VLOG | weekend in Mallorca

A few weeks ago two friends and I spontaneously booked a trip to Mallorca with the intention to try deep sea climbing. While I'm not the strongest climber (I've plateaued 😞) I'm always up for a little adventure!

Daniel and Pablo left almost a week before me to fit in as many climbs as possible and I joined the last 3 days. One would think, after hearing so many stories about how wonderful Mallorca is, we'd be basking in the sun in 22 degree temperatures but sadly it was mostly grey skies and a bit of rain here and there the whole weekend.

Also tip, if you ever were to go to places like Spain, Itlay, or Portugal in the autumn months, bring warm clothes for the apartments! They're build to stay cool during the summer but goddamn, we were freezing our butts off in the evening.

We still had a lot of fun though. The landscape there was something I've never seen nor experienced before. There was a lot of hiking to make up for the lack of climbing (for me at least) and we even managed to brave the cold waters and go for a quick swim the second day at Cala Santanyí. 

If we were to go again next year I'm going to try to train a little bit more before the trip. We're also considering bringing our bikes along to cycle around the island. Now that'd be an amazing trip.

TRAVEL | spain to france

Strangest part of our trip was probably the time we stayed at El Vilosell, an incredibly small village located in the province of Lleida. We arrived in the late afternoon after half a day of exploring and hiking hoping to dig into a big carb-y meal, but to our disappointment we couldn't find any restaurants, cafes, or supermarkets. Not that they were closed by the time we got there - there were none! The closest restaurant was at least 20km away at the next town, The only place of gathering appeared to be the only bar in the city a few meters from our hotel. Since we were low on snacks and fruit, bar food was our only option, and turns out they served a pretty decent pizza. :)

On the bright side, the hotel room we booked was beautiful! And only for 35 euros a night total. We happened to be the only guests that night (I wonder why this town doesn't draw in tourists *cough*) so it felt as if we booked a whole villa instead. My favourite part was the garden.





The drive through Andorra was crazy scary. It was such a shock to go from sunshine to snowy
mountains, complete with fog. We could hardly see the road beyond 30 meters. On an additional note,
I wouldn't really recommend a stop in Andorra, unless you're there to ski in Winter. The shopping
street was mediocre at best and the overall atmosphere was just odd. Like walking through the Vegas
strip on a tuesday or something.

Our first stop in France was Toulouse. I've been wanting to visit Southern France for ages and this roadtrip seemed like the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the famous La Ville Rose, since the weather was all doom and gloom the whole time we were there.

On the bright side, I did get to visit { Fondation Bemberg }, a fine arts museum that houses works from some of my favourite painters.

TRAVEL | pantano de siurana

Traveling by car around Spain was an amazing experience. It gave us the option of traveling to small towns and national parks that would have been difficult to visit otherwise. One of my favourite stops of the trip was Pantano de Siurana, a gorgeous turquoise reservoir surrounded by poppies.

TRAVEL | roadtrip

Last month Roman and I embarked on our annual (if this is only the second time we've done a big trip like this can I still call it an 'annual' thing?) 2 week holiday/roadtip. For the longest time I've had my sights set on going to Portugal again but we booked too late and ticket prices soared.

After some moping around on my end, we settled on traveling to Spain instead. After Roman's big trip to Mexico in November last year he's been very driven to learn Spanish. That feeling of wanting to hold on to a place that's become special to you by learning a language, just for another chance to get your tongue tied over those unfamiliar words again, is a feeling I know all too well.

Anyways, onwards to Spain.

Roman and I have two completely different styles of traveling. While I like planning ahead and optimising time, he enjoys spontaneity and adventure. For this trip we wanted to find a balance between the two in terms of activities but where we decided to go often wasn't planned until the evening before. The only thing we knew before we started was 1. We land in Barcelona 2. We want to go to the Pyrenees then France by way of Andorra 3. We fly back to Berlin from Barcelona 4. We also knew we wanted to drive along the coast at some point.

In the end, our trip looked something like this: Barcelona - Sitges - Gratallops - El Vilosell - Pasarelas de Montfalcó (hiking) - Toulouse - Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Natural Regional Park - Gruissan - Collioure - Fageda d'en Jordà, Olot (hiking) -  Figueras - Cadaqués (hiking) - Olesa de Bonesvalls - Barcelona

PLACES | a gaudi tour: sagrada familia

I was really excited to bring Roman to the Sagrada Familia. I've always told people that Sagrada Familia was one of those sights that just exceeds all expectations. At least it did for me! I think my jaw nearly dropped to the floor the first time I stepped foot into the beautiful space.

Photos rarely do the structure any justice. The way the light shines through the stained glass was otherworldly and unlike that I've ever seen in any other church thus far. We were also extremely lucky that the sun was shining the morning we decided to go (this was the same morning as our trip to Park Güell).

PLACES | a gaudi tour: park güell

Finally finally finally made it to Park Güell.

The last time I was in Barcelona I caught some sort of cold or flu midway through my week there. I was so ill I couldn't even leave my hostel bed. As a result I completely missed Park Güell, one of the must-sees in Barcelona.

But because the park is such a popular tourist destination I was a bit worried about the crowds, which is why we ended up going at 8 in the morning. I had read online that if you showed up before doors officially open, the park is completely free for visitors. It seemed a bit too good to be true but I can confirm that the tip is actually sound. Not only was the park relatively empty (about 80 other people got the memo as well) but we got to catch the sunrise on the hill too. Was almost worth the tiring-as-hell bike ride up, but I think I'll probably take the bus next time.

TRAVEL | searching for sun in barcelona

When everyone warned me of dreariness of Berlin winters--how it can easily lead to low moods or depression due to the lack of sun. As someone who's not that keen on hot sweaty summers (but has only lived in places that has hot sweaty summers) I was interested in how I'd fare in the cold. Right now I'd have to say "so far so good", I haven't lost my sanity yet, and it's already February. Only a few more months until spring!

With that said, it's also not a bad idea to leave the doom and gloom for a bit, which is why we flew off to Barcelona for a quick getaway. It's funny that I never even got to posting my photos from 2015, when I was a much different person at a very different stage of my life. I instead of bumbling around alone in the city, I got to explore it with my favourite human--show him one or two of my favourite sights in Barcelona.

Roman is really big on sports, so every time we go travel he insists on us bringing along some
running gear. Though I still haven't grown to love running as much as he does, I do feel I'm
improving! On this particular sunny morning Roman planned for us to run along the beach. Our loop
was 8km long, which is actually the longest distance I've ever run. And all this before breakfast too!

Luckily we found an amazing bakery a short two-minute walk from our apartment. We ordered our
first-of-many jamón sandwich, and some sort of danish topped with sticky-sweet berries. The
sandwich was probably one of the best I've ever had, but I might be biased because also I was also so
hungry at the time. You can see Roman here taking a sneaky bite of the sandwich from my backpack
because we were at another cafe for our morning coffee.

For lunch we went to little restaurant nearby (lucky us!) for seafood. We had tried to get a table here
the night before but when we arrived the line was outside the door, a testament to the quality of their
food. This was why I insisted on us arriving right when they opened their doors for lunch. I know I
probably sounded like some crazy foodie but 1. I barely got to eat any seafood on my last trip
because I was tight on money and 2. it's a good thing we arrived so early because 30 minutes later
this place was packed to the brim.

Prior to our arrival, I texted my friend Carmen for her recommendations for Spanish specialities and
she (bless her *praying hands emoji*) got back to me within the next 30 minutes with a huge list of
many foods I've never tried. Amongst her list was pan con tomate (tomatos on bread), which is what
we ordered here alongside grilled sardines, baby calamari (surprisingly good considering I am not a
fan of fried food), and grilled cuttlefish.

We cycled so much around Barcelona on the third day it was nice to take a break and hang out at the beach on our last afternoon. The trip was short but sweet, and I did end up crossing some things off my to-do list that I didn't get to last time such as Camp Nou and Mount Montjuïc among other things.

My Gaudi related post is coming up next as I felt they deserved a space of their own.