Five things I loved most about Palma de Mallorca
A beguiling mix of Moorish and Gothic, it gives the city a wonderfully mysterious air and encourages the visitor to walk around taking it all in even if the temperature is slightly less than that of the sun.
Without question, the most recognizable building is the Seu Cathedral, sitting on the water's edge. Built upon the site of a Moorish mosque, it was first consecrated in 1230 but was not completed until 1601.
After an earthquake in 1851 destroyed a portion of the cathedral, Antonin Gaudi was brought in for the redo to work mainly on the interior portion. After a couple of years, he got into a fight with the contractor and did his best 'take this job and shove it'.
The only sign of him having been there is the wrought-iron ring hanging over the altar.
Another interesting element, which I suspect Gaudi would have appreciated as well, is an art installation in one of the chapels by Miguel Barcelo. It is supposed to represent Jesus providing the people with fish and loaves of bread but I see it more as a 20,000 Leagues under the Sea meets Pirates of the Caribbean motif.
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| The Arab Baths |
2. There's a 500-600 year old olive tree in the middle of town. Even better, it was moved there from a farm in 1989 to symbolize peace.
3. The Oh Fuck No road to Sa Calobra.
It may (or may not) have another name but every time we went around yet another hairpin turn only to come up on twenty more bicyclists, all I could utter was "oh fuck no!" When I thought about how my travel buddy and I had talked about renting a car and exploring the island on our own, the "oh fuck no" was even more emphatic.
The near certainty of impending death aside, it really is a beautiful drive.
4. The warm waters of La Calobra.
Even though the Netherlands had a wonderful unseasonably warm summer, the water is freezing year round. As far as I am concerned, there is no point in them even having beaches. But here, all was right with the world. The welcoming waters of the Balearic Sea were exactly what I needed.
5. La Sinfoneria.
Full disclosure: had I made this a list about the 10 things I loved most in Palma, it would have come in at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. It is no secret that nothing pleases me more than discovering a good dive bar and I have been lucky enough to find plenty of them but there is nothing, in any of the 110 countries that I have stepped foot on, that compares. It is, by leaps and bounds, the coolest bar ever.
Every single aspect from decor to drinks to the music is the work of a mad genius. Carlos, the owner and one-man show, imbues everything he touches with such a wonderfully absurdist sense of humor that I believe it is physically impossible to have a bad time in his company.
Order a drink and you will have a bag hurdled at you from across the courtyard. It is not until you have the projectile in hand that you understand what he was yelling. "Chips in the Air!"
Drink #2 generally comes with a different snack, a bowlful of olives. Simple enough, seeing as we are on an island loaded with olive trees. The catch is that you have to save an olive pit so that you can toss it into a mini Roulette wheel. Depending on what number comes up, that determines which record gets played at a turntable that has suddenly appeared tableside.
Order a pizza from the nearby pizza joint and he will bring you a house-made salad. It is served in a glass and since it is primarily made of iceberg lettuce, it comes topped with... a big chunk of ice. What does one do with this mini-iceberg? Well, you toss it free-throw style into a cooler that has similarly materialized a few feet away. Since the sitting area is not all that big, the odds are good that you will do as I did and miss the cooler altogether, instead beaning an unsuspecting bar patron.
I don't know if it his manic energy, the drinks, the setting, my shitty aim or a combination of all the above but on all the three nights that we went- because we were not going to miss a single evening- we ended up meeting every other person in the bar. It was like Cheers but if Cliff, instead of being a postman, was an affable acid dealer.
On our final evening, we told Carlos how much we loved his bar and how much we were going to miss it. He then made an announcement about it being our last night and how we had to do something special. Platters of free shots started going around with increasing frequency.
At one point, my friend and I were taken by the hand to a back room and told that we were going to do Boo Shoo Shoo as blue garbage bags were taped to our shoes. The other patrons were gathered via shouts of "Attencion, attencion!!", we were brought out and the music began. That was the moment we understood we were supposed to dance to Blue Suede Shoes.
And then things got wonderfully weirder...
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| I am not in the photo only because I am the photographer but rest assured that I am wearing a tin foil tiara. |
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