Fraser on Tour!: ¡Estoy en Mallorca! First impressions and Green T-Shirts

Hey! I'm now officially on the island of Mallorca and I thought I'd tell you about the first few days.

So, I arrived in Mallorca on Tuesday evening at about 10:25PM local time after a two hour flight from Liverpool John Lennon Airport where I waved goodbye to my Mum and Brother (Ethan) who had escorted me there. The flight was fairly relaxing and non-eventful after the annoyance of having to pay excess baggage (I now owe my Mum an extra 40 quid which is something I didn't need!) and a 15 minute delay taking off although we still arrived early. From the airport, Marta (the Mum) picked me up and took me to the family flat in the suburbs of Palma de Mallorca, the main city on the island. After a brief meeting with husband Josep once we arrived it was straight to bed as by British standards it was late and I was tired from the flight.

I met all the kids (Simó,Júlia and Marina) the next day and since then we've got on like a house on fire. They're all very lively children and a pleasure to be with. Simó is very similar to me in that we both like Sports and Music and he is very eager to practice his English with me. Julia is a real joker like her brother and although her English isn't as good as Simó's she still tries and when we get really stuck with communicating we can always switch into Spanish which is fine by me. Marina is the youngest and cutest but as she is still a toddler I have found it hardest to communicate with her as the only words she knows are in Catalan and are very mumbled like most children of her age. I have found I can pull lots of funny faces at her and do the 'This little piggy went to market' song on her toes to make her laugh though. Hopefully she can teach me some Catalan while I'm here! The kids are very easy to amuse and we've already played a variety of games in the flat as well as going to the swimming pool in the apartment complex and the park. Simó and Júlia especially liked it when I got my guitar out for them and played a few English pop songs. Not surprisingly, they didn't know too many of the songs that I played at first, the likes of Alt-J ;Ed Sheeran and The Vaccines haven't really reached the Spanish people yet, however they did manage to join in with Little Talks by Of Monster And Men, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, Baby by Justin Bieber and Hey Soul Sister by Train which was by far their favourite. They liked that particular song so much that they made me play it again when Marta came home and Simó was convinced that I was in fact the writer of the song! If only...

My initial impressions of Mallorca are very different from what I imagined it would be like as is the case with most things in life. Before I came, I was convinced that Mallorca was only a small island in the Mediterranean where you could see the sea pretty much all the time. I have now been in Palma for two days now and I haven't actually seen the sea yet since Tuesday night as I was flying into the airport. I also didn't realise how bigger presence Catalan has on the area. I was warned before arrival that the family only spoke in Catalan at home unless they were talking with their Valencian housekeeper Elena but it turns out that it's a major force on the island and seems to be the native tongue of most of the locals. I have a bit more on this later. I also used to have the impression that Mallorca was just simply this tourist destination for your average all-english speaking, British family looking for a cheap getaway in the sun lounging round the pool or the beach reading the latest copy of the Sun and telling Manuel to get them another Cerveza. This all seemed like the case at first seeing as my flight was pretty much full of said Brits abroad and the first thing I saw when I got off the plane and entered the airport in Palma was a British pub sponsored by Carling but since then I have only spoken to an English man working in a music shop (I snapped one of my guitar strings so I had to buy a new set,lol) and a couple whilst walking in the centre of the city. Here in Palma I am very much embedded in Spanish society. I guess most of the Brits will be hanging around the waterparks and the infamous 'lads holiday' destination Magaluf (Shagaluf for the ruder viewers). The city of Palma itself seems to be quite old in terms of the places I've visited in Spain with lots of trees,busy streets, amazing parks (I swear parks in Spain are 10x better than the ones in the UK) and Barcelona-esque architecture with dashes of the modernness I would associate more with Zaragoza.

Going back to the thing about Catalan influence, this week has by no means been a normal one for the residents of Mallorca. As of Monday this week, a mass strike started in all public schools on the island in response to new legislation on education policy (TIL) introduced by the Spanish government who are threatening to ban the teaching of lessons in the Catalan language in public schools. This is a big issue for many Catalans as they feel that if the language is not used in schools then it will soon become extinct, impinging on their rich heritage. Marta and Josep, like many Catalans, have been greatly incensed by this new legislation and Marta in particular has got involved with supporting the pressure group-Plataforma Crida that are protesting against the government. People who support the Catalan movement have been sporting Green T-shirts around the city with the slogan 'Crida! per una educació pública de qualitat' which I've loosely translated as 'Call! for a quality public education' printed on the front which the family have been wearing when they go out and when they go to school (when the teachers aren't on strike). The strike is indefinite but like many people Marta hopes it will end soon with a positive result so things can return to normal. Last night, all of us plus some of Marta's many cousins and her Mum went into the city centre to take part in a protest against the government over the education laws outside an art gallery that various important politicians were visiting for a special annual arts evening in the city. Now, I have been to my fair share of live music concerts/festivals and football matches in my short lifetime but I don't think I've ever heard such noise from a crowd of people! About 300 people crowded around Passeig Des Born whistling, clapping, screaming and shouting 'Manipulacció!' as loud as they could. Everyone (bar myself, the police and various other poor sods who'd clearly gotten lost) was wearing the green t-shirts and waving green balloons. It was like going to an Ireland rugby match or a Norwich City football game, minus the canary yellow obviously.

Overall, despite the kids getting into a bad habit of calling me Ollie (the name of their previous Au Pair) throughout the first day, I have really enjoyed myself in Mallorca so far. This weekend we're heading out to the house in Alcúdia on the north of the island so with the change of scene I expect I'll have something else to talk about soon.

I'll leave with you a short selection of photos from these first few days

Adeu!

FP

#FraserOnTour