Holiday in the Balearics

Ciaoooooo!!!

I got back from holiday last night….little by little now I'll tell you what happened during the holiday in the Balearics, beautiful but quite eventful! So we left home on Sunday the 22nd at 5.30 in the morning, no sleep at all because of my boyfriend's cat that meowed all night. Once at the airport we queue up for check-in, and when our turn comes I can't find my ID card….damn, I only have a photocopy and my driving licence, so 20 terrible minutes of phone calls that seemed to never end begin…at one point the hostess told us she wouldn't let us board and I started to cry, and cry. Luckily Marco managed to stay calm and find a solution…an evening flight and back to Genoa to get the ID card….we had to pay for the tickets again for the seven o'clock evening departure..obviously we lost the money for the flight.

What a terrible day, it seemed as if bad luck was out to get us; after paying for the tickets I notice my driving licence is missing, mamma mia…I started running back and forth around the airport like a madwoman…nothing, it can't be found, and more crying..then when we get to the car Marco's backpack is missing too so off running again…from there we head back towards Genoa and someone tries to rear-end us…this day never ends, meanwhile I find the driving licence and the ID card, we eat something, have a good sleep and set off again for Milan, dead tired…We arrive at the airport, check-in all fine this time finally!! three hours waiting on the floor and finally we're off!!!!

and it's not over yet….!!!!

We left Milan Malpensa airport and halfway there we hit quite a lot of turbulence….I won't tell you what I got up to on the plane eheheh!! At 2.30 in the morning we land at Palma de Mallorca airport, I feel awful, obviously a huge airport to cross, and when we reach baggage reclaim we see the hostess with whom we were also supposed to go to the hotel, a certain Francesca; we go up to her and make ourselves known telling her the story…well, at 2.30 at night she not only treated us badly, telling us it wasn't her fault we had missed the plane, that we had our tickets with her agency, but that she had no more seats on the minibus; what would you have done with someone like that???!!!! the moral of the story is she left us there at 2.30 at night!!!! she didn't even tell us how to get there, thank goodness we had the address written down and a taxi driver offered to take us for the modest sum

of 90.00 euros!!! Once in the taxi I won't tell you how he drove, he was like Alonso in Formula One, he took a road full of bends in the middle of nowhere for an hour…and there too I felt awful…at 3.30 in the morning we finally managed to reach that bloody place S'Illot, I couldn't take any more, I arrived sitting on the hotel steps and crawled into the room!!! Ah and another bit of info, in those parts there are no tobacconists, bring your cigarettes otherwise good luck!!!

end of the outbound journey…

on waking after the storm….

S'Illot, we found this view before our eyes from our room balcony..the night before it was all pitch dark, I didn't imagine such beauty..we were 5 metres from the sea!!!! crystal-clear water, immense beach with palm-leaf umbrellas wowwwww!!! The first thing we did at midday when we woke up still dazed from the outbound journey, we took a stroll on the beach, lovely very fine sand and truly crystal-clear water, almost white it was so clean!!! At lunch we went to the buffet, mamma mia what a spread, there was everything, really everything, from local specialities to our typical dishes; to be honest I limited myself to a nice big salad to sort out my poor stomach.

In the afternoon, after a good sleep, we took a little wander around just to get a sense of where we were…lots of little shops selling everything, really everything, from groceries to clothing, and above all lots of liqueurs, I've never seen so many in my life. The first thing we realised was that we had ended up among the German people, only Germans everywhere…an Italian newspaper not for love nor money…nor a tobacconist, and nobody who spoke a word of Italian….(they love us) thank goodness Marco speaks good Spanish and I a bit of English…somehow we managed.

The first trip we took outside S'Illot was a visit to the Drach Caves, located in Porto Cristo, a small seaside town; we travelled by bus which takes very little time; it must be said that their transport service works perfectly. The caves are wonderful; once inside you'll hear the typical phrase "No foto", they say it constantly!! You walk for about 10 minutes observing all the architecture of the stalactites, then they seated us all side by side in a square with benches, there were about 100 of us waiting for everyone to sit down, then…..at a certain point the guards turn off all the lights, the cave goes pitch dark and in the distance you hear classical music and that's when a lit rowing boat appears, towing the musicians across the great lake inside the caves….I have no words to describe the emotion you feel hearing that music.

Drach Caves. As soon as the concert ends the boats come closer and in single file take the tourists across for the return trip. As soon as you come out of the caves, aside from the scorching heat, you arrive at the bar where peacock chicks pass between your legs like pigeons do at home….how cute!!!! It really is an outing not to be missed, the most beautiful I have ever taken. The next day we went to Cala Romantica, a beach with crystal-clear water, white sand

with rocks all around the coast; there's even a cave for snorkelling enthusiasts, a must-see!!! Go and see it. Another very nice outing we took was to Rancho Grande, a big ranch where you go horseback riding followed by a meat barbecue and western dancing!!! too beautiful!!!

Our last day before departure we spent in Palma, very beautiful for us who are used to cities; there we visited the Cathedral, ate real paella!!! we saw the Parc de la Mar, the Arab baths immersed in nature, and a beautiful shop that comes from America selling only doughnuts of every type and shape!!! it's called Dunkin Donuts and I asked, but it's not in Italy…:-(( The hotel and its staff

said goodbye to us that evening with a flamenco dance, very very beautiful. Unfortunately the holiday came to its natural end, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!!!

thanks for listening and see you on the next holiday!!!

with affection Meme