Walking in… Carrer de la Torre, Mallorca, Spain. Visiting the Scrabble Club Scrabbalear!

After our unsuccessfull seeking of the phantom dog, P Chris showed us a charming little corner of Mallorca: the end of Carrer de la Torre. This is a small cliff overlooking the sea, obviously with a tower. From there you have great views of the beach, Cala Pi and Cabrera Island.

It seems that the tower of the cliff was built due pirate attacks at that area. Now the cove has a lot of visitors, no matter you have to climb a lot of steps to go out of there. The cliff has a lot of visitors as well, no wonder, you have great views and also the tower gives it a special touch. It´s also an area where most ships dock, so it's tempting to go and spend a while watching the creek, views, docked boats and tower.



(To be continued.)

A Curious Case: the Phantom Dog of the Road of Mallorca. Visiting the Scrabble Club Scrabbalear!

We went out of the disco around 4 in the morning. Pochola´s home is not exactly in Palma, but in a complex close to Palma.

We were in the car, going to Pochola´s house and suddenly, Pochola, which was driving, tells us to look to the side of the road, a dog was walking there. Let me paint a better picture of the situation. Around 4 in the morning, road lit only by the lights of cars, which at that time the only car out there was ours, in the middle of nowhere, had no houses nearby, only vegetation… and there Pochola saw a Yorkshire walking beside the road ... also, very smart puppy, not going on the road itself, but on the curb next to the white edge that borders the road.



So, we were at 100 kms. per hour, I´m not sure, but not less than 80 for sure. Once she told us to watch it, we had already passed it, so not all of us seen it. Pochola asked us what to do and we realize that the poor puppy would be quite far away from its owners and a road like that is not was exactly the safest place for a puppy that small, I don´t remember who said we pick him up, but of course, it wasn´t the case of stopping wherever we were, first because there was no space in which to stop, but also because we had already went far away from the dog and stopping there should meant to walk for a while, in the dark; but also, we were still on the highway in the middle of nowhere and at those hours you don´t know in which state a driver could be, and yes, at the time we were "hunting" the puppy, several cars passed at a considerable speed. So, we moved to the next roundabout to turn around to find the puppy.

We all were on the alert of looking for the puppy, and yes, we found it. Pochola stopped, but this time the puppy was at the other side of the road… so, we went to the next roundabout to turn around again.



We went back and met him again, we stopped a little behind him, Curro, who was co-pilot, opened the door and began calling ... and yes! The dog came up to us! He stared us and as Curro moved to try to catch him ... he ran to the opposite side of the road! :( We had to turn around again!



We returned and stop the car a bit behind the famous dog ... and this time we didn´t even open the door and the dog ran off, again, why not, to the opposite of us... okay, no problem, to turn around again! : /

This time, when we found him, the puppy was already at a roundabout. Curro went out of the car and went to try to catch him… but the puppy run away again! Pochola in the meantime parked the car, the rest of us, Sil, Topo and I, went out of the car as well, we asked Curro where the puppy had gone to, he showed us a side road that ran from the roundabout and ... there we were! At about 4.30 am, on a road in the middle of nowhere in Mallorca, after a day of many different activities, looking for a Yorkshire that we didn´t know where him came from or how he got there, Pochola enlightening the road with the car lights, we all calling the dog as best we could and according to what we learned in our lives how to call a dog. Pochola went alone on the road, leaving us searching the puppy in the darkness, but she returned soon and we all concluded that the puppy had vanished without trace!



Of course, the jokes started immediately we started the search, but the one that came with the “so… had you already heard about the legend of the phantom dog at the roads of Mallorca? That one that appears at the middle of the road so late at night, arousing the tenderness of the drivers and then takes them to a secondary road to…” hehehe yes! That one was me! :P

So, well, after a while looking for the puppy and calling him, we decided to go back home, a bit sad thinking the pour puppy won´t survive there alone.

The next morning was our last day in Mallorca. Topo was the first one leaving. We took the breakfast and went to Cris, who lives very close to the airport. We were coming into the complex… and… can you guess who was walking so happily at the main street of the complex!? Yes! The puppy! Alone again! We can´t believe it! So, we saw him, talk a bit about if this could be the same one, you see, he was very alike and Sil says this one has the same red collar that the other one had. This time I was the one telling Pochola to stop, I´ll go to pick him up while they go to Cris and they should call me latter on to pick me up. But well, you see, from the moment we saw him, talked about the possibilities of this one being the same of the last night, I told Pochola to stop and she found the place to, we had already moved some blocks from him; so, when I finally was at the place, the puppy wasn´t there already. Of course I had walked along the street to one way and to the other one, also at the surroundings, nothing. Pochola left Topo at the airport. Sil and Curro came with Cris to pick me up; we had looking for the puppy at several streets of the neighborhood, but nothing. But well, in case it was the same puppy that would be strange because the complex of Christ was at least 15 Kms. away from the place we saw him the last time and he was going to the opposite direction… but well, in case, at least we knew he was ok. :D

The funny thing ... when we 4 were walking down the road looking for the dog, I recorded it on video, because I felt that was the kind of surreal that when you tell about to another one, no one believe you ... and don´t ask me how ... I can´t find the video! :(

So, it´s now an official legend, the legend of the phantom dog of Mallorca, that appears to the drivers at the middle of the road, so late at night, arousing their tenderness, makes them to do several laps trying to catch him but every time they almost catch him, he runs away to finally disappear and at the next morning he appears back in a place you won´t ever think he could be, disappearing again if you try to catch him once more. Warning! Don´t try to record video of what happened! Be sure mysteriously you´ll lose it! XP XP XP XD XD XD



Note: of course the conclusion about the legend is absolutely joke, but the rest, including that I can´t find the video, is absolutely real.

(To be continued.)

Happy 100 years Gran Vía!

Today is the official celebration of the centenary of the emblemathic street Gran Vía in Madrid.

I´m afraid I won´t be able to go to the official act, but I want to share the special reporta done by elmundo.es (sorry, there´s not way to put it embeded here). It´s in Spanish, but you can see the pics and also the video with Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, the current Mayor of Madrid.

This video done by Efe is also worth view:



Here are some pictures taken by Curro from the cafeteria of Corte Inglés Callao:

A moved night! Sunset, View of the Beach, Scrabble, Fair, Bingo and Disco ... All in one Same Night! Visiting the Scrabble Club Scrabbalear!

After visiting Fornalutx, we went back to Palma, with the sunset at our side.



Curro told Cris we haven´t gone close to the beach already and she, so nice, led us to a residential place, very quiet, in time to see a little before getting dark. She had lived there and it was Pochola´s way home. We saw the tourist part of Palma, already with the night lights.



We arrived at Pochola´s place, they were already there… and this was what we found:



So! As people say that in Rome, do as the Romans do ... we joined them! (And incidentally we also showed that you can put 9 people and a dog on Pochola´s sofa!) ;P





After a while, Graciela came as well and as if we would have a spring at the back and brain, once we heard the bell, the Scrabblers jumped out of the sofa to prepare the games. It was a matter of a couple of games, due Pochola had a lot of plans for us that night. From now on the survivors were Pochola, Sil, Topo, Curro and I.

Our first stop of the night was in a fair. We had seen it coming back from Fornalutx and seemed to be very lively, but maybe we arrived so late, or maybe it was due it was its first night… orwhoknowswhy! ;P The point is we were almost the only ones there and a lot of the attractions were already close for that night. Any way we played a couple of bingos, we ate some hot dogs and hamburgers, Curro tried to win an i-phone in a machine and Pochola and Topo got onto an attraction.



After the fair we went to a Bingo. Actually it was my very first time in a Bingo in Spain… and I should say I felt bored there. The people were so quiet and serious. The girls working there singing the Bingo numbers sounded like if they would be working in an erotic hot line… so we were joking saying “so, you know! If you want to flirt with a boy, you should tell him at his ear: ffffffffooooooouuuuuuuurrrrrrrr (in a very sexy way)” hehehehe So, we had being laughing of that… even Topo concluded that maybe the balls were done in China and who knows from where exactly this girl was taken them out! :P But actually for me the best part of the night was when Pochola was felting sleep at the table, so Topo told her to leave him the Bingo board and she very upset replied: “no, no, I can control!” The lady started to sang the numbers and Pochola was sleeping! So Topo took the board and checked her numbers till the game was more or less over, finally Pochola woke up again not really believing she had been sleeping! From then on, we make jokes to her about the “no, no, I can control!” hehehehe and I´m afraid it will be for the rest of her life! ;PP




We closed the night going to dance a bit, Spanish rock of the 80´s music. I think I knew just 1 of each 10 songs they played! And you know? I had bet in Guatemala we had a lot of Spanish rock of that period! :-O

(To be continued.)

Roman Baths of Ancient Carthage, Tunisia today. My photos.

I went here with Sil in 2004, as part of the route of a cruise. Yeap, I would like to go there again, more days.