The Costa del Sol
Mum and Steve had planned a holiday to the Costa del Sol for the second week in June, which was the second week I was back in the country. I didn't think I'd be ready to stay at home by myself that soon after getting back (my default activity when at home alone was to go down Dave's and I knew that every time I'd sit at home thinking 'what should I do?' the thought 'go down Dave's' would quickly be followed by a realisation that wasn't possible and would result in a flood of emotions I wasn't ready to deal with alone). So I decided to tag along to Spain!
We flew from Bristol with Easyjet. It was my first time on a budget airline (having been a bit isolated from them!) and it was a lot better than I was expecting. We landed in Malaga on time. The airport was a lot larger than I was expecting and lots of the signs were in German, then Spanish followed by English. I didn’t realise it was such a popular destination with Germans but there were flights coming in from all over Europe.
We got our luggage then went to pick up the hire car. There was a massive queue so I sat with the bags and listened to a new album (Ray LaMontagne – Till the Sun Turns Black – absolutely fantastic album, you must listen!) and read the paper. An hour went by before we got our car.
It was gone 11pm by the time we left the airport and armed with nothing other than rather poor map and two lines of direction to get us from the airport to my hostel we set off into the night. A combination of poor map-reading and driving too fast led us to miss the turning for the motorway so we ended up on the B-road, driving though all the resort towns. Lots of arguments ensued and in the end we stopped in Torremolinos and I asked directions at a bar. My first attempt at speaking Spanish in Spain, and I got given directions in English! Oh well, at least we finally made it to the motorway!
After several more stops for directions we finally reached my hostel, which turned out to be a cheap hotel rather than a hostel. Still, it was almost 1am by this time and a bed is a bed. I sent mum and Steve on their way, hoping they didn’t get lost any more, and went to bed.
Welcome to Spain!
We flew from Bristol with Easyjet. It was my first time on a budget airline (having been a bit isolated from them!) and it was a lot better than I was expecting. We landed in Malaga on time. The airport was a lot larger than I was expecting and lots of the signs were in German, then Spanish followed by English. I didn’t realise it was such a popular destination with Germans but there were flights coming in from all over Europe.
We got our luggage then went to pick up the hire car. There was a massive queue so I sat with the bags and listened to a new album (Ray LaMontagne – Till the Sun Turns Black – absolutely fantastic album, you must listen!) and read the paper. An hour went by before we got our car.
It was gone 11pm by the time we left the airport and armed with nothing other than rather poor map and two lines of direction to get us from the airport to my hostel we set off into the night. A combination of poor map-reading and driving too fast led us to miss the turning for the motorway so we ended up on the B-road, driving though all the resort towns. Lots of arguments ensued and in the end we stopped in Torremolinos and I asked directions at a bar. My first attempt at speaking Spanish in Spain, and I got given directions in English! Oh well, at least we finally made it to the motorway!
After several more stops for directions we finally reached my hostel, which turned out to be a cheap hotel rather than a hostel. Still, it was almost 1am by this time and a bed is a bed. I sent mum and Steve on their way, hoping they didn’t get lost any more, and went to bed.
Welcome to Spain!
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