Two weeks vacation in Spain
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The story is very detailed since I might use the information myself if I would like to return.
I had had a lot of problems with a soar throat now and then during five weeks. Luckily it seemed to be over in time to our party vacation in Spain.
We went to a birthday party the evening before we went to Spain. We heard that many beaches in Barcelona had been closed because of sharks. We later checked on Internet and found the following articles.
SHARKS have been spotted close to the shore in Barcelona, leading to the closure of six beaches.
People were banned from swimming after lifeguards spotted three small blue sharks, each between 1-1.5 metres long.
The town halls in the popular resorts of Premia del Mar and El Masnou moved to close the beaches and raised red warning flags.
A surveillance boat was sent out to look for the fish but failed to find them.
The beaches have since been reopened, with green flags indicating the waters are safe to enter.
“Three sharks… were spotted near the area where people swim, up to two metres from the shore – very close. They could be seen from the beach,” said Hasina Ahmad from the Red Cross.
The charity is still keeping two patrol boats out on the look out for the sharks.
According to the Florida Natural History Museum, the blue shark is a dangerous species which is known to have attacked other sharks and boats.
Barcelona beaches reopened after shark alert
Six beaches in Barcelona were reopened on Wednesday morning after being closed when lifeguards spotted several sharks very close to shore on Tuesday.
The Barcelona beaches of Masnou, Ocata (Masnou), Ponent, Descàrrega, Pla de l'Os and Bellamar (Premià de Mar) were shut down after Red Cross lifeguards saw a one and a half-metre (5-foot) long blue shark at Ocata beach near El Masnou.
Later searches revealed the presence of two other sharks.
The animals were "very close" to shore in the area where people were swimming, a Red Cross spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The beaches were opened again on Wednesday morning, local daily LaVanguardia reported.
Blue sharks, which can weigh up to 80kg (175 pounds) can become aggressive if they feel threatened by humans.
Three blue sharks alarm the Town Halls of Masnou and Premià de Mar
Six beaches have been officially closed to bathers by the Town Halls of Masnou and Premià de Mar in the Maresme area of the province of Barcelona, after three small blue sharks were spotted on Tuesday basking just offshore.
The blue shark (Prionace glauca) is not noted for its attacks on humans and according to the database compiled by the University of Florida only thirteen unprovoked attacks have been recorded since the 16th century. However, four of these attacks proved fatal, and as a precautionary measure the beaches of Ponent, Descàrrega, Pla de l'Ós and Bellamar in Premià de Mar and Masnou and Ocata in Masnou have been closed off for the time being.
The sharks were first spotted by lifeguards at approximately 12.30 on Tuesday, and the Policía Local and the Mossos d’Esquadra helped to evacuate bathers from the sea immediately. A Red Cross vessel and a jet-ski patrol are now monitoring the movements of the four-to-five foot-long sharks.
The situation will be re-assessed at 19.00 on Wednesday to determine whether or not the beaches will remain closed, and neighbouring municipalities are on the alert in case the animals move in their direction.
We had not planned to bath at any of the Barcelona beaches since we were going to both Ibiza and Mallorca afterwards. It would otherwise have been nice to snorkel if you had the chance of taking photos of a blue sharks.
Incredible that they close six beaches due to those tiny baby sharks but maybe they wanted to prevent stupid people from trying to catch them since a bite from even a little shark like that could be really serious.
It took about 30 minutes to the airport by car from Marica's home. The queue to the check-in counter increased rapidly but the check-in went quickly anyway. You had to check-in at an automate before you went to the luggage drop counter. Luckily we got seats next to each other, maybe because we used the check-in automate quickly after each other. Maybe you could specify seats but we didn't notice that when we checked-in.
We travelled with Norwegian from Gothenburg to Barcelona. On Norwegian flights you don't get anything to eat or drink unless you pay for it so it is good to bring something with you.
There was something wrong with the gate at Barcelona so we had to wait a little until it was fixed. We also had to wait a little as usual at the baggage claim.
There was o long way to walk to the train station which was at the other side of the huge terminal 2. The tickets to our stop in central Barcelona cost 4.10 euro each. It took 30 minutes to our stop, Passeig de Gracia, which was the fourth stop. There were monitors inside the train where you could see the name of the next station.
The train was more like a metro. We arrived at the street called Roger de Lluria, only two blocks from our hostel. We had previously received an e-mail from the hostel. They asked if we wanted to have a deluxe room instead of an ordinary room at no extra cost. We only had to pay cash instead of by credit card. We agreed to it and got a lovely room which was maybe twice as big as the ordinary rooms and we also got a balcony and our own bathroom. We had to give them 20 euro in deposit for three keys, one to the gate, one to the door into our floor and the third to our room.
We went out for a sightseeing at 4 pm after we had eaten baguettes which we had bought at home in Sweden.
We walked during almost five hours so we were hungry when we arrived back. We ate grilled chicken together with Coca-Cola at a place near our hostel. It wasn't so good and it cost 5,50 + 2 euro each.
We had a look at the salsa places Marica had checked up before we travelled and decided that Antilla would be nice. We slept one hour until 23:45 since we were quite tired before we prepared ourselves for a nice dance evening.
We walked to Antilla which was located 2+10 blocks away according to our map. It took a little more than 20 minutes. The entrance cost 10 euro each and a drink was included in the entrance fee. I ordered vodka and Coca-Cola and Marica took a Tequila Sunrise. They used Absolute Vodka and no cheap Russian vodka and you got a lot of it.
The salsa place was really good and the air-condition worked better than expected. The only thing you could complain on was that it was crowded so it was difficult to dance. It is probably good to arrive when they open if you want some space when you dance.
They had a lottery on the dance floor around midnight I think. The man who gave out the prizes lay down on the floor with the ladies who won and turned around several times. Don't ask me why.
We went home 02:50 and bought ice-creams on our way home. We went to bed around 4 am.
Our alarm clocks woke us up 9 am. We were both tired but we were eager to get out for another sightseeing. We had brought bread and cheese on tube with us from Sweden which we had for breakfast together with tea.
We passed two shops on Roger de Lluria where they sold nice fabrics for clothes. We passed Palau de la Musica Catalana, a cathedral and a park. We went inside the market at Las Ramblas.
We continued and walked up to the Parc de Montjuic where you had a view over Barcelona.
We visited the Olympic stadium.
We walked down at the Art museum.
At Placa de Espana we decided to take the metro to Parc Guell. We bought a T-10 ticket which contain 10 tickets and can be used by two persons. It cost 10:30 euro. It took some time for us to understand which ticket zoon we had to select. We were told that the inner, and cheapest, zoon covers the whole Barcelona, even the airport, so it is a good advice to buy it already at the airport.
There was a queue to the ticket counter at the park. We decided not to go inside since you could see most of it from outside ( see our photos ).
We took the metro back to Las Ramblas where we bought Durum Döner Kebab for 4 euro each. We sat down at the nearby fountain in Placa Real before we walked home. On our way home we bought some food at a super market on Roger de Lluria street close to our hostel. We arrived back at the hostel 18:00.
We decided to sleep one hour. We were really tired when the alarm bell woke us up and decided to sleep another hour until 20:00.
We had problems with WiFi on our mobiles but it worked if we used our computer. I had a lot of problems with Hotmail. There was some issues about security codes etc and a lot of questions turned up since I hadn't logged in with that computer for a long time and also not in Barcelona.
We went out 23:20 since we wanted to visit another salsa place. We arrived before midnight and was stopped by a guy who told us that we needed member cards otherwise we couldn't go inside. He told us that we could fill in a member card and then come back another day. Luckily another person helped us who understood English better. We were told that we didn't need a membership if we didn't live there.
The place was quite empty when we arrived but it only took half an hour or so until it became almost crowded. The people there were really good salsa dancers. They had a rueda and almost all people danced in the rueda.
You got one free drink. Later I ordered a Coca-Cola and it cost 5 euro! It was the most expensive Coca-Cola I had bought. I asked what Vodka and Coca-Cola cost and was told that it cost 8 euro. You could almost say that the vodka cost three euro compared to the Coca-Cola which cost five euro. Marica tried to order a Tequila Sunrise but the two persons who worked at the bar didn't know what kind of drink that was!
It is really frustrating when you cannot access your e-mail account since it is used to many things and is therefore very important. I couldn't relax until I had solved that problem and started to work with my computer when we arrived that night. Luckily I found the reason to the problem.
We went out on another sightseeing 11:00 am after breakfast. We walked down to Arc del Triomf and continued to the Parc de la Ciutadella close to the Parc Zoological. It was a very lovely park.
We continued down to the Port Olympic and to the beaches. We had heard that the entrance to the Picasso Museum was free after 14:30 on Sundays. I think we arrived around 2 pm and it was already an incredible long queue. We gave up the museum.
We bought Durum Döner Kebab for 3.50 euro each not far from the cathedral Santa Maria del Mar and found a nice place to sit down at the street Via Laietana. Afterwards we walked home and rested a little while.
We had bought tickets to the Sagrada de Familia on Internet the previous day. You had to specify date and time when you want to visit the cathedral since they have only a limited number of tickets each hour. We also wanted to visit one of the towers and you also had to specify date and time for that visit. It was a little difficult to find a time suitable for both visits so a good advice is to book the tickets some days before your visit or even at home before you start your vacation since you need a printer to print out the tickets.
We walked to the cathedral from our hostel which took around 25 minutes I think. The cathedral is really magnificent.
I had visited it before a couple of times but this time it looked almost finished inside.
There was a nice view from one of the two towers. We visited the tower 'Passion' since that was best according to the woman at the hostel reception.
We walked home after we had seen the cathedral and had a 30 minutes rest before we walked out again around 9 pm to a salsa place called Mojito Club. We planned to eat something on our way. We passed a pizzeria and a place where they served hamburgers. Luckily we didn't eat there since we were lucky and found a place where they served Durum Döner Kebab next to the salsa place. The kebab and Coca-Cola cost 4.20 + 2 euro each.
The entrance was free if you bought a drink inside. You got an orange card when you entered the club. I bought a Vodka and Coca-Cola and Marica bought a caipirinha. Both cost 10 euro. You gave the bartender the orange card and instead got a green card. On your way out you have to leave the green card which show them that you have bought a drink otherwise I suppose you have to pay 10 euro. They had two bars inside. The bar next to the entrance could only make simple drinks such as Cuba Libre. You had to go to the other bar at the dance floor if you wanted a cocktail.
We danced two hours before we walked home around midnight.
Started the day by shopping fabrics to dancing clothes at the nearby shops. We also visited some dance shops but didn't find anything special. They mostly sold flamenco clothes. We passed a shop where they were selling towels among other things.
We ate our fourth Durum Döner Kebab at lunch and checked out the metro for the journey back to the airport the next day. The R2-trian went each half hour. The hostel reception was open 24 hours and it was only a five minutes walk to the metro station.
We rested before we went out and searched for a nice place to eat a paella. We found a place at the street Avinguda del Pral.lel which had good prices. Later on when we passed by Las Ramblas we saw that the price was the same there and you even got three tapas together with the paella. We met some friends from Sweden who had ordered drinks on Las Ramblas.
We walked all the way back to the hostel. African men were selling pirate copies of bags, sunglasses etc. at Placa de Catalunya. They had their things spread out on blankets. A rope was connected to each corner of the blanket. We heard sirens not far away and all the African men got nervous. The stood up and held the ropes connected to the blanket. If the police got to close they would just lift up all their pirate copies on the blanket and run away.
We went up 5:30 and walked to the metro station an hour later. We were lucky and caught a train which was 10 minutes late at 6:39. It went to terminal 1. We had to take a bus to terminal the other terminal and arrived one hour after we had walked from our hostel.
The flight to Ibiza was late and you didn't get anything to drink or eat onboard the short journey to Ibiza.
We had to wait a long time before our luggage arrived. We planned to take the bus to our hotel but didn't know where we should get off the bus. We therefore visited the Information counter at the airport where a helpful woman told us that we should go to a roundabout where you could see McDonalds. We should then get off at the next stop and walk down to our hotel. We paid the tickets onboard the bus. We passed Poseidon Apartamentos III before we arrived at our hotel which was Apartamentos Poseidon.
The staff were very friendly and we were lucky since our room number 41 was already ready on the fourth floor. We ate sandwiches and fruits before we walked out.
We visited the little supermarket next to our hotel first of all and went down to the sea and took some photos.
We walked along the sea towards the Ibiza town.
We came to a hill where there were a lot of green lizards.
We continued upwards to the citadel where we took some photos and later sat down at a restaurant and ate ice-cream.
We walked down to the harbour where you could see a luxury cruiser.
We bought durum döner kebab on our way home. Lidl was closed that day since they made some reparations but we found another good supermarket not far from our hotel. We bought food and a 750 ml Absolute Vodka. The vodka cost around 12 euro. We ate the kebab on our balcony with a nice view over the sea.
We rested until 9 pm and left the hotel 23:00. We walked to the Bossa beach which took 20 minutes. We passed a disco called @night which was empty. We came to the famous club Space which had a 10 meter long queue outside. We walked over to the other side to the other famous club called Ushuaia.
We visited the disco Bora Bora at the beach which had free entrance. I thought that it would be a huge place but the dance floor was maybe 10*15 meters. 15 persons danced to techno music. You hardly noticed when one song stopped and the next began. African people were selling things such as sunglasses along the roads and a couple of them asked us if we wanted to by drugs.
We passed Murphy's disco and went inside the other disco next door which was called Top 21. The music was okay and the air-condition cooled down the disco so it was nice to dance. I had asked if it cost anything to get inside and was told that it cost three. Three euros I asked and it took some time before I understood that it was free and I hadn't been drinking too much of the Absolute Vodka :-).
We left the place before 2 am and then there were maybe only 10 persons who danced there. There were an awful lot of persons at the bar on ground floor. Maybe they started to dance later that night.
We arrived at our hotel around 2 am and we both were quite tired after a long day and a lot of dancing at Top 21.
We woke up 9 am to yet another beautiful day with sunshine and blue sky.
We snorkelled an hour after breakfast and "fished" lizards on our way to the snorkel place at the cliffs to the left of the beach. We didn't see much in the water. I suppose I have to explain how you fish lizards. You use the same fly which you use during fly fishing but of course you remove the hook so you don't injure the lizards. Fishing is perhaps not the correct word, maybe you should say exercise the lizards instead since you make them run after the fly to catch it.
We prepared pasta for lunch in our kitchen which we ate on our balcony before we rested a little.
We went shopping at Lidl which had now opened again and bought durum döner kebab on our way home which we ate on the balcony. I had some work e-mails I had to answer and we also checked the Ibiza clubs down at the pool where they had free WiFi.
We prepared ourselves for the evening and was a little bit in a hurry since the time was already 23:00. I brought two dl vodka together with Coca-Cola in a half litre bottle which I drank on the way to the Bossa beach.
We searched for someone who were selling tickets to the Privilegé club. Everybody had tickets for 25 euro that day but we managed to find one place where the tickets "only" cost 15 euro. Was the tickets valid or just some advertising papers we had bought since they were so much cheaper compared to other places.
We passed by a long line of beautiful, half naked girls in string bikinis who lined up outside a bar. Each of them held up a letter which became the word "Privilegé" before they probably continued to all other bars at the Bossa beach.
The guy who sold us the tickets tried to convince us that Privilegé wasn't good that night. He also told us that Amnesia wasn't good either since a lot of rooms where closed. I asked if Privilegé only had one huge room which he confirmed so we decided to go there just to have a look. He told us that there was a free bus to the club but we probably misunderstood and thought that you could go with the Discobus for free if you just showed them your ticket. The Discobus cost however three euro each. The bus was so crowded so I think it didn't stop at another stop at the Bossa beach.
The bus passed Amnesia but nobody got off there. Two other guys left the bus together with us at Privilegé. Everybody else continued to the clubs at San Antonio.
Our tickets were okay so we could enter the club but only to a minor part close to the real, huge disco. What a disappointment. The place had however two dance floors and four bars. It was a really ugly place with a cement dance floor so you couldn't dance. I went to the toilet and you couldn't lock the doors at the first three of them since the locks were broken. The fourth door you could lock. Privilegé has absolutely seen its' best days decades ago. It was much, much nicer at the free disco called Top 21. We therefore took the discobus back at around 2 am. The first bus we caught went to the club Pacha which had a long queue outside.
We walked all the way home to our hotel. On our way we passed the club Boom which was not far from Pacha. We walked through the Ibiza town called Eivissa. I thought that there should be a lot of people out there partying but the town was deserted and everything was closed. Luckily we hadn't booked a hotel there.
We arrived home at around half past three and went to bed around 4 am.
We went by bus to San Antoni. The busses went every 15 minutes. The trip took 30 minutes and cost 2 euro each.
We ate our third kebab there for lunch.
San Antoni is a party place like Bossa in contrast to Ibiza town, Eivissa, which is very quiet. We saw among other things the club Es Paradis.
Back home we rested a couple of hours before going out.
We had new neighbours from France. On Ibiza you meet people from different countries. On Mallorca I think that the majority of the young party visitors at Magaluf are from England and Scandinavia.
We went out a little before midnight. First we checked ticket prices since we planned to see a concert at Ushuaia the next day. The tickets were cheapest at the same place where we bought the tickets for Privilegé.
We passed @night and it was empty. We passed a disco called Swag with a few persons in a queue. The entrance cost 18 euro which included two drinks. We also found another disco a little bit away from the beach and main road. It was called Sankeys and the entrance that day cost 45 euro.
We started to dance at Murphy's where the entrance is free. A really good girl was Dj who played good music. There were a lot of people but not too crowded. The dance floor was however not as good as Top 21.
We continued to Top 21 which has a marble dance floor, very good air-condition and nice music. It is a really nice place. We danced a lot. Two girls came forward and borrowed my hat. A guy told me that I danced very good so he wanted to have a photo together with me. His girlfriend took the photo.
On our way home we passed a lot of African prostitutes along the road who tried to catch drunk, single guys on their way home.
We got home around half past three and went to bed half an hour later.
We tried to buy tickets to Ushuaia from the cheap place where we bought the Privilegé tickets. The place was however closed at lunch time. On our way home we bought pasta and then we rested and made dinner.
The concerts at Ushuaia starts early and is over at midnight. We bought tickets and went inside shortly after it opened. You are not allowed to go out and in. You are not allowed to bring a professional camera with you so we just brought our pocket cameras.
There were different DJs at Ushuaia and two performances. There were also a "Kiss Me Tiger show".
There was a woman called Inna who sang and then there was Jason Derulo who also sang.
The DJs played mostly techno music and I cannot understand why it is popular since all songs sound the same and nobody sings. One time the DJ played the Whitney Houston song "I wanna dance to the music". You could see that everybody liked that music better than the boring techno music. I wished the DJ Peter Siepen had been there and played music instead.
Have you heard the famous fairytale about the emperor's new cloths.
An Emperor hires two swindlers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric made of gold which is invisible to anyone who stupid. The Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothing themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing stupid and the Emperor does the same. Finally the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretence, not wanting to appear stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretence, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others.
I really wonder if the fairytale can be applied to techno music. The story would then begin like this.
There were some DJs who created the most lovely music the world has ever heard. They called it techno. The music was so fantastic that only intellectual people could hear how lovely the songs were. Stupid people would think that it is just boring. One day a young kid shouted that it was boring to hear that music a whole night. Why couldn't the DJ play more hit songs. More and more of the young people started to shout the same thing.
On our way home after the concert we passed Murphy's and Top 21. The time was a little before midnight so they hadn't started to play music.
We passed @night where a lot of people now danced. It had been empty the previous nights. We went inside and danced a little. The reason to why it wasn't empty was most likely the DJ. The DJ was a more or less naked, really cool girl who moved her body like a belly dancer. A lot of people wanted to take photos of her. I took some photos from the dance floor since I wanted to show you how she looked. Unfortunately the room was too dark for my camera so none of the photos turned out good. I hadn't the courage to get up and take photos of her from a short distance like everybody else.
We relaxed reading books at the pool. Later we snorkelled out to the island. It took 15 minutes out to the island if you had fins and hurried.
Close to the island, in knee deep water we saw an octopus which we took some photos of. It was crawling into the seagrass so I stopped it with my arm. I felt when it started to attach its arms around my arm while it tried to pass my arm. When I was a child I got bitten by a squid which was much smaller than the octopus so of course I became a little worried that it would bite me. A moved my arm just a little. I didn't want to scare the octopus but I wanted it to release my arm and move out from the seagrass so we could get some nice photos of it. Unfortunately it got scared and disappeared like a rocket leaving a little cloud of black inc.
On our way out to the island we had followed some kayaks which had given us protection against water scooters. On the way back we were on our own. Four water scooters passed the water between the island and the mainland in full speed towards Eivissa. It was scary since we didn't know if they would come back. I wonder how many people get killed by water scooters compared to sharks. Luckily they didn't come back and we snorkelled as fast as possible back to the mainland.
We had pasta for dinner and packed most of our things since we were going to Mallorca the next day.
We had been thinking of visiting Pacha but we were probably a little tired and we had to go up early the next day to catch our flight to Mallorca. We planned to visit BCM Planet Dance at Magaluf which was hopefully similar to Pacha. It was also a long way to walk to Pacha since it was on the other side of Ibiza town. We decided instead to spend the last night at Bossa.
We danced at Murphy's and Top 21.
Two girls came into Top 21 and started to attach themselves to guys, kiss them etc. I think some of the guys were shocked since one or two of them pushed the girls away. I wonder what the girls had planned. They definitely didn't look like hookers. I think they were just English girls who can be quite wild when they drink. I wonder if they had planned to have sex with a couple of guys in their hotel room or maybe they had made a bet about something such as who would first have sex with a guy that night.
We went home quarter to three and went to bed around half past three.
We went up 8:30 and ordered a taxi to the airport after breakfast. A man at the reception called for a taxi and it didn't take long time before it arrived. I think it cost around 5 euro extra if you call for a taxi and 1.70 extra to the airport otherwise it cost 1.20 euro per km. The drive to the airport took maybe 15 minutes and cost 16 euro.
There were some nice t-shirts at the airport which were not made of cotton and therefore could be suitable for dancing since you normally get quite sweaty. The woman at the shop told us that they were only for women. She showed us the t-shirts for men which were ugly and all of them were made of cotton. It is not fare, why don't they make nice clothes also for us men!
The flight to Mallorca went without problem. It was easy to take the No 1 bus from the airport to Plaza de Espanya. Walk maybe 100 meters to the other side of the information centre and go down to the underground station where you take another bus to Magaluf. We arrived at our hotel 4 pm and could check-in directly.
We paid with credit card and the man in the reception told us that we should pay in Swedish crowns and not in euro. He said that the bank has a very bad exchange rate and it would be something like over 10% more expensive if you decide to pay in euro. I have read that it is better to pay in euro but we followed the man's advice anyway. The exchange rate was at least better than what you get at Forex.
We bought a litre of Absolute Vodka for 15 euro while I showed Marica Magaluf.
We had half board at the hotel and ate dinner when it opened 18:30. They had strawberries, a chocolate fountain, scrimps, swordfish, salmon, paella, grilled chicken, several other meat dishes, skewers ( grillspett in Swedish ), ice-cream and a lot of cakes. We ate until 20:00 and it tasted really good. Luckily we had only booked the hotel for a week since otherwise we would be very fat after our stay there.
We went out and bought bottles of carbonated water and Coca-Cola Zero before we rested until the hotel show started 9 pm. A woman and an elderly man played music and sang popular songs. They could have been better but the hit songs were very good.
After the show we went to the discos at BCMPlanetDance. All of them except the R&B disco were empty. There were a lot of people at the R&B disco but many of them were drunk youngsters so we decided not to go in. We danced a little at Crystal Bar which was a nice place. An English girl came and danced with us. We waited until Grabbarna Grus opened at midnight. The entrance was free at Grabbarna Grus from midnight until 1 am. It was nice the first half an hour and then it got too crowded. A guy tried to make himself funny on our behalf which was sad.
We left Grabbarn Grus and walked to the nice place called The Plaza. They have good shows every night, good air-condition and a nice dance floor. Only a few people are dancing there which is strange since they also play good music.
We watched an ABBA show which was quite good and danced before we went to bed around 3 am.
After breakfast we walked to a place where they had Latin- and Modern dancing several evenings every week. It was a 30 minutes walk from our hotel on the other side of PalmaNova. The dance studio was empty so we just took some photos and went back to our hotel. We had planned to go there on Tuesday evening.
We snorkelled at the cliffs to the right of the Magaluf beach. We were lucky and saw a little octopus at a stone where it couldn't hide. We had a long photo session with the octopus and took a lot of photos. Marica even filmed the octapus when it moved. After some time it seemed to get used to us.
Back at the room we charged all of our batteries and rested before dinner. The dinner was tasteful as always and they had salmon and turkey among a lot of other things.
We prepared photos of the octopus and some other photos in my computer and went over the street to McDonalds which had free WiFi. Marica tried to upload them to Facebook. It didn't work since the connection was too slow. There were a lot of people both inside and outside McDonalds who used there smartphones.
We went and bought a Club Pass for that evening which cost 30 euro each. We got a receipt. You had to give the receipt at the entrance to the club Boomerang and in return you got a stamp on your arm.
We went back to our hotel and watched the show. A man sang and played guitar. The songs were even to old for us so we went up and listened from our balcony instead and wrote our diaries. Marica went to another hotel close by which had better Internet connection so she could update Facebook.
After the show at 11 pm we went and had a look at the dance places at BCM and also The Plaza before we continued to Boomerang to get our stamps. We danced a little. There were only some girls who worked there who danced. Marica tried to order a drink at the bar since we had free drinks the whole night. The guy at the bar was however not very helpful and didn't have the drink Marica wanted. He could at least have suggested some popular drinks he used to prepare. She ended up ordering a beer instead. We walked to Banana Disco which also was more or less empty. Only some girls who worked there danced on the dance floor. We saw a sign that Carwash opened 2 am. There would be a foam-part at Carwash that night.
We walked back to the Plaza since the discos were more or less empty. Two guys had a Queen show there which was quite okay. We were there until the show was over around half past one I think. We danced 10 minutes at Tokio Joes, 10 minutes at Boomerang and visited the striptease/lap dance place called Honeys a few minutes since it was also included in the club pass. A girl asked me if we wanted to have a lap dance together with her so I told her that we just had a quick look at the place while waiting for Carwash to open. Carwash was still closed at 2 am so we danced a little at Banana Disco until Carwash opened.
All places were so crowded that you couldn't dance on the dance floors. We ordered the drink called "Sex on the beach" which seemed to be one of the most popular drinks at the discos.
A little passed 2 am Carwash opened and we went inside. More and more people entered the disco but there was at least room for dancing at the dance floor.
Around 3 am the foam party started. Marica walked away since she didn't want to get wet. I didn't dance in the foam but spent some time filming ( foam party clip 1, foam party clip 2 ) the dance floor before I went back to Marica. Marica told me that a French guy who could have been her son had found her interesting and started to talk to her. We walked home shortly after the foam party had started.
After breakfast we took a bus to Santa Ponca. The ticket cost 1.60 euro each. We walked along the sea from the bus station in Santa Ponca until we reached a very nice snorkelling place with crystal clear water. We got some very nice photos of jellyfishes. Afterwards we took the bus home and had time to rest 1 hour 45 minutes before it was time for the hotel dinner 18:30.
After dinner we went to the Latin/modern dance studio we had found on Internet and visited the day before. We thought that they had dance evenings on Tuesdays but the information we had found on Internet was not up to date. We could however dance one hour from eight to nine. We were the only couple who danced there during that hour. The teacher had private lessons before and after we danced.
We went home and looked a little at the hotel show which wasn't so good. We therefore decided to go up to our room and listen to it from our balcony.
We were both quite tired since we had been out almost every night during the vacation so we decided to have a cosy evening in our hotel room instead. I also washed all my dirty clothes in the bathroom.
We took the bus to Palma after breakfast. A bus went almost every half hour.
My favourite Italian shop where I had bought a lot of clothes seemed to have changed owner since they didn't have any nice clothes. The Rock-shop under the main square had closed where I had bought a couple of nice bracelets. Marica had more luck since we paid a visit to an old yoga teacher she had had in Sweden. The woman now had a shop where she was selling healthy food.
We went home and had time to rest a little before dinner. After dinner we went out snorkelling and saw the octopus again near the place where we had seen it the day before. I crushed a couple of seaurchins so we could watch fishes when they ate.
After the dinner we watched the hotel show again. It wasn't good. We went to the Plaza around 00:30 but it was empty inside. We went down to the walking road at the sea-front and watched drunk people pass by. We went back to the Plaza 00:50 and then there were a lot of people inside. They had a Whitney Houston show which was good but it was unfortunately over 15 minutes later.
We passed the two discotheques at BCM Planet Dance on our way home. They were empty and nobody danced at the third place where a guy and a girl had some kind of performance on the bar. They were ordinary visitors and not worth looking at so we went home and went to bed around 2 am.
We had been quite active during the whole vacation and been visiting a lot of places. Now we felt that we had seen most of Magaluf so we went down to the beach and lay down on a grass lawn. We spent most of the day there reading books.
Before dinner we went out snorkelling half and hour at the cliffs on the left side of the Magaluf beach. The water was quite deep and there wasn't much to look at. We met a guy snorkelling with a trident or in other words a three sponged spear similar to the spear the god Poseidon has. He stuck with it under stones in the hope of catching an octopus I suppose. It is really disgusting. It would have been more sport if he tried to catch it with his hands instead.
On our way home we passed a place at the sea-front where you could surf ( surfing clip 1, surfing clip 1 ) for 35 euro per hour.
After dinner we just rested. I don't think there was any show at the hotel. I think I started to catch a cold.
We walked from our hotel to Vinyes which was a nice place to snorkel. There were a lot of fishes since people fed them with bread from the hotel area. We also snorkelled at Magaluf and tried to find the octopus again but it was unfortunately gone.
We spent the rest of the day uploading photos to Facebook, shopping snacks and something to drink, withdraw money from one of the two ATM just outside the hotel.
We planned to visit BCM Planet Dance but it cost 55 euro that day and "only" 35 euro the next day. We decided to go on Saturday instead. We watched a nice show at the hotel and a Tina Turner show (
Tina Turner videoclip 1
,
Tina Turner videoclip 2
) at the Plaza.
We both had caught a cold and therefore had tried to sleep with the balcony door open and no air-condition on. There had been a terrible noise outside the whole night and it didn't help that our room was on the eight floor. I had slept anyway but Marica had been disturbed by all people shouting. I had a soar throat but it felt a little better, maybe because we hadn't used the AC.
We rested at the sea the whole day until 5 pm.
After dinner we visited Katmandu. We had got free entrance tickets from our hotel since we stayed there. The tickets also included 50% reduction on the prices for the different activities such as minigolf, bathing and climbing.
We just visited the house which was much better than expected ( Katmandu videoclip ) and I can recommend it if you have some spare time on your vacation at Magaluf.
Afterwards we bought tickets to BCM just cross the road at Katmandu. We watched a Grease show at the hotel which could have been better and took some drinks on our balcony. We walked to BCM and fetched our present, a t-shirt with the text "Shut up and kiss me", a BCM bag and a key-ring. We walked back to our hotel and put the presents in our room before we walked to The Plaza and watched a "Take That" show before we went to BCM.
There were an awful lot of people at BCM so it was difficult to find a place to dance at the dancefloor. It would have been better to visit BCM earlier instead of watching the shows.
We ordered "Sex on the beach" drinks which seemed to be the most popular drinks at Magaluf. As many free drinks as you want are included in the entrance fee. A woman walked around with shots which you could buy for 3 euro. It is interesting to notice that you have free drinks but you have to pay 3 euro for a shot. You are obviously not allowed to order free shots at the bars. You have to mix for instance vodka with something else. You of course wonder if that is because you would then find out that the vodka they use for drinks is mixed with water as everybody says. Or even worse, maybe it is just water since the drinks doesn't taste alcohol.
We walked down to the other dance floor at Millennium where you still could find empty spots on the dance floor where you could dance. We danced a little before we went out. You are allowed to walk in and out since you get a stamp on your arm.
We walked to the disco Baywatch outside the BCM building. On our way we passed a place where you could ride on one of those bull machines where you should try to stay up on the bull as long time as possible. A girl wanted to try. She had a short skirt on. The type of elastic skirt you pull over the hip. The problem with that type of skirt is that it goes up if you spread your legs which you have to do if you ride a bull. The skirt went all the way up to her waist and beneath she was wearing tiny string panties. It looked in other words like she was more or less naked underneath when the man who operated the bull jiggled it backward, forward, backward... I suppose you get the picture. Guys pulled up their mobile phones and started to film the girl who tried to stay up on the bull while she at the same time made unsuccessful attempts to pull down her skirt. Her girlfriends where the spectators who found the situation most funny. They laughed and filmed it with their mobile phones. The girl fell down after a little while but went up again with one of her other girlfriends and did it again. Thanks for a really nice show whoever you were!
We continued to Baywatch where we danced one or two dances. You got free shots there.
We went back to BCM where we tried to find a place where we could dance. I like to dance to music in contrast to all the other young people who more or less stand there on the dance floor like zombies moving maybe the feet a little while watching the stage. I also think that it is nice when you dance with somebody of the opposite sex. I would definitely not enjoy to dance with another man. Maybe I am old-fashioned. I was out dancing disco every weekend when I was young during the 80s. You would never see guys dancing together then at ordinary discos. You asked a girl if she wanted to dance and then you went up and danced on the dance floor. When you enter places like BCM you wonder if you have come to a guy club. The dance floor is crowded by groups of drunk, English guys who pay no attention to girls. I might be old-fashioned but I don't think that Latin guys from Latin America or guys from Spain or Italy would behave like they were gay. Well, enough said about that. People obviously don't go to BCM to dance, instead it is more like a concert which you go to with friends. You stand on the dance floor watching the stage.
The DJ plays techno music, or in other words music created by computers without anyone singing. It is difficult to hear when one song stops and the next begins. It is not the type of music you will remember from one day to the next. How could you when they all sound the same. Sometimes they put on a song such as for instance Whitney Houston and everybody seems to wake up from the trance they are in and enjoy the music but it doesn't take long time before the DJ destroys the song by breaking it into pieces or just turn it off after some seconds. I get the impression that young people actually like to listen to music where somebody is singing but a lot of DJs do their race and make their own so called music by pressing different buttons, almost like babies with the toys which play different sounds if you press the different big buttons. I actually wonder if those DJs are afraid of playing popular songs created by other people since then they would have difficult to live up to the salary they get.
There was a Pornstar show at the stage.
We walked down to Millennium at around 3 am. There would be a foam party that night but it hadn't started so we went home.
Marica's daughters, who are around 20 years old, thought that we were too old to visit places like BCM. We therefore wanted to chock them a little and put on the t-shirts we have got as presents, hat and sunglasses and took some photos on our balcony which we sent to them.
After breakfast we packed the rest of our things and had a cosy time in the hotel room before it was time to check-out at noon.
We had lots of time before our flight departed so we decided to take the bus instead of a taxi to the airport. We caught the Palma Xpress 11:50 and I think it took around 45 minutes to the bus station in Palma at Plaza Espana. We went out of the station and crossed the street to the bus no 1 bus stop. We only had to wait two minutes before it arrived and we arrived at the airport 13:05 which was much earlier than we had planned. The two busses cost 3.15 + 3.00 euro each.
The AirBerlin flight 7753 from Palma de Mallorca was a little late. Onboard we got a sandwich and something to drink. It arrived at the main terminal at Tegel Airport in Berlin.
We entered a quite small room where the baggage would arrive. It was very confusing since we had been told that our luggage will be transferred directly to Landvetter airport in Sweden. We therefore tried to find a passage out without leaving the airport transfer area. We couldn't find any passage to terminal C so we asked a guard who told us that the only way to terminal C was to go out.
We walked as fast as we could to terminal C and had to pass the security check again. I had to put my money belt, passport together with computer and some other things in one of the boxes beside my handbag. I think that it is natural that you wait until your values has gone inside the machine where they scan your things. A woman who worked there had another opinion and shouted at me at least a couple of times that I have to hurry and pass the metal detector. She really pissed me off. I was almost about to ask her if she left her values when she travelled abroad. I have heard some stories about people who have lost their belongings while passing security checks. How many times haven't you heard on the speakers that you shouldn't leave your luggage unattended. The reason to that is probably different but you shall never leave you passport and values unattended wherever it is. I of course never argued with the woman since that would most likely have caused a lot of problems and we were after all in a hurry since the boarding should start in a few minutes.
My bag was nevertheless manually checked by one of the security persons who worked there. Luckily we managed to arrive at our gate around 9 p.m.
When we arrived at the gate my girlfriend heard that they had said something about our flight on the speakers. I have no problem to understand English but the terminal speakers were so bad so I hadn't heard the message.
A woman at the gate told passengers that we had to follow another woman to fetch our luggage. There wasn't time for any questions since we had to rush after the other woman together with all other passengers at the gate. We understood of course that our flight had been cancelled but we didn't know why.
We arrived at a room with a baggage conveyor belt where we were told to wait for our luggage. After a little while the woman we had followed told us that we had to go to another conveyor belt instead. A lot of people fetched their suitcases and after quite some time almost all people where gone. We were then informed that they obviously had changed the place again without noticing all people. We were told that we should go to a tiny room with the sign "Bulky Baggage".
I waited for our luggage while Marica queued up in the queue to the AirBerlin ticket counter. She arrived at the counter before our luggage had arrived so we had to fetch our tickets first which could have been very inconvenient. How could we book a flight later that evening when we didn't know when our luggage would arrive, or if it would arrive at all? We were however told that there were no flights that night. The first flight was next evening. We both should work the next day so Marica asked if there wasn't any non direct flights we could take so we could arrive in the morning and go to work. The woman at the counter informed us that there was only one other option and that was to take a flight to Copenhagen and then to Gothenburg. It would arrive just a little time before the direct flight in the evening so that was no option. The woman arranged both hotel room and flight tickets for us.
We went to another counter where we directly could get our boarding cards.
We had to wait a little longer for our luggage. It arrived 22:20 and five minutes later we were on our way by taxi to our hotel.
We arrived at the hotel around 22:45 and had to queue another 30 minutes before we got our room. We heard that the couple next to us didn't have to check out 12:00. We asked if we also could check out a little later and managed to get two extra hours.
We were really hungry but the hotel restaurant was closed and it was dark outside. Luckily the hotel had some sandwiches we could buy. They had movies you could see in the hotel room which we planned to see while we ate. Unfortunately we hadn't the right authorization to see them. What a day!
We had a good hotel breakfast before we had a little sightseeing in Berlin. We walked to the glass cupola which we couldn't enter last time we were in Berlin. Unfortunately there was a long queue again so the first available time was 13:00 and that time would probably be fully booked before we had passed the queue. We had a nice walk in the park instead before we went back to our hotel and took a taxi to the airport around 2 pm.
There was some problem at the security check again. A man told me that I had too many things in my handbag. Give me a break I thought. Do I now have to put out a lot of things and check in them at the check-in counter. Luckily he meant that there were too many things in the bag so he couldn't see clearly what I had in my bag when they screened it. Don't get angry, keep calm. They do it for your own security. Don't get angry, keep calm. They do it for your own security. Don't get angry, keep calm. They do it for your own security. And count to 10 before you say something.
The flight home went luckily without problem. We passed by the AirBerlin ticket counter and asked why our flight had been cancelled the previous evening. The woman who worked there told us that she had also worked last evening and said that the flight had been cancelled since there hadn't been any slots. We met some other passengers and heard that there had been later flights from Berlin to Gothenburg. We haven't checked if that was true. We met another woman who had been travelling from Hurghada in Egypt. Her flight had been cancelled and she had got 5 euro in compensation while she had waited many hours for our flight last night which also was cancelled.
We also asked the woman in the AirBerlin ticket counter if she had any information about EU regulation 261/2004. We got a paper each. We now understand that such information shall be given if a flight is cancelled so it is strange that we didn't get that paper when we got our hotel booking for the night and our new flight booking.
You are entitled compensation according to EU regulation 261/2004 if your flight are delayed or cancelled. We have applied for 400 euro each in compensation beside compensation for taxi and food. We have also requested compensation for lost income.
I will update this epilogue when we have received our compensation.
I took a sweater with me but didn't use it during the whole holiday. Luckily we left the jackets at home.
We both took out money from an ATM at the same time. You could specify if you wanted to withdraw the money in Euro or in Swedish Krona.
Marica specified Swedish Krona and I specified Euro.
Marica got the exchange rate 9.83 and I got the exchange rate 9.2415.
I had read that it is better to withdraw in the local currency which was true in this case.
The party on Ibiza and Mallorca is different.
You visit Ibiza if you want to see DJ shows at the huge clubs such as Pacha. It is very expensive, the drinks are expensive, you probably cannot go out and in, the clubs are spread out and there isn't much of a party outside the clubs. There are no shows at the hotels.
The clubs at Magaluf are more or less located at a 750 m long road. The drinks are free if you visit BCM or buy a Club Pass. There are a lot of discos which have free entrance. There are a lot of shows and live music everywhere at hotels and bars. You can go out and in everywhere so there is a lot of partying outside the discos.
Go to Magaluf on Mallorca if you want to party. Visit Ibiza if you want to see DJ shows.
We decided to fly since that was cheaper and quicker compared to go by ferry to the islands.
Here follows a summary of our expenses per person during the 17 days and 16 nights in Spain.
Accommodation: 128 + 226 + 453 EUR = 807 EUR
Flight: 1129 + 356 + 632 + 1524 SEK = 3641 SEK
Transports: 58 EUR
Food: 133 EUR ( 28 euro at Magaluf )
Entertainments: 169 EUR
Total cost per person: 1167 EUR + 3641 SEK = 1167 * 9.24 + 3641 SEK = 14.424 SEK