Mallorca

 We booked this time off work last month to do a proper camping trip in Cornwall as we've been told its got the best scenery in Britain and we'd like to get some camping in over here. As the shit June that London's been having wore on it became pretty clear we were going to get rained out so we figured if the sun won't come to us we'll go to the sun.

We booked it all on a whim just a couple days before so there was little time to prepare or anticipate which made it really exciting. Being able to take off like that to anywhere in Europe is just amazing and something I'm sure I'll pine for the rest of my life.

Our only criteria was that it be warm and cheap so out options were wide open. We got a package deal to Port D'Alcudia on Mallorca that was flights, transfers and 4 nights all inclusive for £340 each so we figured why not. All I knew about Mallorca was that it was a Spanish island that's got spots I've seen in a few skate videos and the weather said 32 and sunny. Done.

Neither of us had done all inclusive before but for what we paid our expectations were low and if we ate and drank off site it wasn't the end of the world. The resort was nicer than expected and exceeded the scary reviews we'd read. Though that wasn't a stretch. For a budget and brief holiday it was perfect. Shitty buffet food, free drinks, 7 pools and a bed were all we needed.

The town itself was alright, small and very touristy, but the beach was stunning and stretched for 30km or so around a bay. We spent our first day there lounging in the sun and proving Sainsburys spf15 sunblock was not good enough for our pale skin.

It's difficult for me to go somewhere new and not explore. As much as I love relaxing by a pool or beach I just always have this urge to see more and more. Lucky for me our sunburns meant we wouldn't be lying in the sun all day the second day. We rented a car and set out to find some snorkeling. It was nice to get behind the wheel on the correct side of the road, but I do feel like going back and forth all the time is setting myself up for disaster. We drove through some amazing country side as well as villages with streets barely wide enough for our little VW Polo. I never imagined I'd drive anywhere as busy and chaotic as Central London or tiny Spanish village like Son Servera with streets so narrow both mirrors are nearly touching building. It's pretty surreal.

I fell in love with snorkeling in Hawaii and couldn't wait to get back into some water where I can see further than my hand in front of my face. We ended up in a small town on the south coast called Cala Morlanda which had another great white sand beach, but more importantly a rocky area free of people and full of fish. It wasn't as colorful as Oahu but there was still a great variety of fish and it was so nice to explore the clear warm water. I'd love to have some photos but my bulky $400 everything proof camera crapped out at the first splash.

We headed east from there to a place called Cala Rajada for some more snorkeling. This was a really cool looking town with a more authentic feel and quieter resorts. We found a beautiful little cove at the end of a road with not too many people and some more great snorkeling.

From here we drove north back through Alcudia to the Serra de Tramuntana which is a very unique looking limestone mountain range that stretches the north of the island. The road was an absolute blast to rip through with countless hairpin turns and no traffic. The views were incredible too.

We ended up in Palma, which is the main city on Mallorca. Decided to check out a couple skate spots I'd seen to make use of bringing my board here. It was nice to get back on my board on Spanish ground. Palma had some similarities to Barcelona, open plazas with smooth ground, but it wasn't quite the playground Barcelona was.

We spent our last day pool side taking advantage of the weather, the resorts pools and views and free drinks. Afterwards we wandered to the beach to take in the sunset and have a nice Mallorcan dinner of tapas and paella.

Mallorca wasn't somewhere we'd planned on going but it was absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect every second we were there. I'm sure Cornwall is lovely and I hope we can still go soon, but this was a hell of a second choice.

-Justin

The cost

A co-worker from Citytv sent me a message asking about the average cost of things here, so I thought I'd do up a quick blog with some examples of basic costs in case others were curious too. One thing to keep in mind is that 20% tax is included in all of these prices, so what you see is what you get. Also, tipping is optional and not expected in most cases, and if you do tip 10% is fair.


Food And Drink:

The average cheapest pint of lager costs around £3.50 at a pub.
A cheap bottle of wine from a supermarket is £5 and out for dinner you can get a cheap one for £9.
There are cheap dine out deals here, things like curry and a pint for £5 or two can dine for £10, but while the food is edible if you're on a budget, it's pretty obvious it's reheated crap.
The average good priced meal out costs around £10 for the main course. Portions are small compared to North American standards.
The average good Sunday roast dinner costs £15.

Just one of many 'Curry and a Pint' deals

You can buy bread, crackers, and similar food basics for under £1.00. I just bought a huge bag of fresh basil for .80 pence. Groceries in general are quite cheap.
You can buy amazing cheese in any supermarket and its about 1/4th of the price you would pay in Canada.
Many pubs and restaurants have happy hour where drinks are dirt cheap.
Beer is very inexpensive at grocery stores - We just bought 3 cases for £25.


Transportation:

Monthly transit ranges from £60-£180 if you're using it as your main source of transportation, depending on zones and how much you need it etc.
A bus trip is £2.30 or if you have an Oyster card (a reloadable card you can have money or monthly passes on) it is £1.30. There are no transfers.
Used cars about 10-15 years old range from £500 - £2000 to buy.
Gas currently is about £1.40/litre
You can find great deals on flights to pretty much anywhere, but the cheapest fly when the tube is closed and from a difficult to get to airport, which adds significantly to your cost.

Bills and Basics:

Mobile phone contracts are great here. Ours includes daily roaming international data and pretty much unlimited everything else for £50 per month.
Bills are expensive and many. Electricity is the biggest cost, council tax (which is like property tax and everyone pays according to their borough and house) is due monthly, TV license fee is a yearly fee, parking fee, water, etc.
TV, Internet, and landline costs us about £50 a month inclusive.
Rent is out of wack here, with most people living in shared accommodation and roughly paying £400 per person per month.
Minimum wage is about £6.10


Entertainment and Shopping:

Clothing is generally the same number you would pay in Dollars, but in Pounds. I only buy the cheapest things if any so that's all I can really speak to -Recently I bought a tank top for £4 and a summer dress for £8 from H&M.
There are markets everywhere with clothes, food, and trinkets at various prices.
Movie tickets are about £12 but you get a selected seat. Some movie theaters allow you to drink alcohol.
Most museums are free, asking for a donation if you can spare it.
Concerts vary but seem to generally be cheaper than tickets would be in Canada. We saw Foster the People and tickets were £12.50. We are going to a 3 days festival in August and it was about £230 each including camping and parking.

Gay Paree

Paris was pretty much on the top of our list of cities to visit while we were here so when Genevieve's friend Candice and her boyfriend Nathan told us they were getting a flat for a couple weeks and invited us to join them we jumped on it. We spent 4 nights cramping their studio apartment and exploring the French capital.

We took the Eurostar through the chunnel which cost 80 pounds each return I think, but even better than the cost was the ease of the journey. It took less than 4 hours from our door in Wimbledon to the streets of central Paris. A trip from Vancouver to Qualicum takes longer than that. Amsterdam from Luton airport was nearly double. The central location of the stations and the ease of security and customs was such a treat compared to air travel and Paris is quite easily doable in a weekend here which is awesome.

I'd been told that Paris was a disappointment to some people, and I guess the way the city is romanticized and so iconic I can see it being built up to an inevitable let down. Personally I didn't expect it to wow me or change my life, I just thought it looked like an interesting place with some stuff to see that was easy to get to. It met those expectations quite easily.

We started our first day by dropping off our bags and promptly hitting the metro for a wander. We aimed for the area surrounding Notre Dame for a start. I really liked seeing a different style of building from London, while they appear to be similar aged buildings and really not so far from London it was quite a distinct difference that made me realize just how diverse Europe is for such a relatively small area. You can drive 12 hours in BC and refill your Big Gulp at the same 7-11, here you go through a couple countries and feel worlds apart.

I had no intention of going to Notre Dame before we got here, but it looked interesting and the line was reasonable so we climbed the 400 something spiraled stone steps to the top for a view of Paris. This turned out to be my favorite part of the trip actually. The steps all have deep grooves worn in the stone from 800 years of traffic, and the view from the top is incredible. Sharing a view of Paris with Gargoyles that have been there hundreds of years was surreal, picturing the differences they've seen over the centuries just staring off with their goofy faces. I loved those gargoyles.

Paris has a number of famous skate spots I'd wanted to check out, so I brought my board, but having just skated once since rolling my ankle 4 months ago I didn't really expect to skate. I played the role of skate tourist one afternoon and went by myself to look at a few famous spots with no intention of skating. The next day for some reason Genevieve was keen to join me to a couple spots in case there was a chance of 'filming' a trick on one of our digital cameras. It was pretty ridiculous, but there's not many chances in life to skate and get a trick in a city on the other side of the world, regardless of the camera or the mediocre maneuver, so we did it and it was pretty fun. Might be usable, might not, but it was nice to get on the board a bit in Paris on a vacation pretty far removed from a skate trip with the boys.

Genevieve's coworker Hannah happened to be in Paris the same time as us with the boyfriend and sister so we got to meet them at the park across the Seine from the Eiffel tower for some wine and baguettes. Before coming to Paris my only must see was the Eiffel tower, so sitting there drinking wine and watching it sparkle was a moment I won't forget. It always feels a little weird at those iconic sights because you don't really choose to want to see them, someone else does. I guess it's just symbolic of where you are and regardless of what it is, that's how you know you're somewhere new and different. Either way it was pretty moving.

The Louvre was kind of the same, a must see as chosen by everyone else. I did want to go, but having spent so much time in museums in London our limit was pretty short. The sun was shining too bright to spend much time in there so we parted ways with Candice and checked out the Mona Lisa and a handful of things on the way out. I think my favorite part of the Louvre was the mayhem around the famous pieces, all crowding around and taking pictures of the highlights from their travel books without really knowing what else is in there. Just to be clear I'm no better, I just find all of it a little off.

Food and drink in Paris was quite expensive in comparison to London. It was tough to justify 8 Euros on a glass (not a pint) of beer that wasn't even filled to the top. This would explain why there weren't really any pubs in the way we're used to, and most people seemed to just be drinking wine in the parks or on the Seine at night. Another wonderful example of public drinking gone right. We did go for one nice dinner in a fancy little french restaurant, Gen earned it tagging along to skate spots.

We'd heard the stereotype that Paris was dirty and the French were assholes, and while there's always some truth to stereotypes I didn't find it too bad. Most people, while not friendly, weren't particularly rude either. Where ever we tried to use a little grade 9 French they would always speak English. The city itself was pretty dirty though, and the funny thing is I think Paris has been told how beautiful it is for so long that it's gotten a sense of arrogance and that it's too good to clean the puke and dog shit off it's sidewalks. There were also a lot more sketchy characters than we've seen in London, meaning I had my wallet in my front pocket quite a bit. There's a lot of gypsy scams I remembered from Barcelona as well as aggressive African men selling trinkets at all the tourist sites.

I really enjoyed 5 days in Paris, it was great to see all the iconic sights as well as a lot of Paris I hadn't planned on exploring, but I wouldn't want to spend much more time there. Great place to visit but not somewhere I'd want to spend a lot of time, I just didn't really mesh with things there. Coming back to our home base in London is so nice and makes me so happy to travel the way we are. Being able to bank and use our phones for free in Europe is a sweet bonus too.

-Justin