A month ago today I landed back home after a week spent in Torremolinos in Spain. During this past month, I have spent too many minutes looking through the photo album and re-living this wonderful holiday. I wanted to briefly document the trip. Here are some photos:
It was a much needed rest. I finished work, packed the last few bits together and got the train up to Mansfield. Seb’s Dad was going to drop us off at East Midlands Airport at about 5am but firstly we were going to sleep. Talk, talk, talk and next thing I knew it was late and we drove to Seb’s family home in Derby.
We left the ground and three hours later we were there. I don’t fly very much. It’s bad for the environment and as I consider myself an environmentalist, I need to curb any desire. With this lack of flying, the view from the window had me in awe. I spent seemingly all of the flight watching the world (clouds) go by.
After spending so long in the never ending queue for passport checks, we eventually emerged. A 15 minute taxi ride later and we were able to take a lift selfie in the very delayed lift of Hotel Ritual.
The hotel was lovely. It was a gay hotel. The art work was amazing. From our balcony, we had a view of the pool and in front of us was the sea.
I am not sure if this is common with gay hotels but there was a nudist bar on the roof. It was wonderful. I was naked and I loved it.
Generally I got pretty sunburnt.
Seb lives up in Nottingham and I live down in Wellingborough so it’s not possible to meet often. If it were, we’d plan and organise more thoroughly. Well, I mean I would more input into the organisation. I am someone who goes with the flow. Seb found the location, hotel, flights and everything else and I said yes! I thank him for this. On my own, I often end up “doing” something but not having a solid plan. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Anyway, Seb found this gay hotel. It was lovely. And then when he booked it, he called me to tell me he discovered it was Torremolinos Pride during our stay. I was very happy.
In the lift, we bumped into Spain’s 2016 Eurovision entry:
Coinciding with our trip, Ian, Seb’s work colleague stayed at a hotel down the road. We often met up with him.
The next night we went to a Gay beach party. Seb is awkward. However, I mustered the confidence to speak to these beauties. Toni and Juan were lovely.
Long story short we became the best of friends. Kind of. I now have Toni on WhatsApp and he is coming to England soon. That evening, we went out to a club with them. I was encouraged to join a Spanish drag queen on stage. I had no idea what she was saying. But prepared with some phrases to say, I got some laughs.
Each morning, we’d pop to either one of the cafes over the road and have a traditional Spanish breakfast.
And we needed something to cool us down.
Or this:
One day, Ian, Seb and I decided to hire bicycles and cycle from Torremolinos to Malaga. It wasn’t the longest trip but in that heat, not knowing exactly which direction we needed to go and going over a mixture of terrains, the cycle seemed to take hours.
Part of the reason we cycled all that way was to see Toni.
Just before we turned around to head back.
And then disaster struck. Well, I considered it an adventure. Ian, possibly because of his riding skill, managed to get a puncture. There was immediate hesitation about continuing and the idea was even floated to call the cycling hire company to come and pick Ian up. Pffft.
I sorted the situation and told Seb to give Ian a backie as documented here:
And I popped Ian’s bicycle on my handlebars and cycled it back. I was getting a lot of funny looks from drivers.
This significantly slowed us down but we triumphantly made it back with 1 minute to spare before the shop closed.
The next morning and it was time to leave. We were sad.
But we still had a full day of sunshine to enjoy before our flight.
We walked to Ian’s hotel and shared a taxi back to the airport.
Whilst on the aeroplane, I got talking to two women sat next to me. With the General Election the next day, I soon was speaking about politics. I found out to my dismay they were Tory voters. I didn’t know why nor did they. Regardless of our political differences, we spoke for ages and ages. I don’t think I would be exaggerating if I said we spoke for most of the flight. They were lovely.
There are so many more photos.
I had a lovely time and I want to go back!
Thanks for looking.
Sam x
