The Balearics
There were beaches where the sun and the sand drank my hands away. And they said life is better if you add water. In fact water is a necessity for life. It’s always been and all life on the planet origins from it. What do I mean with this? Well, we’re on an island. Island life makes time easier and on an island you are never too far from a better life. The coast is always near. You are close to the water. Not that these are some kind of stereotypical paradise islands with long white beaches and bended palm trees. There is beaches and palm trees. But not in that way. This is European islands.
Balearics is a group of Spanish Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea. Approximately 200 km east of the Spanish main land. These islands are probably part of the early holiday destination islands in Europe. I know the south of France were a really early holiday destination. But I mean as islands. Or maybe The Balearics are too far out to have been reached as a holiday destination. They have at least been inhabited by people living their permanently for a very long time. It can be traced back to about 4000 or 6000 B.C. There is little record from the early history of the islands but there is Megalith monuments from the bronze ages for example (mostly on Menorca). There has been different kinds of people living on these islands throughout the times. The classical pirate kind of people for example. As we know them from pirate movies with skulls and bandanas. They came from north Africa and attacked these islands many times to eventually settle there. This classic pirate style was then likely originated from the times when they lived on the Balearic islands. Which by then ended up being mostly Menorca to be precise. The Balearics have also been a part of the roman empire of course. And the Greeks must have been there before that. They were traveling all over this side of the world to explore and draw maps.
When referring to The Balearics we mostly mean Menorca, Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera, which are the inhabited islands of the Balearics. But the Balearics are actually considered as a province and is an archipelago with many smaller islands and islets which forms an autonomous community to Spain. It have even been declared as a “one nationality of Spain”, but it belongs to Spain as a country and have of course a very similar culture, even though some of them living there may claim there is distinguishing differences.
They have their own flags and their own food of course. Like tumblet and Fideua for example. In Spain you find local Paella wherever you go. Originally it came from the east coast of the Spanish Mainland, but now a days every region of Spain have their own Paella and claim that it is the original. It is a rice dish that comes in a big iron pan and is served with anything. Fish, chicken, vagetables etc. Mallorca even have its own anthem (La Balanguera) and the local language on the Balearic islands is Catalan, which it also is on the east coast of the Spanish mainland. It is a co-official language together with Spanish though.
The Balearics is a very popular destination for tourists and have been so for many years. The first holiday charter packages with flight and hotel included, for tourists from the colder countries in Europe, went to Mallorca and started in the 70’s. Since then the tourism have just increased and by now the airport in Palma has over 29 million passengers every year.
Mallorca
“I would sooner be a foreigner in Spain then in most countries. How easy it is to make friends in Spain”. This was once said by George Orwell. And I would agree with him. Even though I was trying my best to keep for myself during my time on Mallorca. I still got to know some people there. I felt like I needed my privacy very much at the time. It was something I had been missing from living and working very close to the crew on a sail boat at the time before coming here.
I almost lived like a troglodyte or a hermit when I was on Mallorca. That’s what I wanted. I needed it. But still people in the village where I stayed got to know me. That’s how easy going and socially accepting the Spanish are. I needed that too. Being surrounded by easy going people. I could be at a tavern down the valley with a bottle of white wine for myself while just sitting there, making a drawing in my big notepad, and the guys working there would end up by my table trying to talk to me, even though I don’t know Spanish. Still they are not quite as bad as the Italians when it comes to intriguing your privecy.
Mallorca (Majorca) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean sea and the largest out of the Balearic islands. In fact, I think it is the largest out of all the islands that belongs to Spain. Mallorca is actually a rather large island. For example, if you drive fast on the highway which crosses the island from Palma in the south, to Alcudia in the North, it can go as quick as in 20 minutes or so. It is probably about 50 km though. If you take the road through the mountains on the other hand, it will take you more like 4-5 hours. But it is beautiful roads.
I first came to Mallorca in the early spring 2018, when I signed off from a large sail boat, which I came from Italy with. It had been a couple of days in high sea. The air was still not really warm. It was March and sometimes windy at night. I rented a little apartment with bad insulation in a small village up the mountains, where I came to live for the next three months. It wasn’t much, but it was only for myself and it was cheap. So it was ok. It was all just one large room with a balcony door on the front side and a terrace on the backside. A kitchen and a bathroom. The rent was only €400/month. I found it on homeaway.com. I liked the place and wouldn’t mind to come back and rent the same place again. It was good enough for me.
I would wake up from the shutters slamming in the wind and the rain on the roof at night, during the first couple of weeks. I had multiple blankets and an electrical heater on, standing on the floor in the room. The cold nights could be quite a contrast to the sunny days. The terrace was great and that’s where I use to sit and write or draw all mornings, with a nice cup of coffee in the sunshine. After I had cleared away the leaves and sticks that felt from the trees from the wind during the night.
Sometimes when I stayed on Mallorca, I would take the scooter in the afternoons and just go somewhere. I would be following the road just to explore. Go to a new village somewhere ells on the island, sit down at a cafeteria doing some writing for an hour or so. If I would be driving home late at night it could be freezing to sit on the scooter at that time of the year, even though I had a jacket on. Sometimes I would be late back home just from driving around taking photos all day and ending up having dinner at a restaurant far away from home when it got dark.
Sometimes I would find a museum to visit. Some of the weirdest modern art I ever seen, I saw at an exhibition at the museum of modern art in Palma.That was mostly video art and installations which included a lot of pain and madness. But some of the most enjoyable abstract art I ever seen I saw on an exhibition at CCA Andratx. Like this one to the right here for example. It was probably over 4 meter long. And the price was 35 000 euro if I recall correctly. But among those high quality painting, there were also things like a plain black painting that were sold for 7000 Euro. Which is in some way fascinating, but not that impressive.
The name of the village where I stayed at back then, is Estellence. That one particularly, still have a special place in my heart. There is not much there. Only one tiny little grocery shop managed by a nice family, one hotel, two cafeterias and two or three restaurants. People don’t really stay there. It’s about 200 locals that live there only. The tourists that passes by are either the road bikers or the hikers. There is a hotel, but it seem to me that most tourists only stop by for coffee or lunch. On the weekends there might be a couple of stands where they sell vegetables and salami on the street.
You can see the sea slamming the rocks about one kilometer down. From the house where I lived, I would be looking over the fields and the roofs of the houses in the slop down the road which you can follow down to the water. Or I would be looking out over this view from one of the cafeterias in Estellence, which has a great terrace with a front view of this slop. I finished writing Viljandi on that terrace. I also finished a few beers there.
These three photographs below are the photos from Estellence which where the inspiration for the backgrounnd of the three paintings I did. Which you can view on this website in the menu painting. I don’t know why I reveal that, because the paintings are not that good. One of them I even painted with the backside of the brush. Because the brush was that bad.
And here below are some other photos from Estellence, which I also like a lot.
In Estellence there were quite a few sculptures made out of metal scraps standing around. And one day when I was just walking around I came across a door which were left open and in there was a workshop, which looked a little bit inviting. It was a sign outside that were saying “Welcome”, so I looked inside and it turned out that it was the guy who had made all these sculptures in the village. He was like a known local artist. Below is some photos of his work.
Mallorca is very popular for road biking and from April to October there is just too many of them on the roads across the island. The road which I drove in to Palma with the rental scooter, I got to know like my own pocket and after a few weeks I knew precisely how little I could reduce on the throttle in every curve. Some of the road bikers had kind of the same mentality. But they had to paddle.
If it wasn’t the road via Andratx I was shredding with the scooter, it was the one via Esporles. These are two nice places worth mentioning and the road through the mountains is to me the most beautiful road on Mallorca. Andratx is a very typical Maljorcan little town or village. Or two I should say. Because Andratx has two parts of itself, which actually also is very typical for Maljorca. That there is two towns in one, I mean. Normally it would be one inland town like Andratx for example. Then it would be a marina town by the coast, a couple of kilometers away but close by to that town. In this case called Port D’Andratx. Andratx, the inland town mostly have local people staying there, I believe. It seems like a place where people just live and have their normal lives. Port D’Andratx on the other hand, has a nice marina with lots of small sail boats in, a nice promenade with some nice restaurants along (which are not as cheap as the ones in Andratx). Here you find a lot more tourists then in the inland town Andratx. There are a few other towns/villages on Maljorca which has one inland town and one port town. For example Sollér (and Port D’Sollér), Pollenca (and Port D’Pollenca), which is two (or four) well known, very beautiful places which attracts lots of tourists.
Esporles on the other hand. Which is the town I would pass through with my scooter if I took the other route, to the opposite direction as through Andtrax, when going to Palma. And which I also liked particularly. Esporles is a one of a kind village by the foot of the mountains. The special with this village is that it isn’t special at all. It is lovely and normal, just as it is. And it doesn’t have a port. I remember the first morning I woke up in Estellence. I had taken a taxi to where I was the previous day from Port Adriano, which is where I signed off from the sail boat. This morning I had to get in to Palma and find out what life had to offer and how to start on this island. I didn’t have any plans or intentions of going anywhere ells at this point. I didn’t have my rental scooter yet though. So after the morning coffee at the local coffee shop in Estellence that morning, I asked the guy in the bar how to get in to Palma. He told me that the bus stops right here and that I have to transfer in Esporles. I don’t know any Spanish, but I could kind of figure out what he meant. I checked with someone ells at the bus stop as well and I also asked the bus driver. I didn’t have local data on my phone yet by then and I had never been on the island before. I remember that I thought the roads were very curvy and that it felt like it took forever even get to Esporles, just to transfer bus to get to Palma. It is funny how everything changes with time. When I transferred bus on that day I hardly payed attention to Esporles. A few weeks later I had been to all the cafeterias and restaurants there and the people working there started to recognize me, after been stopping by in the village almost every day.
These are flowers from the garden on my terrace, where I used to sit and have a party with mr. Gecco, mr. Bird and mr. Mouse occasionally and swiftly be passing by. One of the flowers were steady and rigid. The other flower where strangeling itself throughout its development and growth.
Between Estellence and Esporles is a small village called Buyanbufar. It is very similar to Estellence, and only 10 minutes down the road. It is the neighboring village and I could easily be going there spontaneously any evening. Sometimes when I would go for a run, I would go almost to Buyanbufar, but I never ran all the way there. There are nice people working there to. I remember once when there was money missing for my dinner bill and they didn’t take card. The waiter at the restaurant would lend me money if I came back the day after to pay him back. It was only one euro, but still. That was a very friendly act of him which I will remember. I felt a little embarrassed of course, but this was the way I started to get to know that guy.
Once when I was out on a little road trip on the scooter, for a couple of days, exploring the north-eastern part of the island. I visited an old monastery on the top of a hill pretty close to the town Arta. The road up to the monastery on the top of the hill was very small and steep. Not much of a good road for a car, but the view was great from there, which I can imagine being very valuable if you’re a nun or a monk. So I understand how the choice of location.
Palma on the other hand doesn’t have as much hills. But is a really beautiful little city viewed from the streets. It has some good architecture, is at its parts pretty fancy. Not at all a cheap part of Spain. It have everything you could ever ask for. But it’s not a too big city.
Palma was founded as a Roman camp to begin with. It was upon the remains of the Talaiotic settlement then destroyed by several raids during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Then reconquered by the Byzantine Empire, and colonized by the moors, according to my understanding of what I have read. So even though most of the buildings in Palma are pretty old, it is as a city, still a lot older then you can see. Not much of the original is there now, but neither is it glass sky scrapers. It has an impressive cathedral in the city centre, but Palma and Mallorca have also had its Muslim period. Which must have been when those pirates took over.
It was during the time when the Muslim pirates from north Africa sailed the Mediterranean sea that the Spanish built these watchtowers to keep look-out for these pirates that were on ravage.
Menorca
There is a saying that goes “If you are not barefoot on a beach, you are overdressed”. Here on Menorca there are some nice beaches in the bays which I would go between barefoot on a scooter. On Menorca the beaches are not those long, white ones that you would imagine on a paradise island. Here it is smaller beaches with mountains around, but you can feel the nature very well here. That is what it is all about.
It was on this island the beaches where drinking my hands away with sand in the sun, by the way. I just felt like mentioning that one more time.
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This is where nature and calmness finally gets to catch up with you. The trees are low and beautiful. The bays are like if they were made as anchorages for sail boats. Going around this island on a sail boat must be amazing
When I got to Menorca, I took the ferry there from Alcudia. I drove the motorbike up there one day and stayed at a hotel and took the ferry over from Mallorca to Menorca in the morning. I enjoyed that hotel, it had water from the sea on both sides of the building. Then I stayed on Menorca for about one week, maybe it was only 5 days. I was on my own and I stayed as long as I felt for. The time I spent there was enough for me to explore this island. There are no cities here and no night life at all as it seemed. It is all about calmness and nature. I listened to a lot of podcasts and audio books.
When I arrived with the ferry to the town Ciutadella on the west part of the island I checked in at an Airbnb. Then just started out with driving northbound without any plan really. I would probably end up driving around the island I thought. Just following the coast. Or at least parts of it. I drove towards Faro de Punta Nati and pretty soon I noticed some mysterious man made rubbles of stone, in a funny shape. There were plenty of them. I had no idea what it was, it was complete alien to me. I remember being fascinated about them and they left me with a sense of wonder. Later I read up on them and thought it might have been these ancient megaliths from thousands of years ago. Or it was just some stone hut for the sheep to live in. After some more research I lean towards the later. Whatever it was, it was weird.
Then I drove up to Cala Morell where I completely random ended up in some really spectacular caves at a location called necropolis de Cala Morell. These are well worth seeing if you are visiting Menorca. Totally cave-man-style caves.
Along the coast after Cala Morell, you will soon find a popular beach which is called Algaiarens. Most of the beaches on Menorca have lots of nice parking space for cars close by. I stopped by for swimming and ended up spending most part of my day on the beach there before returning to Ciutadella where I was staying.
Pretty much in the middle of the island, at least the north part of the island. You will find the little town Ferreies. A cosy little place with some nice cafés. There is not many towns on Menorca and you will probably end up stopping by there if your ever on the island.
From Ferreies I steered towards Cala Pregonda, without not knowing really what to expect. There is a little beach there, but it felt like it was a pretty far drive. You follow a road which takes you over some fields. And there is also some track for hiking. It is called the horse path I believe. Cami de cavalls. Along this part of the coast the places seems to be named a lot after horses. Not specific horses. But just related to horse in general. Platages de Cavalleria and Far de Cavalleria, which is furthest out on a cape where there is also nice a light house.
Forells, Minorca is a beautiful little village along the coast of a bay in the north of the island. There is a little marina and some restaurants. It is a beautiful place worth visiting.
The most central part of the island, geographically is Es Mercadal. Which is another little town where the roads go apart. Close to that town is also the highest point of the island. It is a steep hill which has an amazing view, from where you can see all over the entire island. That is a must go on a clear day. There is some café and a little shop up there. And this is of course also where they have all their TV masts on this island.
The highway is pretty good in the middle of the island. But it makes you pass by little places which you won’t even notice, named things like L’Argentina etc.
Mahon, the town on the east side of the island seems like a place which could be the most active on the island. They have a ferry port and there was a lot more people there then anywhere ells which I saw when I was there. But I just got there with my scooter and drove around for a while, then left.
If I would drive to the south from Ciutadella, which I did one morning. I would end up by another lighthouse on the corner of the island called Far d’Artrutx.
Following the coast eastbound from there, it is a lot of nice little beaches which you get to on small roads. In every road corner there was a person sitting in a chair for some reason. Not sure if it was just on that day when I was there or if it’s always like that. They would point me towards the beach. Then it would be another person sitting by the car park. But on this side of the island I had to walk for a bit to reach to the beach. And the first two beaches I reached down here was pretty crowded. But no worries, it was more beaches to come.
One thing to have in mind when exploring Menorca is that there isn’t that many roads. A lot of the times you will end up having to drive back on the same road again for a while. The main roads are in the middle of the island and where you want to visit the coast you choose one road that leads from inside of the island and takes you to a place by the coast. It is not a circular road which will take you around the island. Which it is on Ibiza on the other hand.
Ibiza
Ibiza is the answare. And nobody really seem to care what the question is. Ibiza is somewhat different from its neighboring islands.
Someone told me that when the end of the world is near, this is where he wants to be. Life is better on the beach. Having that said, he never believed in love at first sight until he got here. That’s when he got a double dose of it. But what about now then? I asked. With the following finding that the end is always an everlasting process. This might actually be the beginning of it.
I was on Ibiza for a couple of weeks in February 2020. I took the ferry there from Mallorca. I rented a pretty nice apartment and the guy that showed me the apartment pointed out the street below the balcony, as an everlasting parade of party people in the summer. Lots of pill popping brits that never gives up, I can imagine. Then the rent here goes for ten times what the price is now. Here is a link to a blog post I wrote when I was there.
Everybody needs a little Ibiza in their life.
There was not a sight of any parties at the time I was there though. Which I was glad for. I have seen crazy people before. There is a different vibe to Ibiza then anywhere ells I have seen before. Any place is just as special as any other place, just as any sunset or hour. But compared to its neighboring islands, Ibiza have a more spiritual vibe to it. Not that I know Ibiza that well and I am sure there is other places which could be considered as more spiritual. Whatever now that even means. But you can feel it there, even if you are alone. I mean to be in Europe, it is not that many places that seem to attract that many seekers as here anyway. Some people seem to have been stucked here for decades. So called over-wintered hippies.
Hemingway said that there is no nightlife in Spain. They stay up late and they get up late. That is not a nightlife, it is delaying the day. But on Ibiza I kind of get a feeling of that the day time have become a part of the night life. At least if it is that time of the year. This island is known worldwide for its parties. But it is so much more to it than that.
Formentera
Formentera is the island south of Ibiza which you want to visit for a day trip with a ferry during your stay on Ibiza. I took the ferry there in the morning and rented a bicycles and paddle around on the island over the day, and got back to Ibiza in the evening. You can stay over at some hotel on Formentera as well, if you want. I guess there is a lot of people doing that. Good if you’re in company. I think it is a good place to come to and stay for a while if you need some quite. I was on my own. It was off-season. It is a small island, and it doesn’t seem to be much going on here. The island has a bit of a spectacular shape on the map and I wish I could capture it all on a photo from the sky. But the drone didn’t want to go that high that day. The picture below is taken from Formentera. It is Ibiza that you can see in the horizon.
As mentioned above. My drone was going through some hard times during this trip. Below is a link to a post a wrote about when it was just falling out of the sky for unknown reasons. Again.
Even though the drone had a crash, I still got enough footage to make a series of videos in 5 parts, showing the Balearics from air (except from Menorxa). This is where I practiced a few different ways of editing. Here are some links to the videos.
Link to video The Balearics – Part 1 (blog post and video)
Link to video The Balearics – Part 2 (blog post and video)
Link to video The Balearics – Part 3 (blog post and video)
Link to video The Balearics – Part 4 (blog post and video)
Link to video The Balearics – Part 5 (blog post and video)
Link to all videos