Valldemossa

Valldemossa

It’s a small town with history, Chopin and George Sands both spent a winter here, during which Sands wrote the book A Winter in Majorca, and Chopin suffered bad pianos and composed some famous pieces. I posted them in my blog earlier. All that aside, it’s rather touristy, and I had trouble getting food for a reasonable price. So be it. The convenient aspect of the tourist nature is that there are shops and I could finally replace my shorts which started to rip at CTY, and purchase a pair of white linen pants as well, which I have been searching for since arriving here. Pedro, the man in the store, was very helpful in listening to what I was looking for, and saving me time by pulling together a few options that fit my wants and needs.

Touristy also means that everything here is printed in English, usually with a plethora of funny grammatical or diction mistakes – can you use diction in this sense? – and German, which helps when I don’t know what the English section is trying to tell me. Castellano is spoken and of course, Catalan.

What I did learn is very interesting, these stores can mostly all do American Express, but will often tell you that they can’t. It’s only a matter of explaining that it is your only card, and suddenly it magically works. I can’t imagine that is in their contract. I also learned that as a foreigner, I am entitled to a tax form, and should request at customs. The shops that offer “tax free” forms work with companies that take a huge cut of the tax, almost 50%, and merely for processing forms.

I think it’s obscene. I was wondering about this last year when I purchased my shoes in Italy, I will have to make sure that I am careful this time about receiving my full refund and not lose a chunk to a company accidentally.

Pau, the photographer from the ice cream shop, emailed me about Ibiza. He said stay on Ibiza for the parties, if that is what you are interested in. But, if you are planning on spending time on the beach, skip it, hop on a ferry to Formentera, about 3 miles off the coast of Ibiza, where the beaches are incredible. It’s a small enough island that renting a bicycle is the best way to see it. He said it will be one of the most amazing experiences of my life, sounds like a must to me.

The first Ferry – provided it’s not obscenely expensive, leaves at 7:30 in the morning Monday. I think I will come back from the club with Shiva, and head to the port, hop on a boat, spend the day at the beach, come back, get my stuff, and hop on my plane back here – Barcelona - Venice. I should definitely be able to sleep on the plane after that experience. I am hoping to do some snorkeling while in Ibiza or on the island close to it; that would be incredible. Just borrowing gear for a few minutes has left me yearning to spend more time under water (Deia).

At the moment, I am waiting for the bus. I have been writing this from the bench, but think I will go search for a café to upload my last few posts and look into some accommodation options for Venice. I am excited to throw myself into a new place where I have no ability with the language. What adventures await?