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Mallorca – Picturesque seaviews and pearls of the old town
Here is finally some travel updates from our amazing trip to the beautiful Balearic Island of Mallorca, where we went to celebrate my 25th birthday for two weeks. Once again I found a place in this world where I totally fell in love with the sceneries. I could even see myself living here someday, at least for a while. Mallorca offers it all: Long beaches as far as the eye can see, beautiful villages and historic old towns and obviously the vibrant life in the capital city Palma.
It is just my luck, that the beginning of this trip I fell really sick and I got the flu. This is not uncommon with me and I don’t know why this happens to me almost always when I travel, maybe it’s the air conditioning or something in the airplane, who knows. We did manage to do some exploring though around the hotel area and nearby sights. Of course nothing could have kept me away from the beach! At least the location was perfect for beeing sick, no complaining there.We had a great apartment hotel right next to the beach and it was quite luxurious, even if that wasn’t must for us this time. I am not into hotel activities or spending time at the hotel, but the room was spacious and it had a separate living room and a small kitchenette, so that was a plus. Our hotel was on the north side of the island, in a town called Alcudia.
Alcudia is very beautiful and the beach is the best as it offers great white sandy beach as far as the eye can see, truly. On the other hand, Alcudia is a bit boring also and it has many tourists and pentioners, so if you are young and lively, you might want to go to the south side of the island instead and just visit Alcudia someday. It is still worth visiting, so please do so.
My ultimate favourite of this trip was our visit to the capital city Palma. Palma is so stunning, vibrant, lively and it has great shops and boutiques, pretty street views and historical sights. The bus ride between Alcudia and Palma takes only under one hour and it is cheap and simple. Don’t use any ready-made travel agency trips for this, you will enjoy it so much more if you just go by yourself using the local bus. It’s very easy and it gives a touch of local lifestyle, which is always the best thing when travelling! Palma offers great views and things to do, so make sure you get enough time to explore it all. One day might really not be enough, at least it wasn’t enough for us. Remember, that Palma is also called the mini-Barcelona.
The best things to do and see are the old parts, the small street restaurants and the fantastic La Seu Cathedral. There are plenty of great shopping opportunities too. We only got to scratch the surface of Palma on our trip, so we really wish to return someday for more.
Until the next adventures in the wonderful Balearic Islands, maybe next time we also get to go to Menorca!<3: Tiina Johanna
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Mini getaway from Barcelona to Zaragoza and back
What a wonderful trip to Spain this was and now I’m feeling a bit sad to be back in Finland again, as usual. I never feel homesick when I’m travelling, but I always feel sad when I come back home, haha. Am I the only one like this?This spanish mini-adventure started with a “small” 12hr journey from Tampere to Zaragoza. My plan was to go meet my friend who was an exchange student in Zaragoza at the time and I wanted to feel what it was like to travel solo for the first time too.
First I flew from Finland to Barcelona, Spain and from the airport I took a bus for 4 hours to Zaragoza. What a ride. The bus ride was as long as the flight between Helsinki and Barcelona and on top of that I had already spent two hours on the bus from Tampere to Helsinki before boarding the plane. So after a long time of sitting on the bus and the plane I finally arrived to my destination and met up with my friend.
Zaragoza is a really beautiful and interesting city with lots to see and to explore. It’s not on the beach side but it has great cultural features and nice restaurants. I got very familiar with the student life and watched the local lifestyle up close. In just a few days I wandered around the city on my own a lot and did some shopping too. My friend took me to see the sights and to eat some paella. The sun was shining very brightly and the weather was hot, just how I like it. By the way, the best and the most popular place for enjoying the sunshine is the Parque Grande (Grand Park), which is a gorgeous big park in the middle of the city.
After a few days of exploring in Zaragoza we went to Barcelona where we spent the last two days of my trip before leaving back home. I really fell in love with Barcelona and it’s lively atmosphere. Barcelona is so much more beautiful in the spring time than in the middle of the summer, because there aren’t that many summer tourists yet. I got my first hostel experience here too! We stayed at a great youth hostel right on the beach in the Barceloneta area and the hostel was fantastic. At least the location couldn’t have been any better!
We wandered around Barri Gotic, the old town, and had some lovely tapas, pintxos and wine. In Spain the best restaurants can be found by following the locals and going to the places that have the most people inside, because if the locals love it, it must be good! That’s how we found the best spots as well, sadly enough I can’t remember the names anymore.The next day was a bit more cloudy, so we decided to go and do some sightseeing. We went to walk around the old town and the Las Ramblas, and also the Passeig de Gracia -street, that had beautiful buildings around it. We went to see the Gaudi designed architectural buildings and of course the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It was stunning and big.
Last but not least we also went to walk around the Park Qüell to enjoy the wonderful views and beauty of the park. This was totally worth visiting!
For a short six day getaway this was a great experience and we got to see and do a lot. We even managed to chill and relax on the beach in the middle of all the exploring and sightseeing, perfect!Until next time,
<3: Tiina Johanna
