Monday 5th
Flight 06:45am to Murcia International.
Arrived 11am Spain time.
Collected rental car early.
Expecting KA, received Citroen C3.
Drove around rental car park to get used to new car, right-side gears and keeping right.
Drove from Murcia International Airport to Sen Pedro del Pinatar for Hotel Paloma.
Found on street parking close to hotel and potential car park.
Trouble checking in because of it being a reservation and the language barrier but was given two rooms for our stay.
Room 303 with single beds for 2 nights and room 301 with a double bed for 3 nights.
Unpacked and settled into room.
Text Kirst.
Went for a wander around San Pedro del Pinatar, saw flamingos.
Wandered down across Lo Pagan beach front for an ice cream then wandered back to the hotel.
Went back out in the evening for food at El Paraiso and shared a pizza then wandered back across Lo Pagan.
Played on a few playground for a short while, mainly the climbing frame and the swings.
Found a fun fair and had a quick look around.
Tuesday 6th
Saw a blue mustang parked outside our hotel.
Lidl for cobs, ham, shower gel and plasters. (Will’s new trainers had been rubbing)
Couldn’t get a space on the car park when we returned so had to street park.
Vanilla Coke from local shop on top beach front.
New flip flops for the beach. Black with blue flamingos and straps.
Ate ham cobs on the beach.
Reply from Kirst that we should be able to see them Thursday!!
Went into the sea for a while.
Sand everywhere.
Sat with feet in mud bath.
Saw lots of muddy people, covered head to toe.
Saved some ham cobs for the evening before we went out.
Moved the car into the car park before heading to the fun fair (by foot)
Found an amazing gift shop with the perfect gift for the Proctors.
Found that the fun fair does not open fully until 9pm when it starts to get darker.
Discovered bar Idolo tucked away, nice bar. Had one drink in there before the fun fair opened.
We both went on three rides which were very good value for the duration you’re on the ride.
Bumper cars.
Jump and Smile (basically)
Totem (like bull ride)
The last one was very physical but absolutely hilarious.
We brought a couple of drinks (water) to chill out for a moment afterwards and found an outdoor gym area.
We decided that we wasn’t going to go on any more rides even though we had only spent 9€.
We went back to bark Idolo for one last drink and then headed back to the hotel.
Wednesday 7th
We had to pack up and change rooms in the morning then unpack and resettle into our new room.
Shopping for water and snacks.
Brought cheese onion lays, two waters (each) and a can of strawberry Fanta.
Bike ride day.
Cycled to top of mud baths until it is restricted for cyclists because of above power lines and then back to beach front.
Headed to Torre De La Horadada, managed to reach just past the tower.
Total bike ride time approx. 3hrs 30mins.
We were knackered but it was extremely fun.
10€ for 4hrs bike rental, the kept hold of my passport though.
We went to Maggies in El Majon for food in the evening. I had chicken and chorizo pasta and Will had a cheese burger.
We went to Corner Music Tavern for a drink afterwards then headed to the beach for some fresh air.
We found a volleyball tournament and the atmosphere and local community spirit was incredible.
We walked back to Corner Music Tavern to check out the musicians performing that weren’t on until 23:30, stayed a short while for a few songs and then headed back to the car.
Thursday 8th
Proctor dayy.
Rough start struggling to sleep in new room. I think I managed 4 hours. Will got up quite a few times in the night. I listened to my iPod to try to help me get back to sleep but ended up just resting instead. I did drop off for another hour or so later in the morning.
When I woke up, Will had disappeared without telling me where he was going and his phone hadn’t been working.
I lost Will.
Gave him some time but then found home downstairs in the café.
He had had a small breakfast on his own.
We went out later in the morning so that I could grab something.
I brought 6 churros with a chocolate dip and they were perfect.
We wandered down to the ice cream place we went to before so that will could have an ice cream.
He dropped most of it then we headed back to the hotel.
When at the ice cream place, we had sat on a step instead of the seats and I didn’t realise that I had chewing gum stuck to me me, rested on our balcony window and smeared it everywhere by accident.
Gave me something to clear up.
We headed to the car for just after 13:30 so we would get to Torre for 2pm.
No problem with traffic and the Proctors villa was easy to find really.
We got there a few minutes early.
A few welcoming hugs, we came baring gifts.
I had brought Kirsty a t-shirt from Primark with her slogan, “make it happen” written across the front and a pack of tractor top trump cards.
I had brought a cat mosaic ornament, hand made in Spain for them both, for Lisa to open.
We had a drink with them at their villa before we went out for a light lunch at Bar Willy’s.
Both me and will had two small baguettes with bacon and cheese. Kirsty had chips and egg and Lisa had ordered chicken kebab with a portion of yuka chips.
After this we wandered to a few more bars.
The next one was on Mil Palmera beach, I just had water here after my quad Malibu and coke at Bar Willy’s.
Kirsty was struggling with the heat.
We walked up into the small shopping/bar area and went to another bar in that area so that Kirsty could cool down. She brought a new vest that was lighter to help herself out too.
We then headed for the plaza in Pueblo Latino where I just had a coke and water.
Lisa went back to their villa early to get a head start getting ready for the evening. We finished our drinks then headed back.
We had both brought some spare clothing with us just in case we either ended up staying over or going in their pool so we had something to change into for, for the evening.
We went to La gamba for a drink first then Red Corner In Plaza Nueva for food where I had spaghetti bolognese. Will has a massive pepperoni and bacon pizza to himself. Kirst had a BLT baguette and Lisa had a veggie Sandy with chips.
I absolutely scoffed down that meal, it was amazingly delicious and a great portion size.
We finished out drinks and headed for the main square and went to Bar UK.
I caught up a little with Teresa, a lady from Birmingham who I met last year and we both met a few of Kirsty and Lisa’s friends.
Myself and Will just had one more drink here but the girls had a couple.
Kirsty and Will went to fetch some of our stuff out of our rental car.
When they got back, Kirsty called us a taxi as Will was starting to drop off.
He had just had a massive (6 shot?) Jack Daniels and coke from Red Corner that he struggled with but finished.
It took a short while for our taxi to arrive.
Our driver got a little lost and confused but it was less than 17€.
We were pretty much straight to bed when we got back to our hotel room.
It wasn’t until we got in the taxi that I realised we had been out and about for 12 hours!!
13:30-01:30
Friday 9th
I slept pretty well last night but still only managed to get about 6 hours. I think it was the sun rising that woke me up.
I like to leave the curtains open slightly so that only a little bit of light comes though and it’s not too intense to wake up to.
Started listening to music to ease me back to sleep again but jest ended up getting emotional about how special the twins are to me. Made me think that everyone needs friends that make them that happy.
“Get yourself a friend that makes you cry with happiness.”
I’ve spent the last hour and 20 mins catching up writing all of this up to here so that we don’t forget a thing that we have done. It’s been amazing so far.
…
Cont.
We got up late since we had a late night.
Walked to Kirsty’s from San Pedro Del Pinatar.
Stopped off at Corner Music Tavern for a drink and snacks.
Took us about an hour including the small break.
Stayed at theirs for a good couple of hours chatting and then left them to get ready for their last night out.
We headed for the Chinese shop for some little bits, I brought some post cards, fake Pokémon cards and a couple of key rings. Will brought some tattoos transfer books and we both got some water.
Headed back to the car to set off to La Zenia.
Ended up on the AP-7 which is a toll toad that cost us 3.95€, it was more direct though.
We stayed at the shopping boulevard for quite a few hours, wondering whether or not to see The Cages.
We diced not to in the end and just headed back to our hotel after having a subway for dinner.
I brought a couple of shirts from La Zenia and a cheap PSP game.
When we got home we were both on our phones to our parents for quite a while.
Saturday 10th
This was the end of our stay at Paloma Hotel and we had to be out by 12. We got out early and had coffee before we left, we both agreed that the coffee is really nice there.
We nipped into Lo Pagan so I could get some more bracelets to take home for friends.
Drove into torre so that Will could have a quick go in the car, just how it feels 1st and reverse.
Headed to Lidl for food to keep us going for the next few days, a couple of cobs, ham, plasters and Ameretto. We got a loaf from Lo Pagan.
Headed to hotel number two.
It took about half an hour to get there across the RM-
Once we settled in we did nothing for the rest of the day.
Sunday 11th
We had breakfast at the hotel at about 10am
Text Kirst about Will saying he’d not slept but didn’t hear the storm.
They were flying back this morning.
We tried to see their flight take off but must have been on time so we missed it.
Found a pool to go to in Murcia, 10 minutes drive away.
*pool name*
We got lost on the way up by missing the exit but got there in the end.
5€ entry and it was beautiful.
Afterwards on the way back we found an Aldi, small shop and a McDonald’s which we stopped off at for food.
Then we headed back to the hotel.
In the evening we decided to head back towards El Majon and Torre since there is nothing where we are.
We went to the Corner Music Tavern for one then moved on into Torre.
Got a bit extra cash out from the ATM to last us the last few days and then settled at Bar UK for one.
We moved to Plaza Nueva for a couple more where we bumped into Sheila & Tereasa whom I met that year which made a great night.
Sheila paid for one of our drinks, we gave them both a lift home since Sheila helped Will our by giving him some earplugs to help him sleep.
It was a tired drive back to the hotel, aided by Will being a spare pair of eyes but we got back and in bed for around 02:30am, possibly our latest night out.
Slept like a baby for about 8 hours, I was so tired. We both were but it was a great night.
Monday 12th
We missed breakfast at the hotel because we were both so tired this morning.
Even I didn’t get up until after 10pm and Will was ready for 12 midday.
Went out for food, but tidied the hotel room ready for our departure in the morning.
We were ready to go home.
Tuesday 13th
Early start.
Drove from the hotel to the airport.
Dropped of the rental car before 8am.
Flight home to EMA from Murcia.
