Well we finally booked a holiday. We had planned to go on the last week in Aug this year, and I stupidly thought we would just get our pick of any “last minute” holidays and get going – well it wasn’t like that – everywhere I looked for a good hotel was booked, and when you have no location in mind it gets a little long winded. Anyway I ended up getting a hotel which had good reviews on the coast in Spain. After booking the hotel and flights separately – bloody RyanAir add’s extra money for everything. We decided to go to Santa Susanna on the Costa Brava about an hour up the coast from Barcelona.
I went to check in via Ryan Air and realised two things – one is that if your flight ids longer than seven days you either have to pay for allocated seating, or print out your ticket once you get there as you can only print out tickets within seven days of your flight. The second thing we realised was that Kate didn’t have a valid passport! We had just over a week to get it, so they went to the passport office in Newport of the off chance – but children cannot get a passport on the day, they have to send off and it takes a week – this was Monday, we were leaving the following Tues. The next appointment in Newport was three weeks in the future, so even though it only takes five minutes we eventually got a session in Liverpool on the Tues morning. So Sian and Kate got on the train Monday afternoon for a night out in the ‘pool.
They stayed, they saw and after a fire alarm scare they sat in front of Mrs Passport and after approx. 3 minutes it was stamped – we just had to hope it came before Tues. It did.
So up early doors on the Tues morning, and arrived into the airport car park at 6:45. Ready to queue, and queue we did. The bag checkin was slow as usual, but security was empty. Slightly annoyingly we have to make sure things are packed right, and have to take off all our clothes to get though the scanner, but the staff were mucking about with each other on the air side of the scanner. It’s a little frustrating that we have to do all these things to get through, and our security didn’t seem to give a shit. They did test Sian’s phone for drugs though – which was nice.
Once though we got ourselves into the holiday spirit with a big BK breakfast, and the the cattle market started for the flight. As everyone had assigned seats now, I don’t really understand the mentality to get there first. But a couple of hours later we were in Girona. Once we arrived we went to colelct your baggage, and also to pick up Tenacious fly – he is your own private fly who stays with you throughout your trip. He fights off the other flys so you only ever have one with you, but he stays there all holiday. After picking up the bags and Tenacious we met our non-communicative driver at the gate, and were ferried in the back of a nice minibus thing, with a number plate of HKY. Forty minutes and a five euro tip later I was standing in an air-conditioned queue listing to some annoying Russians try to check in, and had to hear the constant bleating of some Americans that things were not exactly the same as at home.
Room was okay – but warm, decent balcony which looked down on the pit of evil which was the pool side. So many people, my heart rate raised, my palms were sweating (although that was probably the 29 degree heat) and I thought I might have a panic attack – 8 days of this!!!!!
We set off for a little wonder down the strip, and stopped at Kate’s first choice of the week – the Burger Club. I was hyperventilating at this point – but luckily could breath enough to get a big fat bacon/cheese burger down my neck and the first of an occasional beer. I would have left there and then if I could have – I am just so rubbish.
So back to the hotel, and the girls went to brave the throngs in the pool, and I tried to relax with a can of beverage on the balcony. It was getting better, I could see them, but was far enough away from the crowds. I sat and sweated in the heat, read my book and drank my beer – actually this is okay I started to think…
Later on we walked down the avenue to the next village, Malgrat and as we walked in the heat we saw all the people – there were loads. The strip was okay, stalls on one side, bars/shops and restaurants on the other.. We had a plan for tonight, the number one place to start with – it seemed like it was miles away. We arrived we spent days waiting for a beer, and had some okay nosh. I decided to eat like a Spaniard, so had the Paella – but a meat one – expecting some meaty deliciousness in a variety of small fleshy parcels I had chunks of bony chicken in wet rice.
We walked the length of the strip back, and I relaxed out side on the balcony for a final beer – the girls were asleep, cuddling their Kindles when I came in – I think it was fair to say we were tired.
Burger Club – 7/10
Bei Pepe – 7/10