It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of long natural hair. Ever since I was no more than 5 years old, and my mum thought that short hair was cool, where most people mistook me for a boy, I’ve had an urge to grow my hair as long as possible.
However, there are times when I, in moments of desperation and insanity, decide that it’s time for a change. Thus I once ended up with multicoloured hair (pink in the front, yellow on the top, orange in the bottom and purple in the back), a time I associate with Friis & Co. belts, see-through D&G t-shirts, g-star 69 jeans, and way too much make-up; a time I have safely tried to displace over the years. Yesterday I had that struck of insanity again, after browsing through photos. So at 5 o’clock in the afternoon I decided to search for the nearest hairdresser and cut my hair. Short.
“Luck” was with me and I found a vietnamese salon, where the tiny lady had time. After 1 hour with excessive talking (mostly from her side, my responses can be summed up in “mhm, cool, how nice”) I was left with 20 cm shorter… very healthy but…
unevenly cut… hair.
Thankfully Caroline from my class had sympathy with me and has promised to help me cut it evenly. Sigh. It must be some sort of life-lesson that I missed out on, multiple times. “Don’t ever get impulse haircuts”.
I did really well on my test, so I’m happy and almost ready to take another one tomorrow.
On Saturday, Jeroen, Ksenia and one of her friends who has a car and I, went to do a sightseeing of the island. First we went to a tiny beautiful village which had lots of small lemon trees along the streets. They also had a tiny shop, filled with the most random things; dresses, sculptures, Buddha scripts and jewelry which looked like it was from the medieval times.
After that, we went to the where the guy (whose name is actually Rene) works, as he is the manager of a hotel on the east coast. The hotel was closed for the season, but he showed us the way to a private secluded beach, which was just beautiful.
Ksenia and I took off our shoes and dipped our toes in the ocean. I don’t think there’s a much greater feeling, than the one you have when you take off your shoes and dig your feet into the warm sand. The water was a bit too chilly for my liking though. (I’m guessing around 18-20 degrees.) In general on all the beaches we have gone to, there are a million beautiful seashells in a trillion different colours. It’s fascinating; especially for someone like me, who loves picking them up and bringing them home (sorry mum, I know I’ve brought ten trillion stones and shells with me home already)
We also went to this amazing viewpoint; never in my life have I seen the ocean and the sky more blue than what it was there. It was incredible! … Despite being.. well.. just slightly windy:
After that we went to “The Hippy Market”. Apparently there are quite a few of similar markets here on the island.
It’s a market, filled with the most random, interesting things and some of them were quite beautiful.
The people who had a stand there, looked exactly like gypsies; one crazier than the other. Some of them would just be sitting on the ground, singing or playing their guitar. The only thing that ruined the innocence was the constant smell of weed EVERYWHERE.
We’ve been told that most people who live here, smoke all the time.
It was really cool to the market though. It just seemed to expand whenever we would think we were reaching the end. If I ever need more jewelry though, I know where to go!
After that, we went to another beach (Playa de llena I think?) which was even more beautiful than the other one we were at previously. The water was so unbelievable clear and there was absolutely no seaweed in eyesight anywhere. The sand were the softest, cleanest sand and I doubt even the beaches in Thailand can compare!
To be honest, it took at least three tries to write Ibiza (we wrote that with our feet by the way) because the water would wash it away before we finished writing it every time and whenever we would move further up, so would the water. Typical.
After that, we went shopping for a bit, then the others went to a restaurant and I went home to catch some sleep and shower, as we had planned to go out later that night.
We met up super late, because everything in Spain is a few hours behind the rest of Europe: ate dinner at 11.30 pm in a restaurant! (A hamburger; first time I ate meat since I got here. It was amazing!) We went to a small cozy bar. The owner is apparently German but speaks fluent English as well (or was it the other way around?) and whenever I ordered something, since I knew he understood English just fine, that’s the language I ordered in, but every time he would force me to say it in Spanish. I have now perfected the pronunciation of “one beer please” and “another one, please”.
We went to an amazing club after having had a few cheap drinks in the previously mentioned bar, since it’s really expensive to order in the clubs (universal problem it seems!) In the club there were actual couches/beds and it was just filled with so many different types of people. The music was mainstream, but fun. Did a lot of dancing and had a great time!
Unfortunately there are very few photos that aren’t of a) our boobs (aiming the camera was apparently really hard) and b) of Ksenia and I doing body tequilas.
(Me, Ksenia, Jeroen and Anni)
I was home at 5-6 o’clock in the morning and was completely ready to go to bed, until I started drunk dialing a certain someone. Lovely.
The Sunday was spent doing pretty much nothing till the afternoon where Ksenia, Jeroen, Anni and I went to the beach that’s right near our houses.
As we were just casually chilling on the beach, a group of crazy Spanish people started singing, dancing (and I’m guessing; drinking!) right next to where we were. I would’ve posted a video of them here, but I still haven’t figured out how to and it seems my internet refuses to let me upload it elsewhere first… sigh. Any suggestions on how to?
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday’s been quite quiet. Went to a few restaurants when my cooking messed up (I did however manage to cook one really nice meal last night; picture below. Cooked waaay too much, but it tasted great!), went shopping and studied. I also went to the fitness center a few times; but it seems it’s more like the local dating center for most people, than a gym where you go to work out!
I haven’t done anything super excitingly crazy the past two days, as I’ve been kind of sick and busy with studying Spanish. Completely planning on making up for that this weekend though! We have a test tomorrow morning, based on everything we’ve learnt so far. I’m not that nervous, since it’s pretty basic, but you never know. I’ll update you how it goes.
I did manage to get lost for a couple of minutes, as I went downtown to buy a magazine, (which is pretty incredible, since the town is tiny, but then again… that’s typical me) that I’m going to use to do something I once saw somewhere on the internet, where I’ll cut letters out of the colourful pages, to create a quote, that I’ll tape up on my wall. Hopefully it’s going to work. Pictures will be posted if I succeed 🙂
As I walked back from the town, I took a different road than what I usually take and saw some pretty spectacular graffiti on the wall surrounding the park right behind the house I live in. The graffiti continues for at least 100 meters!
I brought all my gym-clothes with me, in case I should become momentarily crazy and decide to join a gym. Apparently I have reached that level, because I’ve found a fitness center that’s supposedly really great, only 15-20 mins walk from where I live. If I’m feeling better tomorrow, I plan on going there to sign up for a membership.
I believe I need to join one though, since my cooking abilities are awful and based on the fact that even the oven has to be turned on with matches, I’ll get fat if I don’t, haha.
I tried to check my taxes yesterday (in Denmark you can check online if you have to pay the government money/get money back) but this popped up as I tried accessing the page the first time:
“Kill pages” – I’ve never seen that before. Lovely. Turns out I’m getting a small sum back, which is great. Then I might be able to pay for my flight back to Denmark when that times comes. 😉
Yesterday evening I went to the beach. It’s only 10 minutes away from where I live – which is pretty much in the inner city. There were so many seashells and it was pretty beautiful down there – not a lot of people, since it’s more of a beach for the locals.
I’m still getting used to the “siesta” – how most shops aren’t open at the times I would usually go shopping, but instead open up in the morning, close midday and open up again early evening till late. I like it – I really do! I love the fact that it’s completely normal to go home after school/work and nap, then go out later again.
So today I had my first day of uni here. I woke up super early because it was storming outside and I had to go get some water. Once I was out of bed (and hence my 4 blankets. Yes. 4. They don’t have any heating here!) I couldn’t fall asleep again, so I had a good 2 hours before I was supposed to meet up at school. I hate being late, but if there’s one thing I hate even more it’s being lost and stressed, so I decided to walk 20 minutes before I was supposed to be there. 6 minutes later I was in front of the school – but couldn’t find the entrance (actually I had previously found it, but since the door was locked I figured there would be another entrance somewhere else) so I called the school – turns out, they didn’t even open till 8.30 despite that being the time we were supposed to take our entrance test! (I was there 8.15) WELCOME TO SPANISH CULTURE WHERE BEING PUNCTUAL IS NOT IMPORTANT. 😉 (and being late is normal!)
As I waited I met 3 other people that were also attending the courses. All of them spoke English (thank god!) as well as German, so we were all able to communicate. Two of them are in my current class. A guy (20 years) and a woman (49, but says she’s 50 because she can’t pronounce 49 in Spanish). The woman is hilarious. I think she must have had at least 30 facial surgeries – can hardly breathe out of her nose due to excessive nose jobs with platinum blonde messy hair and tight clothes. We are 4 people in my class, the last one is a man from Australia, whom does not speak one single word of Spanish (the rest of us have some sort of basis) and he completely messes up all the time, which thankfully he can laugh at too, which makes the class really down to earth.
(First day of school outfit)
I had classes from 8.30 till 12:45 and we have two teachers that switch throughout the day to help us get used to different accents. Both of them are really nice. In general the classes were quite easy but definitively useful. I can introduce myself, greet people, count to 1999 and have a simple conversation with others, which I think is quite an accomplishment taking into account that the last time I had Spanish was in 7th grade and my memory is awful. I won all the competitions in class as well, so I’m really happy that I haven’t forgotten everything. 🙂
The cooking is going quite awful too. The people who know me, knows that I’m not an excellent cook, but being in a kitchen where everything seems to be from the 60’s – gas stoves and “microwaves” (thus a tiny oven that can’t turn off unless you unplug it) and a kettle, which means that if you want boiled water, you have to heat it over the gas stove. Jesus! I had to ask how to even turn one such thing on! But it’s improving, it definitely is. I hope. Here’s a small picture of my dinner…………
After classes I went home and relaxed for a bit, then went back to the school where I met up with Ksenia (one of the girls that I met in the morning) and Jeron (the 20 year old guy from my class) and took a tour around Ibiza town. The streets are so cozy – I can’t wait to stroll the streets of the really old city!
There are lots of unique stores, for example a “fashion pirate store” with Ed Hardy clothes. Turns out it is one of Christian Audigier’s (the famous designer) favourite stores and apparently he knows the owner personally and therefore often comes to visit with bottles of champagne that he opens outside the store and offers random by passers, to raise awareness of the store.
We were told that Ibiza was once sort of like Tortuga (for those of you who haven’t watched Pirates of the Caribbean, it’s pretty much where all the pirates went to “have a good time”) and the locals still have a neutral bond with pirates, due to the history. They even have a statue praising pirates!
Turns out there’s a lot more to Ibiza than just the partying! 🙂
I made the flight! Incredible! I almost cried of happiness! As we walked out of the first plane it was 10 past 15, which was the time my second flight was supposed to depart at, so at that time I had given up all hope of making it – and even if I made it, my luggage wouldn’t. So as I walked into the airport, I asked a lady what to do now, as she quickly told me that they were holding the plane for me and that I had to run. So I ran…. Mallorca’s airport is not small. It’s actually kinda big, so as I finally made it to my gate, I was out of breath and quickly rushed into the plane. As I walked down the aisle to find my seat, I could literally feel everyone’s eyes on me – I was the reason that their plane was delayed, or so it would seem. (Turns out there were other people from the same plane that also had to make this plane.)
Couldn’t really do anything about it and I was more worried about my luggage, because I honestly didn’t think it would make it.
But my luck wasn’t over, it arrived as one of the first bags! 🙂
Took a cab to my apartment, which is lovely!
I share a flat with the owner – Susanna, who is an older woman with wild curly hair and who doesn’t speak a word English, which, has caused some troubles as I obviously don’t understand Spanish yet 😉
There’s also another woman here, who also studies at the university – she is 37 and really nice. When I met her, she was washing vegetables so instead of shaking hands, she reached out and kissed me on both cheeks. She doesn’t speak English either but is fluent in Spanish. I guess I’ll have to learn Spanish fast! There’s a big living room and a spacious kitchen that’s always filled with Spanish music. Currently I think we are listening to Spanish opera and they are both singing along.
My room has a nice cozy double bed, a large closet, a small bedside table and a chair. It’s not a lot, it’s not big, but it’s honestly really cozy. We live on the 5th floor (the top floor, which is lovely!) so the view is nice and there isn’t too much noise from the streets below.
Unfortunately there isn’t any internet here, so the first thing I did after having unpacked, was to find a phone store, where I bought a sim-card with data, so I can access the internet via my phone. (Bless the technology nowadays!)
After that, I decided to go food shopping. Unfortunately it’s hard to figure out what some of the different items are, when it only says in Spanish. I had to ask a lady if “Fresca Leche” was milk, but she quickly told me that what I was pointing at was “fresh milk” and pointed me in the direction of milk that can last for months. Awful! Haha. They have a large variety of items though, which is nice, in comparison to Thailand.
I walked to the harbor today and it’s so beautiful! The sky is incredibly blue and the ocean is so clear. So many unbelievable big cruises here as well! Lots of cute alleys and stores though, away from the main tourism areas.
I’m starting school tomorrow – that’s going to be exciting.
I’m back on the road again! After having returned from a wonderful trip in Egypt that was spent mostly by the pool or the sea, I had one week in Denmark to prepare and pack for my new exciting adventure. Of course, I waited till last minute and was up all night yesterday to start and finish packing – I guess I never improve in that area.
This time, I’m going to Ibiza for 2 months to learn Spanish. I’ll be studying at a university in the morning till early afternoon and then have the rest of the day to do all sorts of things. I’m considering signing up for salsa lessons, just to be awesome.
I’m so excited! Can’t believe I’m moving to an Island I’ve never actually been to before.
Currently I’m in Hamburg airport – I by accident looked at my boarding pass last night only to realize I’m actually flying from Hamburg and not Copenhagen like I thought. Thank god for that, or I would’ve missed my flight. Unfortunately my flight is currently delayed an hour and since I’m flying to Mallorca first and then catching a flight from there to Ibiza, I only have less than 30 mins in the next airport. Wish me luck – I must not miss this one either! Luckily I have a priority pass, so I’m currently just relaxing in the lounge. Bless free WiFi.
UPDATE: My flight is currently another 15 mins delayed – Now I only have 15 mins in the next airport. Crap.
Updates are expected to come regularly from now on again! 🙂
