Mischief in Mallorca...

 
Wozz & I Spent about 4 months in Palma de Mallorca Spain.  We were still kind of working on yachts but were land based for the winter.  We rented a little apartment in the old town just a block from the plaza de mayor (which is a large center/meeting area in the old town of Palma).  It was upstairs from a jazz cafe which was pretty cool until Saturday night rolled around and our bathroom reeked of cigarettes and our heads remained stuffed firmly into our pillowcases as the band played on.  Most of the time, it was an advantage to just wonder downstairs have a few tapas, a glass, two or three of Rioja and spend the evening perusing with the spanish.  Many times, I loved to just stay home and peak out my window watching all the old spanish ladies dressed up in their fancy coats and bags chatting at the outdoor cafe.  We lived across from a beautiful old church that was being refurbished.  To the rest of the tenants it was probably an annoyance to constantly here the sanding of stone along with the voices of the spanish construction workers every morning bright and early but for us it made it all the more authentic.  We were really living here in Spain.  We were living a bit like the locals.

Our friends patricia (she is brazilian) and Ads (another Australian who also worked on boats) lived just down a small cobblestone alleyway from us.  It always gave us a feeling of comfort to have friends right down the street even though we were living so far from home.  We attempted Spanish but were pretty bad at it.  I managed to get by only because the Mallorcians were pretty good at English, accomodating me as they watched me struggle time and time again.  Despite the language barrier, I absolutely loved Spain.