EuroTrip: Party in Mallorca

This post is the last in these series of my first EuroTrip. You can click here to read my previous post on my real experience in Madrid. https://blog.denniskioko.com/2020/01/eurotrip-madrid-in-2-days-it-has-its.html

I was headed to the airport, en route to my final destination - Mallorca pronounced as Majorca (with a Y in place of the J). The island of Mallorca had ended up in my itinerary by accident. When exploring cheap flights between Madrid and Munich - my starting point, it appeared that all flights went through Mallorca. It, therefore, made sense to have a stopover at the island.

Again, the Madrid airport is packed during summer and it would be a good idea not to have any check-in luggage for a European stop unless you love queueing in long and winding queues. The Air Norwegian flight between Madrid and Mallorca was hassle free and comes highly recommended.

Shooters (A club), in Mallorca

There is also the breathtaking view out of the plane as you approach the Mallorca airport, with the blue of the ocean punctuated by a number of boats here and there. The first task after alighting from the plane was finding the bus, in my case, to Palma de Mallorca.

Mallorca has a German side and a British one. It feels like Diani back in Kenya. Of course, the British side is smaller (and further away). Palma is the main town close to the airport and pretty popular with the Germans, which explains why my Munich connections were through Mallorca. The British side does have one thing for it - there is a large club that has a hotel annex meaning that you can check in to the club and never have to leave until you need to head back home.

I took the Airport bus to its last stop at Arenal, which was about a kilometre or so from my hotel - the Hotel Amazonas. With a few hours to spare to check-in time, I decided to grab pizza just off the beach. Lunch was followed by check-in, which was followed by the rude discovery that WiFi was an extra 6 or so Euros per day, which I was not going to pay, followed by a nap.

Later in the day, I woke up and grabbed a pair of shorts, a vest and threw a shirt on top to head to the beach. Unfortunately, I did not have sandals or any open shoes, but this was quickly resolved from the hotel’s “lost and found”.

The Palma beach in Mallorca

From Barcelona, I had picked the lesson that it was not a good idea to carry your phone to the beach if there was no one to watch over it. I therefore made it to the beach in my clothing and nothing else. I left my shirt, vest and the borrowed sandals by the shoreline and waded into the water.

The beaches at Mallorca are quite busy, while the waters are shallow, warm and quite rewarding. Deeper into the ocean, there was a group partaking in some form of water sport where they were towed in an inflatable dhow at high speed, floating and slamming into the water.

In summer, Mallorca happens to benefit from late sunsets, which means that you have extra time to play around in the warm water or swim around for those who prefer showing off their amphibious skills.

The evening saw me head back to my hotel for a change to something slightly warmer, my wallet, and my phone which I had missed for the few hours I had been playing around in the water.

It also happened to be time for dinner, which saw me head to Restaurante China Ming, which I had found closed at lunch. It proved to be worth my time, with starters, a sumptuous main course, dessert and wine all coming at about 10 Euros.

One of the courses at the China Ming Restaurant, Mallorca

Dinner then led to an attempt to explore the Arenal section of Mallorca, which somehow saw me finding myself at what billed itself as a black club - the Black Magic Disco. I make it sound easier, yet I had to walk two or so kilometres past the Black Magic before resolving that I would probably not find any other interesting place and hence doubling back.

Well, it’s not like the Black Magic disco was that good - it did try to play (black) hiphop before throwing in the towel and giving in to the popularity of reggaeton. But this was not before some Germans waded in and attempted to dance to hiphop until someone volunteered to teach them a couple of moves.

The takeaway though was that I should have gone to a more regular club, as I found out when I was leaving for the hotel just after midnight when I decided to “just have a look” by popping into Club Shooters.

I ended up spending more than two hours in there. The DJs were playing an entertaining mix, blending the electronic music that is popular in Europe and the usual Western Pop. To top it up, the crowd was quite lively and the lighting played a big role in adding to the party atmosphere.

It was somewhere past 3 AM when I staggered into my hotel and my bed, from which I had to rouse myself before 6 AM for my airport run. It was so early that I had to take breakfast all by myself, and they had not even finished laying it out. I then caught an express bus to the airport, just outside the hotel.

Again, there was some traffic on the highway leading to the airport, another reminder that people were up and about their lives and not everyone was here on holiday. As we got off the bus at the airport, I had to rouse some chap who had fallen asleep across the back seat. Seems there is quite a number of people who stagger right out of the club and straight to the airport.

The Alps, as viewed from a window - plane

Mallorca’s airport was really packed, even to a shocking extent. Besides navigating hordes of people, including the many kissing couples, you also come to the realisation the airport is quite large and it takes quite a while to get to some gates.

My flight back to Munich was on Laudamotion, which saw us overfly the Alps on a pretty cloudless morning which provided for breathtaking views of the mountain ranges below. It also resulted in the realisation that the Alps come to some abrupt end about 50 kilometres from Munich, with the city seemingly on some plain.

Munich - The End 

Landing back in Munich, I came to the realisation that one of the S lines was under repair and there was therefore only one other S train out of the airport before connecting with the U5 to my apartment, resulting in a longer trip and tour of Munich.

Pork at the Gaststätte Scheidegger in Munich

Being my last day in Munich, it also meant that it was time to buy gifts, which in turn meant a trip to downtown Munich. The airport train ticket also happens to be a full-day ticket for the entire Munich transport network and this came in handy when getting around. Some of the gift shops in Munich are the Deutsches Museum Shop, the Bayern Munich gift shops and the Breitengrad gift shop at SchellingStrasse, down the street from StammBar.

The coming morning saw me take my chance with the U5 and the S3 back to Munich Airport. I had been warned that I should probably take the Lufthansa Airport Bus or a taxi to the airport given my morning flight on a weekday ,and my having several pieces of luggage as the Underground can be packed.

Luckily, this proved to not be the case as though busy, there was enough space for me and my luggage on the U5, while the S3 is basically an airport train - just don’t get on the wrong side of the train as it splits at some point near the airport and only part of the train goes to the airport! Nothing like the peculiarity of German trains to make for a befitting end to a Euro Trip!