't very hungry at the time but enjoyed the company and some drinks. After everyone left there, Ginny and I followed our appetites to a Thai restaurant to get some good food. We both shared some pad Thai and chicken fried rice that we both had been craving for some time. It was a nice meal, and afterwards we headed back to get some sleep before it got too late.

Friday morning, the rest of the girls took an early flight out to the islands since I had to wait at the airport for Danielle to get in. I got all checked out of the hostel around 11 and took the metros to the airport to meet up with Danielle. We found each other right away and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up and getting a bite to eat at the food court by the ryanair desks. Our flight didn't leave until 6ish that evening, so we had some good time to sit around and talk. We made it on our flight and got into Palma de Mallorca about an hour later. I pulled out my directions that we got from our hostel, and to our dismay, realized how vague they really were. Luckily, I could call the other girls in our group to get an idea of which buses we needed to take into order to get to our hostel which was on the other side of the island in Porta de Pollenca. All that the hostel said to do was "take the main bus from the airport to the main stop in town, from their take a bus to porta de pollenca." Although these could work for someone who knows the island and the bus systems, the rest of the world would have a little trouble finding there way around. It also didn't help that the maps are all written in Catalan. Danielle and I figured it out and caught the bus to la plaza de Espana. From there we learned that we needed to change stations and take a different bus line to our side of the island. As we made our way to the bus station that we needed, we began to notice how deserted the place was. We learned pretty fast that the buses were done running and our only option was going to be a train, which left in 10 minutes. There was a very nice older man that told us the place we needed to take a train from, and then from there take a taxi to our hostel. I have never been as thankful for my Spanish as then since we were on such a time crunch and desperately needed a way to get to our hostel. We ran and bought a quick ticket and caught the very last train out of Palma de Mallorca to head to a town called Inca. I started to get a little nervous as to how we were going to catch a taxi when I noticed all of the ghost towns we were passing on our way, but as we pulled up to Inca I was comforted to see lots of people and one taxi sitting in the parking lot. We hoped in and took the 25-minute ride to our hostel. Two hours and 50 euros later we were joined up with the rest of the girls at the hostel. We grabbed some food at a nearby restaurant and then came back to get settled in for a good nights rest…or so we hoped.

Ginny had pre-warned us that our room was not very nice, but she had been pretty vague when she gave a description. Although our rooms were only 13 euros a night, I'm not sure I would go back again to save a few dollars. Our toilet didn't work, the water pressure in the shower was very low, and on top of everything, Danielle informed me (by screaming as I turned over my sheets) that my bed had bugs in it. Needless to say, we didn't sleep very well that night, but at least it was a safe place that we could all be together.

Saturday morning we woke up and got some breakfast before heading to the beach. We stopped by Eroski, a grocery store, and purchased some food to eat while we laid out. The beach was really close to our hostel so we were able to walk right there and enjoy the sun. It was a perfect day and the beach was really nice. It wasn't high season for that part of the island, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves (besides the other topless woman that strolled the beach). The water was cold, but perfectly clear. Porta de Pollenca is a marina town with a lot of people from Germany, Ireland and England, so the majority of the towns people spoke English. The couple that ran our hostel was from England and were very nice and accommodating to us. After spending time reading, walking the beach and taking in some sun, we headed back to our hostel to get showered up for the night. We all went to a nice Chinese restaurant that overlooked the water. We had an interesting appetizer, something I would compare to packing peanuts, but the rest of the food was delicious. Our waitresses must have liked us because at the end of our meal we all got some free champagne and shots along with good luck bracelets. It was nice to all get a meal together and just sit around and talk. After dinner we headed back to the hostel to hang out in one of the girls rooms. To our dismay, many of the bars in town were closed so we decided to spend some time together at the hostel. We all had a pretty early morning so we headed back to our rooms a few hours later and got some sleep. Surprisingly, I slept a lot better than the first night, and woke up Sunday feeling refreshed and ready to go.

We took the bus to the airport (a lot easier and cheaper than the way we had to come) in time to catch our flight at 12:00. We made it into Madrid shortly after and all split up since some of the group took the train as well as others who wanted to go to a museum in Madrid. Ginny, Danielle and I were taking the next bus to Caceres so we just grabbed some food at an Italian restaurant and then took the metro to the bus station. We were cutting it a little close on time and had to end up running through the bus station, but we caught our bus nevertheless. We took the express bus home, which only stops once so we made it back to Caceres three and a half hours later.

After we got back to our house, we spent the rest of the evening getting settled back in and making an attempt at doing my homework through tired eyes.

All together it was a fun weekend of hanging out on the beach and it was so great to have Danielle there along with me. This week is a pretty busy school week, but we are looking forward to making an attempt at celebrating St. Patty's day here in Spain (although no one else does here) and getting ready for our weekend in Lisbon.

Hoping for another great week of nice weather and a fun time with Danielle here in Caceres!