Front Paige News
- Natalie Penry
- Apr 30
- 12 min read
Updated: May 1
Well. It was inevitable. There was simply no way Paige wasn't going to fly out to Spain (a country she beat me to by six years) during my time in Menorca. Everything came to fruition two weeks ago when my sister (and best friend!) made their way to the island.
To put it briefly, it was a fantastic week. Beyond getting to play tour guide again, it was so nice to be in the same place with Paige for seven consecutive days. That truly hasn't happened in years, not since I was still in high school. While our long, rambling FaceTimes help to fill the gap, it's not the same. To finally spend a concentrated couple of days with them meant finding a balance between our old dynamic and our new one. We're no longer students, no longer kids, and yet, still not totally adults (though Paige is much farther along in that regard). It was all very How I Met Your Mother-esque, a total case of Revertigo. Spending too much time going down Memory Lane means your past is quick to jump to the forefront of your mind. I think I spent more time reminiscing on high school with Paige than I have since I graduated. As such, I've decided to format this post as I did the majority of my WHS magazine articles: a Top Ten list.
I assure you, this is in your best interest. The last thing you want to read is an over-detailed account of Paige and I galavanting around Menorca, not half the things said were inside jokes that don't translate from our particular dialect of Sisterhood. Instead, enjoy this short & sweet, appropriately compact recap of our time together.
Top Ten Moments of the Penry Sisters' Reunion Tour
Saturdays in Ciutadella
After a late arrival on Friday night, I was determined to shuffle Paige from EST to CET, and thus planned a whole day of activities on the other side of the island. We just caught the bus with Zoë and left Mahón relatively early for a Saturday. Our day on the western edge of the island unintentionally became a drinks tour, as we
stopped for coffee at Better Coffee, a newer café in Ciutadella. It was my first time there, and I'll be honest, I don't see myself becoming a frequent flier. Decent teas but very $$$! Very quickly, we moved on and...
enjoyed some more coffees & sodas at Tot Bo, our favorite café in Ciutadella - it's an old reliable with yummy pastries and free WiFi! We also met up with Rachel (our Ciutadella aux!), Liv and Jack before we...
re-caffeinated at Puspaayu, the local burger joint! I also got Paige to try the veggie burger to rave reviews. If i'm willing to eat it, you know it has to be good because I've only ever had four burgers (all veggie of course) in my life. The temperature had signifcantly dropped by then due to some rain storms, so we left Puspaayu and...
warmed-up at Bar Imperi with some delectable Swiss hot chocolates!! This was also where Zoë & I introduced everyone to the Green Glass Door and Black Magic which provided untold amounts of entertainment for everyone around us. Once Jack finally figured out the trick, we still had about an hour to kill before the bus back to Mahón so we...
headed over to 1.80 Beers for some €1.80 beers! At this point, I was locked into Purdue's Round of 32 game (dedicated fan) while everyone else played Spoons with sugar packets. Both options were tense, chaotic, and very fun 😊
In between all the drinks, we did manage to go for a walk along Ciutadella's coastline. I love Mahón, but you cannot deny that Ciutadella has a much prettier view of the sea. On a clear day, you can see across to Mallorca - some even claim that from the right beach, you can see Barcelona on a particularly crystalline morning.
I'm sure anyone with a sibling they see infrequently can relate, but I was so very happy to see my friends interacting with Paige. It's a strange moment of worlds colliding, someone who's known you forever with people who only know you in this context, and there's a very adolescent-esque feeling of "wow I hope they like each other!" - I don't think younger siblings ever totally grow out of that feeling of wanting their older siblings to agree that they're doing a big thing right, you know?
A Port of Entry
I mentioned in my previous post that I'm training for a half-marathon - as you might expect, that requires a lot of time spent running (duh). As a not-very-fast runner, this means it's taking a significant time commitment to build up mileage. On Paige's second full day in Menorca, my training schedule dictated a long run Sunday, which meant I had to block off about two hours of my morning to warm-up, run, cool-down, re-humanize, etc.
In a very sweet moment, Paige actually met me down at my "finish line" with a bottle of cold water and a post-run pastry. It definitely helps to have someone cheering you on & helping with the immediate recover process 😊 We ended up running into another Aux while I was still guzzling water and made some plans to meet up with them later after I wasn't a sweaty mess.
Thus, we had a lovely afternoon in the sun! It was one of those classic Menorcan days, just beautiful sunshine and a fresh breeze off the water. We were more than happy to sit and chat for a while before heading home.
Resorting to the White Lotus
It became a tradition in my apartment to watch White Lotus together on Monday nights - since the new episodes drop at 9pm EST on Sundays, it is well past our bedtime here in Spain! - and Paige was, for lack of a better word, forced to partake. In some ways, Menorca is very reminiscent of a White Lotus resort, in that we get tons of well-to-do-yet-oblivious tourists meandering around, more than a bit of local resentment over the allocation of resources, and some incredible people watching due to the aforementioned factors. Much like a group of high schoolers stuck in a classroom for hours, island life thrives on gossip; we love to spread the word on any and all notable outlanders that make their way to our port.
We were well into the most-recent season during Paige's visit, so I had to start the evening with a five-minute recap of our favorite North Carolinians, resort workers, and childhood besties. Reader, I am happy to say Paige got hooked and watched several other episodes all on her own ;)
Truly though, something as simple as watching TV with an old friend can be so fun when you don't get to see them frequently! Just the act of being together and reacting to the same thing at the same time is community-building - it's why film/television are such great tools for bridging gaps if used ethically and responsibly - you can take my word for this, or at least trust my degree ;)
Passport Control
This story is more Paige's to tell...but until they get a blog up and running it's mine to co-opt! Tuesdays are my late days at school, so it made sense for Paige to take the day for an independent trip. Barcelona is a tantalizing hour's flight away - perfect! While I was busy explaining the difference between live + live + life (English is the worst sometimes), Paige was taking in Gaudí's biggest hits.
This is where things get interesting...Paige made her back to BCN to catch her flight back to the island when she ran into an identity crisis: Paige didn't have her passport. You might be asking, "Where did Paige's passport go?" Dear Reader, it was back in my apartment in Menorca. Now, you might be asking "How in the world did Paige manage to board a flight from MAH to BCN without her ID in the first place?" Excellent Question! Menorca is a small airport, and in the off season, it's really sleepy and super chill. In other words, they happily accepted Paige's Driver's License on the way to Barcelona because honestly, MAH is the epitome of a Type B Friend. The real question you should be asking is "Did Paige forget her passport?" Why, no, not at all! Paige made the purposeful decision to leave her passport in Mahón because "it's a domestic flight, and in the US I can use my Driver's License for that!"
If you take away one thing from this blog, let it be this: the EU flight authorities do not generally consider your US Driver's License to be a valid international ID because why in the world would they place any weight in Indiana's faith in your ability to drive. Unless you have another type of National ID card (like the NIE I have!), you still need a passport to travel domestically.
Don't worry, though. The gate agents ended up letting Paige on the flight after some major I'm just a girl vibes and seeing the photo of Paige's passport on her phone. Still, there was a hot second there that I thought I was going to have to jump on the last flight out of MAH to BCN with Paige's passport so we could then take the first flight back the next morning...for Paige's sake, let's be glad that didn't happen...I would not have been a happy camper ;)
Quarry Cove
I get off work particularly early on Wednesdays, so Paige and I opted to take advantage of the warm weather and head to the water. We took the scenic route there, walking through the country backroads of Es Castell and passing many chickens, ponies, and cows - mini zoo field trip! Cala Pedrera is a popular favorite amongst my friend group due to the easy access and the dual docks. It's a perfect place to splash around or soak up the sun 😊
Paige, braving the cold Since the water was still a skosh too cold for swimming, we opted for some relaxing dock time - it was definitely more 'bookworm' than 'beachgoer', though I suppose that's always the case with me. A super chill (and a bit chilly) afternoon, very much enjoyed!
Bring Your Sis to School Day!
Thursday! My favorite day of Paige's trip! Long time friends of the podcast will know that, a million years ago, Paige wanted to be an ESL teacher - in fact, these friends probably find it slightly ironic that of the two of us, I'm the one working in a school while Paige is killing it in the corporate camp. Paige has always been more patient, more attentive, and way more kid-friendly...so taking her to school was a perfect idea!
I won't bore you with all the specifics of my classes (if you're that curious, I did a Day-in-the-Life post a while back), but I will highlight some of my favorite moments:
Teaching the 1ESO (7th graders) how to say Paige's name to varying levels of success - in their defense, Spanish has no soft G like English does, so the 'juh' part of Paige's name because difficult to pronounce.
Patio time with Bea! We had a lovely 'breakfast' (lunch or snack for the Americans) and got to chat. I was so happy Paige got to meet my teachers and spend some time with them!
Rapid Fire English! My last class of the day was 3ESO (freshmen) - these were some of my chattier students, and as a treat for them, Paige and I ended the session with about 30 seconds of conversation. For us, it was a normal back-and-forth in which I teased Paige about the Passport Scandal; for my students, it was an opportunity to see two native speakers take the training wheels off. I will admit, I had to stop myself from giggling when I literally saw someone's jaw drop!
PB & J (Paige, Bandidu & Jam Session!)
Another Mahón Classic: Bandidu's Jam Session! With Paige being Musically Inclined, it made total sense to make our way to the port on Thursday night and enjoy the musical stylings of whoever showed up to our favorite graffiti-pizza spot. Jam Sessions had only resumed from the winter hiatus the week before, so there was still a lot of fresh, bubbly energy from spectators and performers alike. Paige and I happily munched on some pizza and toasted with apple mules while playing cards with the Usual Suspects.
jam sesh w/Paige! I know I've written about Bandidu and Jam Sessions before, but it's really difficult to capture the inevitability of hearing "I Shot the Sheriff" sung with a Menorquín accent or the literal 10-minute outros they give at the end of the night. Classic Bandidu!
La Dolce Vita
As you may remember, I don't work on Fridays, so Paige and I had the whole day to wander around Mahón together! My favorite part of the afternoon was at another local treasure, the wine bar La Dolce Vita. I'm not a big wine girly, but I adore this corner spot. Just walking into the bar relaxes you, I swear! Paige and I were all to happy to munch on good cheese, cheers our quality wines, and gossip the hours away.
To add the enjoyment, we had our fair share of unintentional eavesdropping on a foursome of cruise ship tourists at the table nearby - it's a small place, it's impossible not to overhear things - and boy, I hope Cathy and Steve's sibling relationship doesn't hit a rough patch. Sounds like they really needed the wine to work things out...
Seat neighbor drama aside, La Dolce Vita lives up to its namesake quotation by Federico Fellini: "No hay un final. No existe un principio. Solamente existe una infinita pasión por la vida." There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life. La Dolce Vita 💜
Texas Hold 'Em
After our chill afternoon sipping wine, we needed to go out with a bang on Friday night! I had been waiting for months to show Paige the bar Texas (not an exaggeration, I have receipts) and finally, my moment arrived. Texas is a love-her-or-hate-her kind of place, but you can't deny it's appeal as a karaoke bar.
Paige, of course, is a karaoke regular who routinely astonishes Olly's with her amazingly talented vocals. Thus, the Menorcan Karaoke Bar was a requirement. In those precious few moments when Paige's track began, I felt like a smug momager from a singer's biopic, the kind of character who pesters music executives to give their kid a chance to sing and the second the kid opens their mouth to sing, the Big Music Executives are like "this kid is legit!" Very convenient to have a talented singer as a sibling who you can trot out like a pony show every now and then ;)
texas shenanigans! I am nowhere near the karaoke aficionado that Paige is, but I did take the mic with her to sing ABBA (duh) and again with Rachel & Paige for a trio moment. The vibes in Texas were particularly good that night, just fun times all around. Singing Mamma Mia with your sister on a Mediterranean island? That's a core memory kind of vibe.
The Last Supper
It's become a tradition for me to end my visitor's trips with dinner at Taps Can Avelino, my favorite tapas bar in Mahón, and Paige was no exception. The evening didn't get off to the most auspicious start - we were quite literally nearly blown into the port. You know how they tell us as kids that the reason the Greeks and Romans and Egyptians and what have you came up with gods & goddesses was because they lacked the science and technology to understand natural phenomena? Well, just then, I could really empathize with them because there was no earthly way that this wind was just a byproduct of differences in air pressures. This felt entirely personal, and as we were pinned in place against the cobbled walls, I could totally buy the idea that there was a pissed off wind god here to punish us for some egregious lack of adoration or something. Thank god my hair was pinned back and Paige has no hair because that would've been catastrophic for anyone with long hair.
When we finally made it to the restaurant, though, the atmosphere was simply lovely. Taps Can Avelino is, hands down, my top recommendation on the island. The food is just, chef's kiss, and the atmosphere is everything you want from a cozy, elegant, quiet, bistro kind of place. Perfection. Paige and I sampled our way through the patatas bravas, the squid-in-their-ink croquettes, the fried mango curry prawns, and the crystal bread - 10/10 no notes from me! Our Cava Sangrias were fruity and flowing, and dinner went by far too quickly.
Towards the end of the evening, I was reminded of one of the many, many fights Paige and I had growing up - there was quite literally always something - and hearing my mom exclaim in exasperation, "Can't you two just like each other?! Like sisters?!" Maybe it's that we stopped sharing a bathroom seven years ago, or maybe it's that we finally grew up, but I think anyone in Menorca can attest that my sister is one of my most favorite people in the world. The world is such a better place for having her in it 💜
So, there you have it! A totally not-concise recap of Paige's visit to Menorca. Long overdue, yes, but April in Spain has been a different kind of busy. Visitors, holidays, beach days - I'm booked!
But back to Paige...It was such a special time to share my life with her for a week or so, and in a funny karmic twist, to be referenced as "Natalie and Natalie's Sister" instead of the inverse - though, several of my students thought we were twins. Does the shaved head make Paige younger or does the long hair age me???
For multiple reasons, it absolutely sucked to wave goodbye to Paige at the airport, and yet, I'll be back in Indiana in less than 6 weeks...that's eerily close, no? I should know better than to make promises...however, I really will try to be better about posting as I wrap things up for this school year! We can get up to a lot of mischief in a month, what with the summer sun making regular appearances ;)
¡Hasta Luego!
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