Urban Hiking & Kitty Cats: December 2013

After a couple months of trying to get my bike shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, Kelly gave up on me being around the house and bought me my 'engagement bike'. Its like an engagement ring for guys, but waaaay better. After scouting out some shops we ended up heading out to S'Arenal aka the Myrtle Beach of Mallorca. It is a super touristy beach area but its popular with foreign cyclists and they have lots of used bikes.

So we picked up this beauty for a steal of a deal. Its a KTM, like the motorcycles, they sell bike shere in Europe too. Its full carbon (actually my first full carbon road bike) with full Campy Record 10 speed. It also has a Selle Italia SLR saddle, which is my foavorite and was a big selling point.

When I bought the bike they also offered me a really good deal on some flyweight Campy Neutron wheels, which I took and have been glad I did on the long climbs here in the Tramuntana Mountains in Mallorca.

As I sit at a bus stop sipping wine from a plastic cup, waiting for my bus that will be here in three hours (because we read the bus schedule wrong on a holiday, once again) I have to say that Spain, minus a few usual setbacks, is just awesome. Neither of us have to work on Fridays, so we took off yesterday afternoon to see a town in Mallorca called Deiá . I traveled by bus while Will rode the 20 miles/2000 ft of climbing on his bike. **as I’m typing this two pro cyclists… or what I assume were pros because they wore pro kits and had super clean bikes… just rode past my stop. Maybe I should have taken a picture instead of typing about it. Oh well. Still pretty cool** After 5 weeks of rainy weather, we were very excited to wake up to SUN yesterday morning. I caught the bus with both of our bags and traveled the whole 45 minutes on a tiny bus with loud Spaniards. I don’t know if Spaniards have bad hearing or something, but they all insist on shouting everything they say. Some may call it being passionate… I call it obnoxious and rude when sitting next to someone on a bus. But, the ride wasn’t long and there was lots to see!

When I arrived in Deiá I had a map that in no way helped me locate the hotel that Will had booked. Luckily after wandering around the windy and small streets for a bit, I found a sketchy yellow sign with an arrow that supposedly pointed to our hotel.

I took off up this tiny and steep hill in hopes of stumbling across our hotel… carrying both our bags, passing doors that looked straight out of the hobbit (or what I can only assume are from out of the hobbit because I have never actually seen the hobbit).

Totally hobbit doors- right?

Hiking up this hill made me feel slightly less lazy than Will, even if he did have to ride up the same exact hill not too long after me. When I reached the top about 15 minutes later, huffing and puffing, I found a sign for our hotel… our hotel that most definitely looked closed… but Will had received a confirmation, and emailed them…. So it had to be open, right??

Totally doesn't look open

So I walked up to the front door and peered inside. I couldn’t see anyone but some friendly looking cats. They ran up to me and started rubbing up against my legs. So I was pretty happy and content for awhile. Until I realized it was cold out and I still needed to check in. So I set our bags down and pulled on the door. But it wouldn’t open. I tried again, sometimes doors in Spain are just really hard to open, but nothing happened. So I stood there for a minute, petting an adorable cat and trying to figure out what to do, when I looked at the door and read, “push”. Whoops. The adorable kittens had distracted me from realizing that I was supposed to push the door. So I opened it. Success! And went inside.

This old Spanish woman came out of a side door **more pros just rode by…. I swear they look super proish. Next time I'll work on taking a picture** So this super Spanish woman looked exactly like my Great Aunt Ray! I haven’t seen her in several years but I swear she did. And Wills never met her so he can’t back me up on this, but just take my word for it. So I feel like I know her as she walks me up to our room. As we walk, I fumble with our two awkward bags (why did we need TWO bags for one night away??) and she walked me into a room with two beds. Then she got all confused and asked for my name. I told her Will Gillette because he booked the room and then she got even more confused because Will had emailed them to change the name to mine and she thought we’re supposed to have two beds but I was the only person there. With two bags. And I could tell that we were seriously missing something in the Spanish translation but I had no clue what to do. And she kept asking to see my reservation, which I didn’t have because I didn’t think to print it out before I left and I couldn’t get any cell service to pull up the email. And she didn’t understand why I wouldn’t have a copy of my reservation on hand, I guess, because she kept looking at me like I was an idiot. And I kept trying to ask for uno cama (one bed) instead of dos camas but she just kept telling me, I think, that the other rooms weren’t prepared and would be too cold (most places in Spain lack central heating). But then, luckily, two other women walked into the hotel. And they had reserved the room with two beds and they were wisely prepared with their confirmation printed and so then I was pushed into the hallway. Still carrying my bags, trying to pull up our confirmation, and feeling very confused. And she just checked them in and got them settled in. And then she looked back at me, shook her head, said “uno momento” and walked off. So I waited for a while… still super awkwardly... with two bags… looking around... until she came back, pointed at me, and said Kelly Fischer?? And I nodded quickly and responded “sí, sí, sí!!” and then she muttered something about Marido and bicicleta and I continued to repeat “sí, sí, sí!!” (you can never say sí or vale enough in Spanish). And then she pushed me around and walked me down the hall to another room. Which didn’t have a bathroom or shower, but did have one bed and a space heater! And there she left me. So I assumed she figured it out… because I wasn’t kicked out of the hotel. But the website didn’t say we’d be sharing our bathroom or shower with our hallmates. And before I could go clarify that this was our room, I caught the view out our window, dropped our bags, and decided we’d make it work. Because the view was spectacular and totally worth sharing a bathroom and shower with others.

See the ocean in between the mountains?!

**another “pro” just rode by but I wasn’t fast enough to take a picture… I'll keep trying** I figured Will couldn’t be far away so I unpacked and then grabbed my book and went downstairs to read. I thought maybe I'd go find a market and pick up some wine or beer to enjoy while I waited, but the second I stepped outside, I was attacked by cats and forced, completely against my will, to sit down with one snuggled up in my lap. I absolutely did not chase it around and pick it up, several times, in order to pet it in my lap. So there I remained, against my will, snuggling with a cat (please don’t tell Ridley) and reading until Will arrived. **he’ll post about his ride later. But I'll tell you that he made it and he made it in good time** And I remained hostage for another hour while he showered and got ready. And then maybe a few minutes longer…

Totally being held against my will

Struggling to get away

A look of complete suffering

After that, we decided to hit the town. Off we went in search of drinks and tapas. After wandering for about 30 minutes in every direction, it was obvious that Deiá on a Thursday in the winter does not have much to offer. So we wandered into a café. The only one/place that was open. And ran into the other two (and only other people) women staying at our hotel. And they had heard me speaking English earlier so they saw us, and introduced themselves as Australians! Hooray for English! We ended up joining them for a few drinks… well one of them because the other didn’t drink and referred to herself as a teetotaler and Will had a revelation that the phrase teetotaler meant “totally tea” and I had to admit I’ve never heard of that before (And I just looked it up and it totally doesn't mean that. You can read all about it here if you're feeling so inclined. It's actually fairly interesting.)… And before I knew it, it was dark outside and time to start looking for dinner. In hopes that more places were open now that it was darker and later, we said goodbye to our new friends and went off to find a restaurant. Right across the street was the only other place open. So in we went and it turned out to be absolutely okay because it was one of the best meals I have probably ever had. Will had duck and I had rack of lamb. YUM. There's no words to describe this meal, so I'll leave it at that. It was delish.

Leaving dinner we assumed that it had to be at least 10 at night, so when I check my phone and realized it was 8:00, we felt pretty lame. Most people don't eat dinner until 9:00 in Spain so we were definitely not up to Spanish par. Trying to be a little more "Spanish" we grabbed a bottle of wine to go and wandered around the deserted town. Even though the town was quiet, it was well lit and absolutely beautiful. I have only once seen stars brighter than the ones in Deia and that was in the middle of nowhere, Utah, where humidity is 0. We could even see the milky way. And we saw a shooting star. "Magical" pretty much sums up the entire night. And the entire trip.

Our attempt to take a picture at night

**Okay, I finally got a picture of some of the "pros" riding by... thoughts??**

And so now I sit on a bench, typing away, waiting for the bus ride home. The bus schedule normally has a stop in Deiá at noon. However, the schedule changes on Holidays. You would think that Will and I would have remembered this because we ended up killing a lot of time last time we traveled due to a holiday bus schedule change... But we definitely didn't... and so at noon when the bus didn't come, we were confused. Until we double checked and realized it would be here at 3:01. So here I sit. Will and I should be getting in around the same time. I just received a fabulous text from him stating, "My dearest Kelly. I have summited puig mayor and now I rest overlooking an alpine lake. I look forward to seeing you again, perhaps in a train station in an exotic location in Europe. Love, Your (slightly delusional) Husband." And by exotic train station, he means Palma's train station, where he's meeting me to grab his bag. But at least it sounds like he's surviving. Even if he's partly insane :)

Puig Major!

Well, now I've passed the good part of two hours (I type slowly) and it's nearly bus time. I hope everyone is having a happy Spanish Constitution Day (the day that Spain signed their Constitution in the 70's- a 35 year old holiday).

And I leave you with some other pictures of our awesome overnight. Among our language confusion, culture shock, kitty cat mania, and travel mishaps, Spain definitely has its perks y'all...