Senior Trip
Like a lot of high schoolers around the United States, my buddies and I chose to go on a senior trip as our last high school memory. We weren’t like most teenagers wanting to go to drink Pina Coladas out of coconuts in Hawaii or sip Margaritas in Mexico; we wanted to do something different. Our ideas spanned all across the world, including Jamaica, South America, and Ireland, but we somehow decided to go across the Atlantic Ocean to Mallorca, Spain. A bunch of eighteen year old kids going to Europe for ten days, with no parental supervision, what could go wrong? Thankfully, not much did go wrong, but we definitely had one hell of a time together.
Our trip began on June 3rd when my friends and I departed from SFO to Heathrow Airport in London, England, a ten hour flight that felt as if it lasted a decade. We arrived late so our connecting flight to Barcelona was leaving in thirty minutes, which in a typical airport is no big deal but Heathrow being one of the largest in the world, we immediately took off sprinting through all the airport outlets and barely got there on time. The next two flights were a breeze and took no time at all, and finally we were in Mallorca. Meeting up with our other friends in the airport, all thirteen of us took taxis to our beachside hotel. I am rooming with my friend Oisin, we check-in and hike up the three floors to get to our room, only to find out that we are next door neighbors with all of our friends. Almost all of our parents are from Ireland, giving us experience with accents and it came in handy multiple times. Mallorca is like the Cabo or Cancun for Irish and English college aged kids, so we met lots of new people and partied a lot with them.
Our next ten days included the craziest and most fun times I have ever had. One of the best experiences I had in Mallorca was visiting a Peaky Blinders themed bar, which was in a plaza, similar to a shopping mall. Peaky Blinders is an English crime show about a group of gypsies, it is famous all over the UK, and even the US. It was themed after a famous bar in the series called The Garrison. Being there and feeling what it was like to be a Peaky Blinder was something I will never forget. On the contrary, probably the worst experience on Mallorca was crashing a moped. We had the bright idea to rent mopeds and cruise around the island for the day, and it was really fun. We found an exclusive beach and possibly the best restaurant I have ever eaten at. Shit really hit the fan when I got separated from the group after struggling to turn on my moped. I had all of my friends locations on the Find my Friends app so I decided to track them, and after finally finding them on the app, I put my phone into my mouth and set off into a roundabout. In Europe, they do not have stop signs like in the US, but rather yield signs, causing people to run right through them. I saw a van coming right through a yield sign and it looked like we were on a collision course so I slid off to the side trying to avoid it. Of course, the van stopped at the end and I looked like an idiot.. I sped off right after I got up, found my friends, told them what happened and my friend Conor pulls me aside and says, “Your day is about to get a lot worse.” They had decided to take a forty-five minute hike down to a secluded cove. It was awful, but not even the worst part. After about an hour we hiked back up and drove to return the mopeds. The shop owner told me I had broken the axel and had obviously scraped the sides badly, and he told me I owe him 200€ on top of the 100€ security deposit I had already paid. I didn’t have that type of money on me so I told him I would go to the bank and grab it, he stepped toward me and screamed, “Pay or Police!” I laughed at him at first, then realizing it was serious, my buddy spotted me the cash and we went our separate ways. Forturanely, that was my closest encounter with the Mallorca PD that trip, but it was close enough for me.
Thankfully, all thirteen of us made it back home to San Francisco on June 13th, a little sleep deprived, a few scrapes, a headache that would last a week, and head full of memories. Those 10 days were some of the best days of my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I will never forget the long nights we had talking about all of our fondest memories of what we did and didn’t do as a friend group. It also gave me a chance to figure out what my friends dreams and plans were for the future. Arriving home at SFO made me realize that a part of my life is over and it is time to move on to bigger and better things, but also not to forget what people and experiences made me into who I am today.
Kieron C 