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Our first taste of Europe
A few days after returning to work after our quick Isle of Wight visit, I found out I had multiple days off work the following week (which was only like 2 days away!), so Nige and I decided that we should not only get out of the house while we could, but also out of the country! So we booked a last minute all inclusive holiday to Spain, as you do… well, as most Brits do! Majorca was the easiest option for us as there are flights there from Bournemouth airport.
Thank goodness that my wonderfully thoughtful friend Sarah had given us a Western Europe phrasebook before we left Australia, because as it was, neither of us knew any Spanish other than 'si' (yes) and 'gracias' (thank you)! Other than the language, we also realised that we'd have to try and get used to the left-hand driving in Europe after Nige went to get into the front passenger seat of our transfer car! I'm not sure the driver thought it was as funny as we did, but he's probably seen it from tourists like us numerous times before We also did a similar thing a few days later, crossing a street unnecessarily to catch a bus - we obviously ended up having to get back across the street to actually get on the bus!
Our accommodation was in El Arenal, a short drive away from Palma itself. Due to our all inclusive status, when we checked in we were decked out with a wristband each - my lovely friend Linda always says I should accessorise more, although I'm sure a bright blue wristband wasn't what she meant…
As for how we spent our time 'abroad', we of course spent a bit of time sitting by the pool relaxing (unfortunately without going in because the water was way below a comfortable pool temperature) and enjoying our all inclusive drinks, but we also did a few other things during our stay. We wandered the local area a fair bit (lovely beach scenes with lots of palm trees and huts, but again, the water was freezing!), spent a day in Palma seeing the sights, played a round of mini golf at another adventure course (result: I won again after a pretty spectacular comeback!), and met some pretty interesting British tourists, one of which was the father of two younger boys (6 and 5) who told us a funny little story concerning his older son - a few weeks ago, Harry informed his dad that he was leaving the house in 24 hours.When his dad enquired as to why Harry wanted to leave, the response he got was "because you won't let me have naked women in my room"!! Don't you just love the words of wisdom from a pretty feisty little 6 year old?!
Coming from Australia to the UK, we were pleased to see that the laws about smoking inside public places were similar, however, in Spain, the rules are somewhat non-existent. We had lunch in a café in Palma with the waft of tobacco floating around us as we ate - not very nice when you're used to smoke-free zones inside!
The day that we went into Palma we played typical tourist roles, getting ourselves onto the rather expensive City Sightseeing bus tour! It was the only way that we could get up to the old castle at the top of the city which has fantastic views over Palma and its surrounding areas.
So all in all, we had a pretty relaxing little holiday for our first taste of Europe, but next time I go to a foreign speaking country, I'm going to study the phrasebook before we get there!
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