An Island in the Sun!

Hola,
Sorry for the large amount of journal entries today, but today I had time to enter them and I was a little bit behind. Hopefully from now on I will be able to keep up.

This past weekedn I went to Palma de Mallorca. Its an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It was a wonderful relaxing weekend. My mission was to spend time on the beach sleeping and soaking in the sun. I would say that I succeeded. I didn't really like the city Palma very much, so I went to Puerto de Soller and Portocolom. They were two very tiny towns that were very relaxing.

Sunset the first night. They were some of the best sunsets I've seen in Spain!
Some beautiful flowers and a apparently a strange vegitable in the background.

Sunset!

The island of Mallorca was very atheletic. There were cyclists everywhere.

Puerto de Soller!

It was this tiny city surrounded by awesome mountains. I wish that I would have had time to hike up one of them. Oh well, sleeping on the beach was nice.

On the other side of the cove there were cliffs. They were pretty neat to see.

There was a neat old train that ran from Soller to Puerto de Soller. I didn't take it.

Oh the beach!

And the color of the water! It was so beautiful.

Sunset #2.

The bus ride back from Puerto de Soller to Palma.

There were windmills all over the island, but they look way different than the ones on the mainland.

I guess you can ride horses down the road in the country, beautiful mts. in the background.

Portocolom! The buildings were so unique.

I think it was a small fishing village. There did not appear to be as much tourism here as there was on other parts of the island.

The water here was awesome as well.

Lighthouse!

The cliffs here were better!

I randomly saw some divers/fishermen. It was kinda cool!

The water was so cool, and the cliffs were over 100 feet tall. It was probably a little dangerous without a ralling or anything, but live on the edge, right? Wait a second. Aren't Seguro cactus only located in Arizona, what is this one doing here?

I could see so far along the coast, it was awesome!

I went to a beach in Portocolom that I named treasure beach, because there was this pile of random things that have been pulled out of the water. There was also a bottom of the boat washed up near the shore and a pile of treasure that I found near the shore when I went in the water.

Oh it was a beautiful beach. The water looks warm, but it was freezing cold!

The light house. It was a town on a bay.

Really enjoyed my time on the island of Mallorca. P.S. Mallorca is a Spanish Island. I wish that I would have had more time to explore some of the other great beach towns.

Until Next Time,

Las Fallas!

Hola,

I went to Valencia for Las Fallas! It is a spring fire festival. It was so much fun. It gave Carnival a run for its money. They construct these statues and then on the last festival they burn them. The statues are very detailed and usually have a political message. I didn't really understand the message, but I thought they were really neat to look at. Everyday they had a Mascleta. This was a firework show at 2pm in the afternoon. It wasn't to watch the fireworks, but rather to listen. It was supposed to simulate a drum roll, and it did. I went and saw it two days in a row and it was awesome. It was so loud! The festival was so much fun. People were lighting fire crackers and full on fireworks all over the city. It was so loud. The people joke that its a war on the city. If you didn't know that there was a festival going on it would actually sound like there was one. The parties went all night and were in the streets! There were so many people and it was such a good time. Valencia was one of my favorite places that I have visited so far. Here's my adventure:

This is the first Falla that I saw.
We stayed in a neighborhood called Cabanyal that was actually previously a different town called Marvarosa. The buildings were so beautiful and detailed and each one looked a little different.

This is my hostel, well thats a lie. It was really a bed and breakfast, surprise! Also a beautiful building. If I were to turn around and take another shot it would have been of the beach. It was so nice to just walk out to the beach everyday.

And this is the beach. Its the widest beach that I have found so far in Spain! I loved it. There were so many people and it was a very active atmosphere.

This was the Falla in the main Plaza where the Mascleta took place. When I took this photo it was still under construction.

The market was huge and very beautiful! We bought fresh strawberries and they were so good!

An interesting dome, haven't seen one like that in Spain before, and a nice park.

The Mascleta! The crowds were so huge, but it was so worth it. The sign you see is for cerveza for a Euro. There were so many people selling beer on the street, it was because no one could go anywhere.

And it just started!

Where'd the sun go? The smoke from the Mascleta blocked the sun for a while.

The main park.

The world famous science museum designed by Calatrava. Also one of my favorite things I've seen in Spain.

Another view of the park. It was such a nice day for a stroll in the park, I think the temperature for the whole weekend was upper 70's/lower 80's. It was nice.

More of the science museum area.

It was really incredible!

I took so many pictures of Fallas, these are a few of my favorites.

This one actually isn't a falla, they don't burn it. Later during the festival they fill the holes inbetween the wood planks with flowers. I've seen it complete on TV and it was amazing.

Oh! We were wandering around one night and ended up walking into the main plaza where a huge parade was going on, it was a lot of fun.

On Saturday night we left down town Valencia at like 4am and took the metro to get home. Well, the metro took us like 2 hours to get home which made it a little after 6am, so I decided to stay up and watch the sun rise over the beach. It was the start of a beautiful day!

Where's the Crisis? Haha.

The Mascleta round II. It was such a party environment! You can really see this with the balls.

I want to see better too! Can you make somemore room for me?

So much smoke, wait its coming this way!

This is a good shot of all of the hard work that goes into making the Fallas!

One of the main markets during the festival.

I understand the message of this Falla. It is mother nature sad with all of the sick animals of the world, because of what humans are doing to the environment. Change your habits!

And of course, the fireworks! This was the best firework show that I have seen. Valencia has the best firework makers in the world and I saw some fireworks that I have never seen before. They were trully one of a kinds. This was one of the best parts.

Overall, I really liked Las Fallas! I think more than Carnival. I hope to come back some day and stay for the entire festival. Unfortunately I had class on the best days of the festival, next time.

Until Next Time,