Tuesday,
February 17
I´ve come down with a nasty head and chest
cold, and it´s raining today. I decided to stay off
the bike and read The Da Vinci Code. What a
masterpiece! It is a MUST read, and I´m not a big
book fan. This book was absolutely incredible.
I visited the gay/lesbian district in Palma yesterday.
It is situated in the northwest corner of Palma below
a hill that sports a beautiful castle on its crest.
There are quite a few nightclubs; only one is
primarily lesbian. It´s called El Sombrero. The gay
clubs are Marcus (30´s and 40´s-somethings),
Papillon(younger 20´s crowd), Flesh (plays lots of
gay videos--aptly named, wouldn´t you say?), Black
Cat (drag shows and exotic male dancers), and GE (leather
bar). There are a couple of hotels that cater to the
gay/lesbian crowd---Aries Hotel, Club, & Sauna
and Rosamar Hotel & Bar. Of course there are your
usual quaint shops and cafes. This district is out of
the way, so you need to take a taxi from where I am (SÁrenal).
The Palma city bus did not go there.
The sidwalks are beautiful in Palma. They aren´t
concrete. They are essentially little 1"x1"
bathroom tiles all grayish in color and all smooth
from the millions of shoes that tread up on them.
Sometimes the tiles are grouped into 1´x1´squares.
All the plazas are made of marble and smooth stone.
Many of the buildings are old, and the alley ways are
narrow, and I DO mean narrow. There are brick roads,
stone roads, and paved roads. The architecture here
is amazing. The intricate detail, the painstaking
precision, the pride that goes into all of this work.....utterly
astonishing.
If you ever get the opporunity to visit the island of
Mallorca, please do so. It is magnificent. It is
crowded and hot in the summers. The best time to
visit is in the spring and fall.
I return home on Saturday. I love it here, but I miss
Oklahoma. I´m having "L" Word
withdrawls!
ciao mi amigos,
andrea
Thursday,
February 12
red or white wine for you, love?
Hey, so this new gal is in town from Germany.
Beautiful long red hair and about 5 foot 10---gorgeous.
I can hardly take my eyes off of her. Gotta love
that, eh? She rides with us sometimes which makes it
hard for me to keep my eyes on the road!!! Between
her and the Spanish women------------whew! Viva Spain!
Hey, she´s meeting me for happy hour tomorrow. Wish
me luck! LOL!!
I TOTALLY didn´t eat enough food on my 5 hour ride
today. No sugar means no brain worky worky. I got
real sleepy and was taking long blinks of the eyes.
It was very difficult to focus. Almost hit a kid, a
car, and a dog!
But I DID make it home unscathed and gobbled down
some hard pieces of candy right away. Then I sucked
down some honey and a carbohydrate drink (similar to
Gatorade). It was all good. Whew!
I´m a bit homesick now. I love it here, but I miss
my secure little environment and friends back home,
ya know? It´s home. I miss home. See ya´ll soon.
andrea
Saturday,
February 7
I walked over to the internet cafe like I do
nearly every morning after breakfast. Breakfast
is always served at 8 a.m., and it´s a buffet with
lots of cheeses and meats. They have whole
plain yogurt and hardboiled eggs either at 3 minutes
or 5 minutes--your choice. They also have lots
of cereals and dried fruits. Anyway, though, I´m
waiting for the internet cafe to open, and I hear
this house music playing. I look across the
street and there is this underground (literally) club
called La Jaima---Underground and Chill Out Music.
So, I beebop over across the street and ask the guy
if I can have a look. I open the door, walk
down some rather steep stairs, and then open another
door which opens to the club. It´s not huge,
but it ain´t small either! People were
dancing, and the music was awesome! They
doorman told me they are open Sat, Sun, and Mon from
6a-6p. The cover is $10, and you get one free
drink. Isn´t that great, though? You
party all day, so you stay on your regular sleep
schedule. I´m going to ask him for a deal, and
I´m going to hit that place after my ride today!
Lots o´fun,
andrea
Friday,
February 6
Today the team took a day off as we´ve had
3 good days of hard riding. Yesterday we climbed a
few mountains and looked at some monestaries on top
of them. The second largest cathedral in the world is
right here in Palma.
My hotel is actually situated in S´Arenal which is
rated the top beach in all of Mallorca. Palma, the
city, is only a few minutes away. There a few
nightclubs there, but the action doesn´t get started
until around 1 a.m. HELLO!! Yeah, people are just
leaving the clubs here at around 6 a.m. There are two
clubs that actually feature gay nights. I´m sure
there are gay clubs that are gay all of the time, but
I haven´t seen any yet.
It´s all about enjoying life over here. There is a
mutual respect between one another. I very rarely see
anyone yelling, nor do I see people on cell phones.
They take the time to enjoy one another, and they
certainly enjoy their meals, their coffee, and their
cigarettes.
Today, we rented a car and went to Inca which is
basically the leather capitol. We also saw some
underground caves with stalagtamites and
stalagtatites (hope those are spelled right). We
stopped several times to eat (our favorite past time
besides cycling). I bought 5 bottles of wine. The
wine is very good here. We took in some pottery
places and also tasted a bunch (let me emphasize that)
of flavoured liquores. Oh--my--goodness! I was
shnackered. The tasting was free. They hand you a
shot glass, and there all of these barrells, and you
just turn the spicket, out pours the tasty beverage,
and you either sip or slam. Guess which I did?
Til next time...
Andrea
Wednesday,
February 4
Hey everybody, it's Andrea Ratkovic
reporting to you from Mallorca, Spain. I'm here at
training camp with my new cycling team, TDS. I
haven't bike raced in a few years. I raced
professionally back in 2000 and 2001 and then got
into duathlons and triathlons. I have raced
professionally as a duathlete and triathlete since
2001. Before cycling, I was a runner specializing in
the marathon where I ran a 2:34. I went to school at
OU on a full track and crosscountry scholarship. You
can keep up with me at all times by visiting my
website at www.andrearatkovic.com.
I appeared on the cover of Curve
magazine in October of 2001 and am scheduled for some
other interviews and such. I have been in Outside,
Girlfriends, and The Advocate.
Obviously, I am an "out" lesbian. I feel I
need to be this way because if I treat homosexuality
as an abnormality i.e. hide it then how can I expect
other people to treat it as normal?
Anyway, I'm situated in a hotel just outside the city
of Palma right on the Mediterranean Sea. It is
absolutely beautiful. Palma actually has a gay
district, but I have yet to visit it. Mostly, I am
riding about 4-5 hours every day. My team rides a lot
in the mountains. The roads are very narrow, but the
cars are very aware, and cyclists are well respected
in this part of the world which is both refreshing
and nice.
A men's pro tour started here a few days ago and ends
on Thursday. Many of the Tour de France riders are
here. There are some very nice legs ridin' around
here, boyz!! Anyway, I've chatted with some of them,
and they are just delightful. It is fun trying to
communicate with them as most know very little
English. They are from all over Europe. It is cool
seeing the guys who I watch every year on TV in the
Tour de France.
I'll let you know how the gay district is in Palma
when I go there. Supposedly, this area is a hot spot
for vacations both gay and straight. There are quite
a few hotels that cater to the gay population. There
are nudist beaches too!
ciao,
Andrea
