Menorca. Where do you start? The water is pure crystal blue, the sand white and soft, the air warm and breezy, and the sun always shines. It is the true definition of paradise, and a perfect hideaway. For the average person, this Balearic island slows time down to a crawl, and brings out the relaxed side of everyone. Unfortunately, we are not your average people. We don’t see vacations as a time to slow down or sit around taking in the view. Three days in paradise? We take that on as a challenge…This journey out into the middle of the Mediterranean began Friday night when we boarded a huge transport ferry, and left the BCN port at around 10pm. After walking around the ship and having a picnic dinner on the upper deck of the ship that we'd brought with us, we realized we
were absolutely exhausted from a week of lots of work for me, touring for Kat, and not enough sleep for us both. We staked out some chairs below deck, similar to that found in a bus, and fell asleep even without the gravel we'd brought. Our sleep probably wasn't as restful as if we'd stayed in a room, but still not bad considering the room was full of people and the lights were on. At around 6am we were jostled awake as the ferry make it's last turn around the East end of our island destination and into the second largest natural deep water port in the mediterranean (I think). This port is called Mao (or Mahon in Catalan), it is the biggest city on the island, it is where we started, and finished our trip, but that's about it, as we knew there were many places on the island, far more picturesque, still to see.
The trip across the island took about 45 minutes with our destination 
being the 2 person flat that we'd rented on the South coast of the island in an area called Cala Galdana. The flat was great for the two of us with a bathroom, bedroom, small kitchen and a balcony. We unloaded our stuff, went and bought some groceries, and then headed for two renowned beaches very close to Cala Galdana called Cala Macarella and Cala Macaretta. After a 40 minute walk (only getting lost once) down a wandering, well-trodden trail, and then a large set of stairs, we came to our first Minorcan beaches. We spent the afternoon snorkeling from Macarella to Macaretta and back. That evening we drove to the West end of the island to the second largest, but much nicer city, of Cuitadella. We had a great seafood paella dinner at a restaurant right in the port, and then wandered around the markets buying souveniers. Our ride back to Cala Galdana was our first ride in the dark, and we were lucky the rain held off until we were home.
Sunday morning we woke up and decided to head up to a beach called Cala Predonga, said to be the best on the North shore. Using what we had assumed to be a trusty map that we'd purchased the day before, we chose our route and took off. Filled up with gas, and headed up what was termed on our map to be 'a secondary road'. This road is pretty much a narrow paved lane wide enough for about 1.5 cars. We wound around, up and down, along this 'road' as it became smaller, steeper, and sketchier with every turn. Then at one point, after atleast 40 minutes of driving (too long to turn back now) we came to a point where we really second guessed if we we'd taken a wrong turn (but we knew we hadn't,... there hadn't been any other options), because the 'road' ahead looked more like a terrible canoe trip portage than anything else (a steep hill of loose dirt and rocks). 
We think that this is the section of the route where the map called it 'an unpaved track'. Kath and I quickly realized that what we'd figured to be a nice dirt road was not even close to that. They are really serious when they call any path 'unpaved' or 'a track',.... this looked like no one had even walked it since the Romans had inhabited the island about 500 years ago. In what was not one of our brightest moments we decided we didn't have any other option than to go down this path,.... please keep in mind we are not on dirt bikes here,... we're riding little 50cc mopeds. Anyways, I now really wish I had a video our reactions when we got to the middle of the 'unpaved track', had absolutely no idea where we were, where the 'track' was, it seemed like we were at a fork in the road with 5 different diverging paths, and we were just about panicing. I can't believe we ever actually found it without something going wrong,..... we are 2 very lucky girls.
ANYWAYS, after all of that anxiety/excitement we eventually made it to the paved road on the other side of 'the track', and this led us to the beach we'd been looking for, and from this beach we could walk to Cala Predonga,.... we were so relieved to finally get there. I'm sure we appreciated that afternoon of lying on the beach more than anyone else there! We snorkelled, sunbathed, and played some paddle ball (a typical wooden raquet game played by people of every age at the beach).
Sunday night, since we were already in the North, we went to a fishing village on the North coast called Fornells, known for it's seafood. We had a delicious seafood dinner which included the seafood version of the typical lobster caldereta soup. Very good. And again drove back in the dark, but as the moon and stars were out it was a well lit drive.
Monday morning we decided that we didn't want as much excitement as the previous days trip to the beach had provided, and we would definitely not be taking any thing else that wasn't fully paved. Again we hopped on our vespas, but this time only Kath's took off, as mine was out of gas :( I got on the back of her bike and we went and got our routine breakfast, cafe con leche and a chocolate pastry, and then decided to sign up for a kayak tour of the coast. We both agree that this was the highlight of our trip, mostly thanks to our tourguide. Because no one else had signed up for this Monday morning trip, we got a private tour of the coast by Ben. Ben is from Belgium, speaks about 7 languages, likes adventure sports and really just looks 
like he's been giving kayak tours in the sun for 4 months now,.... needless to say we probably would have followed Ben anywhere. The tour went east of Cala Galdana and we got to go way back into some huge caves and learn the history and legends behide each of them. We were already impressed when we came to an amazing beach called Cala Mitjana. The was such a bright tourquoise colour that made us feel like we could have been in the Carribean. We did some great cliff jumping and swimming in the bay. A breath-takingly beautiful place!
We returned to Cala Galdana, grabbed some lunch and then Kath went and got me some gas for my bike. Then in the afternoon we went to a less touristic beach, but the water wasn't quite as spectacular. Finally in the evening, after showering, we raced against the setting sun to the South-East of the island to a bar/discoteque called Cova en d'Xoroi which is a famous due for it's unique location. This club is actually built into a series of caves in the side of a cliff which drops off into the sea. A great place to watch the sunset and have a drink. This place had a great atmosphere and it would have been great to visit for the discoteque as well,... but there's just never enough time.
Tuesday we dropped off our mopeds in Mao, boarded our ferry, and returned to Barcelona.
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started planning a long weekend trip out to Menorca for Katharine and I, but it is suffice to say that it was an adventure and we have survived. This has been the first of our travelling adventures together,... and plans for where our next one will be is of course a main source of constant discussion. We know this won't be our last.
Carino, Sarah & Kath.
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