Spain 2007

Finally catching up again, and time to recount my adventures in Spain!

The plan was this; a friend of mine has parents who have moved out to Spain to retire, and so we, along with two other friends, decided to head out there for an extended weekend, and assist in eating their food, drinking their wine, and soaking up some sun. A flawless plan really.

The flight over there was not too bad, although I always find early morning flights somewhat objectionable, and having to wake up at 2am to start getting ready, pick up the others and get to the airport really was pushing it a bit!

The flight itself was alright, if a little bumpy, but bearable, and once we were out on the other side we were instantly hit by sunshine and blue skies; quite a difference from the cold wind and rain that we'd left behind in England! After that, it was just an hours drive from Almeria to the small town of Arboleas, where we were grateful of air conditioning.

Once we arrived at his parents, we settled into the little guest house at the end of the garden, and within no time had cold beer in our hands and began lowering ourselves carefully into the pool. Although it was a very pleasant 28 degrees outside, that pool was still enough to take your breath away, but we pushed on through, as when there's a pool there, it would be a waste not to go in, even despite being told that days earlier they'd found a scorpion floating in it.

Of course, it was not all lazing around; we did come up with the noble sport of pool jousting, which involved two people on inflatable chairs being propelled towards each other, carrying long foam poles and attempting to knock each other from their mount. I lost every round, but I like to think I was just being sporting and giving the others victory.

Due to a mixture of bad planning and laziness, we'd also forgotten to learn any Spanish before the holiday, so all our adventures outside of the house required the default foreign language, consisting of speaking loudly and using wild hand gestures. Surprisingly, we got by. We were also saved on the second night by managing to find a good Indian restaurant, which was being run by a couple from Lancashire, which although may have been deviating from the full Spanish experience, was still a damn good curry!

For the rest of the holiday, the best parts of it were simply spent by or in the pool, with a constant flow of wine or beer, and at least I've also managed to get myself a bit of a tan, and shake off the worst of the traditional English whiteness, which should last about a month if I'm lucky.

In all, a great holiday, and the only downside would have to be the foot incident, but I'll leave that one for the next post...