Sun, Spain & Schoolgirls

I recently went to Torremolinos in Spain with my best friend Bethany for her 21st birthday and we had an amazing time.

It was my first time on holiday without my family. Weird and a bit scary. Usually with family holidays I live in hope that my mum will organise it and there's less chance I'll end up getting lost or murdered abroad. We ended up getting a deal from a travel agents in the end so that took a lot of the stress out of it....

....that is, until, I had to pack my suitcase. I'm a terrible overpacker - even if I stay at a friend's house overnight I have to make sure I have multiple outfits and the entire medicine cabinet with me (just in case). By the time I've finished packing I end up with enough stuff to open a charity shop or a very low-stocked branch of Boots. I ended up fighting with my suitcase, begging it to close, kneeling on it, and shouting at it until I finally found a happy medium and shoved half my belongings into my hand luggage and had to endure being weighed down on one side of my body.

There were no mishaps at the airport either thankfully. Whenever I go through airport security I always worry in case I might have something to declare or I might have accidentally put on a pair of shoes that have something illegal in the sole or been recruited as a drug mule when I wasn't looking (which I obviously haven't, but does anyone else get those worries?)

We spent the holiday just relaxing on the beach and sunning ourselves by the pool, eating and drinking in ultra-Spanish places (Burger King and an Irish pub - we're such tourists) and just enjoying the nice weather. We also got to sample some of the local nightlife - and a golf club party of middle aged men dressed as schoolgirls, but that's a story for another time...

The pool at our hotel, Nutella and Kinder ice creams and cocktails at the beach.

The only downside was I'm so pale that before I went to Spain I slathered on some fake tan so I wouldn't blend in with the sand on the beach, but my suncream faded the fake tan and made it so patchy I looked like I had accidentally brushed Nacho Cheese Dorito dust all over myself. No problem, I thought, I'll just buy some fake tan in Spain. Nope. Finding fake tan in Spain is like finding whitening body lotions in Ireland - it just doesn't make sense. So I had to spend the duration of the holiday looking like a (less friendly) version of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

It was so nice just to relax and leave life back home for a while, but I did miss my family and it was nice to see them again when I got back home.

Until next time...