Return to Palma

I am back in Palma, and am very busy looking for apartment, so that I can come back here in February: the reason being that I would love to travel to see more of Europe using Palma as my base. I will be going to Iceland next April for the Spirit of Humanity Forum, and it is certainly cheaper to travel from here instead of from Tasmania, but I am still looking forward to going to Tasmania later in 2014.
I spent last weekend at a monastery outside of Barcelona at a Spiritual retreat. (Barcelona is a magnificent city). The topic was silence: the monks had transformed the small rooms into lovely small hotel rooms with everything you could need: very smart of them to generate revenue from groups.

I have been asked to tell you more about Palma. It is a small city of 300,000 people, as I said before. It is very old and beautiful, it’s got great restaurants, it’s on the sea, and there are little alley ways all over the city: you never know what you will find down them.

There’s opera, theatre, concerts, even English movies (or at least one!). Last evening we attended a classical concert held in a beautiful “Spanish fortress style” hotel. The concert was presented salon style (very gracious), we were the only non-Spanish people attending!

Palma is a very international city. There is even a 24 hour Diner called Route 66, where you can get American food! It is operated by a woman from Texas. There are many different cultures here, and many different and expensive boats in the harbour. At the moment my Spanish is terrible and I really have to make more of an effort.

I have found good person to put my colour in my hair, (so important!), a good laundry and dry cleaner, and of course a manicurist! I have a network of friends/contacts here already: some Spanish, some German and some American. I have been invited to a number of Christmas events, the old fashioned kind: carol singing, and children’s parades. Christmas markets are everywhere. It is a very safe city and I feel very comfortable here. I am still at my guest house until I fly back to Canada on Dec 22nd.

I have been asked by Kathy in New York to explain on my blog more about how I feel about my nomadic Internship role so I will properly report early January, after I am back in Canada, and have had time to think.