My finals days in Palma are drawing to a close quite quickly. After the crazy tourist day Kelsey and I decided to just really relax and take advantage of where we were. In anticipation for the fast pace month we are about to enter into I was grateful for this decision. Kels had just had a whirlwind of packing up her life and moving cross country, saying good byes to friends, closing out work stuff and just starting to settle back in New Hampshire before flying across the pond to meet me so relaxing and de stressing was perfect for her as the first chapter of our joint adventure. Now just because we are relaxing doesn't mean we aren't doing anything....we definitely found things to entertain our selves. Since we spent quite a bit of time at
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| Seal Launching...Gold Medal! |
the house and it was ridiculously hot we were in the pool most of the day. We did quite a bit of book reading but also had a rigorous pool workout involving swimming laps, sit ups hanging backwards into the pool, and diving board pull-ups. In honor of the olympics we also had a few events...The one you see in the photo is Kelsey competing in "Seal Launching" involving our trusty plastic seals being placed on the edge of the diving board and launched in. It's quite a bit harder then you would think. Kelsey did end up medaling in the event but it was a tight competition. There were also a few lesser events like hair tie retrieval and sinking seal diving. There are a few videos of these events that will be released after we have checked with all of Kelsey's sponsors and got clearance.
We did venture out of the house a bit one morning to walk the streets of Palma and Kels really wanted a bit of a beach day so we went and swam in the Mediterranean. We went to a beach I had not gone to and it was great. We found a nice little section that had some great people watching. There also were a lot of those floating couples. You know the ones who are out in the water with arms or legs or what ever else wrapped together. We even had some of the girls who laid just where the waves roll up on the sand "photo shoot style" trying there best to look sexy. It was pretty comical because it really is nothing like what it appears in the photos. One strong wave and you are knocked all sorts of sideways and your hairs in your face and sands up your nose. Sorry to burst anyones bubble who thinks it really happens like the movies and photos.
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| Downsizing |
After the lovely beach day we hit up a store for me to get a much needed item for this next part of travel....a new suitcase. So as you all know I did pack up my life for the next 5 months in a suitcase and I think I did pretty well for the type of traveling I would be doing however that type of traveling has changed. I was originally going to always have a home base to leave my suitcase in and travel out of there with a smaller bag...not the case anymore. Kels and I are planning to basically be on the move every 4-5 days for the next 6 weeks. There was no way I would be able to carry my monster of a bag and as Kelsey said " That bag is like a whole other person and they didn't pay to be on this trip" This led to the
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| Back-up Betty |
purchase of my new traveling companion Back-up Betty! I have seriously downsized...Look I can even carry her on my back! We don't need to talk about whether or not she is full. You've seen my guns...I can handle it plus we had been doing our pool work out. But seriously doing all this traveling makes you realize the things you really can live with out. Don't get me wrong I love owning tons of pairs of shoes but they just aren't necessary when it comes right down to it. Sometimes the material things in certain situations just end up weighing you down. In this case it was literally weighing me down. I was happy to have a suitcase half the size of my original. Everything fit in perfectly so we were ready to head off towards our next location....Amsterdam!
We were leaving on a sunday which was cause for concern initially because Spain usually shuts down on Sundays. Luckily we found out that the busses still ran. With a bit of sadness to leave our lovely Resort Style Living we rolled our suitcases down the hill to wait at the bus stop. The bus arrived promptly on time and it was off to the airport. Check in and security were good for us but we were surrounded by people who clearly didn't understand that belts, jewelry and iPhones will set off the security detector....Maybe they just like to be searched. Now lets talk about the flight....Originally it was supposed to be on time. Unfortunately this did not end up being the case. We had been sitting on the plane and it seemed as if all the people were loaded but then the caption announced over the intercom
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| Sad Face...It's really #@!*ing hot! |
that we were missing a passenger and would need to remove his luggage. First off I didn't know they did that...thought they just shipped the luggage back on another plane and you were left with out you luggage. Second, didn't realize they had to shut down the whole plane to do it. All I can say is holy hot!!! We were dying and very sad about the situation (see our best sad face in the photo above). Third hot airplane and non deodorant wearing european man next to me and bad perfume wearing lady made it almost unbearable. There was a strong possibility that we would either pass out or throw up if the air was not turned on soon.....oh man the non deodorant wearing man just reached up over me to open the non working air vent...it might be over. Just in the nick of time the engine turns on and
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| Happy Face...Planes Leaving! |
everything is going to be ok. Air is flowing and the air plane is taking off. Amsterdam here we come. Travel days are never with out some excitement. The flight was good...slightly turbulent ...but good. Once we landed we knew it would be a bit till be got off since we were in the back of the plane. Now usually everyone gets off orderly and politely one row at a time...not here...this was like the security check all over again. No one was following the one row then the next rule and were just jumping ahead with just makes for chaos in the center aisle. Once it was finally our turn to get out of our row the lady behind us started throwing herself and bags at me when I was already half way out in the aisle. I had to resort to the desperate measures of a swift hip check to keep her in line (don't worry Kelsey will verify it was an appropriately given one and much needed) so that we could get off the plane. After
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| Dorm Living...bunk bed style |
the plane we needed to find the train which some lovely overhead signs led us to. One quick stop at the info desk for a bit of direction and we were on our way to the hostel. Finding the exit for the hostel was easy...actually finding the hostel was a whole other story. The directions I had were get off at the exit and follow the black and yellow signs. Well, there were a few different black and yellow signs so we asked in a bike show which way we should go and the man behind the desk said "that way" and pointed. Now mind you we have our suitcases rolling behind us and don't really know where we are going. Long story short we walked way too far in the wrong direction till we finally looked at a tram map where we ran into some really nice dutch people (who spoke perfect english) and they got us in the right direction. We made it after that without a problem, checked in and set up our beds. We are truly living in college dorm life again(I call top bunk!)...should be interesting!
We are off to explore tomorrow.....tune in for more soon!!!
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