Mallorca was not so much the case.
But what's nice about this thing is that there aren't really any rules for it, so I can document whatever I want. And this includes my time in Mallorca, where I spent a very lovely birthday week.
My cousins Marta and Guillermo were gracious enough to host me for five days and four nights at their beautiful, gorgeous, lovely home in Palma, which I did not take pictures of, because I thought it would be intrusive and maybe weird. But it's a beautiful place, on the seventh floor of a building in the center of Palma, with a huge roof deck/terrace/what have you and a lovely view of the mountains. There are windows everywhere in the apartment, and natural light and great breezes pervade it as a result. I stayed in their guest room, and while I was there, so was Marta and Guillermo's granddaughter, my nine-year-old cousin, Isabel - who's sweet and fun and insatiably curious. Guillermo had to work during the day while I was there, so Marta, Isabel, and I traipsed across the island together (short traipses - you can drive across the widest part of the island in about an hour and a half), seeing the sights.
We went to see the Cathedral de Mallorca, which is this gorgeous building dating back at least to the thirteenth century (if not before - I don't know where I put my pamphlet), and featuring Gothic architecture as well as a beautiful piece for the altar by Antoní Gaudí.
In addition to the Cathedral and the Old City (as well as the palace where the King of Spain summers - Bill Clinton was there!), we also took a trip across the island from Palma to the Cave of the Dragon, which is a twenty million-year-old cave with the most incredible stalactite and stalagmite formations I've ever seen. Not that I've seen many. But it was damn impressive. Pictures were not allowed, alas, but many of the formations were quite breathtaking. At the end of our walk through the cave, there was a lake, and in front of it rows of benches where we sat to take in a little concert performed by musicians in little lit-up row boats! They turned off the rest of the lights in the cave, and the water and our surroundings were illuminated only by the light of the boats - it was very like that Grimm's fairy tale, "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," when they all sneak out in the night to go party underground and are taken to a castle across a lake in magical boats!
LOLOL it's far less corny than I'm making it sound, I promise. LOLOL.
I got to meet two new cousins, Dalay and Venus, both of whom emigrated from Cuba recently - Dalay three years ago, Venus a year and a half ago. They are awesome, funny, smart, and lovely girls. Part of what was really cool about that was recognizing the similarities that emerge and remain despite having been raised worlds and seas apart. It's clear that we are of a kind.
Marta and Guillermo were kind enough to take us all out for Spanish pizza for my birthday, and then we took a walk through Palma at night, which is as lovely as any place I've been. The pace is markedly different than Barcelona's, for obvious reason - less bustle, fewer tourists (in the city, at least LOL), and in general a more relaxed attitude. The Moors occupied Mallorca for four-hundred-plus years rather than the mere one-hundred-plus of Barcelona,
Anyway, the beach was an integral element of this trip; we visited four or five different beaches in three days, each with a different attraction and character. I keep saying on this trip that these are the most beautiful places I've ever seen, but it's true; I'll grant you that having grown up in New Jersey and living in Boston doesn't necessarily give me the best exposure to the best of the best as far as beaches are concerned, but...
Anyway, I adored Mallorca. By being with my cousin there, I really got the sense of community that exists; knowing everyone you meet, running into friends on the bus. Palma is a small city, but beautiful and historically rich. The island itself is mountainous (I wish I could have gotten a photo of when I was flying in, and all I saw was this enormous mountain, before anything else) and undeveloped in most parts, and just... lovely. I had a great time there, and was quite sorry to leave.
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