I have been a bad blogger because I have been on holiday!
Ideally I would have been blogging about the holiday whilst
I was there but as there was, gasp, no wifi at the villa it made it very
difficult to update my blog as it’s a bit fiddly to do it on the phone as
brilliant as it is.
I have been in Menorca for 2 weeks with Leigh and his
parents, his brother and wife and 6month old son. I haven’t been on a family holiday
in about 5 years so it was really lovely actually. It was so nice to have a
holiday where we didn’t have to do anything at all. The last few holiday we
have been on – Europe last year, New York, and Glastonbury have all been quite
hectic with not a lot of time to just stop and catch a breath.
We stayed in a modern 3 bed villa on a complex called Son
Parc on the north coast of Menorca. A beautiful little harbour could be
found about 20 minutes drive away and there was a snug little beach nestled
within the complex just a short walk away with warm shallow waters and 2 beach
restaurants at either end.
The flight over was only a couple of hours and we flew early
in the morning to give us the whole day on the Sunday. We somehow managed to
pack both mine and Leigh’s clothes into one suitcase as I refused to pay the
extra £30 Easyjet demands for more luggage. We breezed through check in,
grabbed a cheeky McDonalds breakfast and had a quick nap on the plane and then
we were there. Leigh’s parents had arrived the night before so they were there
to pick us up and it was only a 30min drive to the villa, although we stopped
off at my favourite supermarket – LIDL to grab lots of rolls, parma ham,
chorizo and cheese. I love tapas meals especially all washed down with some
Sangria.
To be honest the majority of the holiday was just spent
either lounging by the pool or at the beach. Because we didn’t have a car
ourselves it made it a bit tricker to explore the island and see some of the
things that I wanted to in this instance I really was ok with not doing
anything. Just having a holiday where I didn’t have to be culturally aware and inquisitive
and instead just getting a bit tipsy on Cava Sangria and soaking up the sun was
a nice change from the holidays that we’ve had recently and I didn’t feel
guilty about it at all.
Because we didn’t really do too much I fear that this blog
may be redundant but I will jot down the key events of the time we spent there.
For the first week it was just Leigh’s parents, Leigh and myself so the week
seemed to go quite slowly. The weather was a bit iffy on a couple of the days
so those were the days that we decided to go out. On one of the days we went to
Fornells where the harbour that I mentioned earlier is found. There is also a
fort that was built under English rule, so we spent some time walking through
the foundations. We also stopped off at a couple of the little shops along the
way selling local produce, including the famous Menorca sandals.
Although originally I didn’t think we would have enough
money to go out for dinner every night, in the end we did anyway just because
it was easier and the food was really tasty. I did miss cooking though. There
were several restaurants on the complex, and we went to a couple of them more
than others. One of our favourites, Pinomar, had a lovely outside area and we
ended up going to this one 3 times in the end, including a night that Leigh and
I went out by ourselves . We had ordered Seafood Paella which had to be done 12
hours in advance so they could order the fish in fresh. I thought it was
gorgeous, there were big chunks of squid and crab, prawns, crayfish and mussels
and the rice had been soaking everything up for a while so it was flavourful,
but Leigh said it was a lot of effort for not much return, which I do sometimes
find, with crab especially.
We went to a couple
of different beaches, although I’m not too much of a beach person. I like to go
a couple of times because they do tend to be beautiful but I do wonder why
people go so often when by the pool you have free sun loungers, a toilet, cold
drinks, no sand, no saltwater etc. The main beach that we went to was lovely
though, the sea was shallow but with some waves and it was relatively warm and
there was a nice restaurant which did good omelettes, salads and massive
burgers.
For the second week we were joined by Leigh’s brother, wife
(who are the same age as me) and little bubba – William who I am besotted with.
He is such a little darling, full of smiles which show off his 2 bottom teeth
which have just come through. Although Leigh and I aren’t married I’ve become
his (unofficial) aunt and I spent most of the holiday trying to subliminally
plant my name in his head so it’s his first word, although we figured Cara
might be quite hard to say so I was trying to teach him RaRa.
The weather also
brightened up so I was finally able to get a good tan – luckily I tan quite
easily although my legs were being stubborn this year and they only look
slightly tanned in the right light.
For the whole 2 weeks we went to a pub/bar called BJ’s every
night as it had free wifi, cava sangria, a pool table, a free quiz nearly every
night and bingo. We managed to win the pub quiz on 2 occasions earning us some
t-shirts and a holdall. There was a really nice atmosphere about the place, and
although I normally try and go where the locals go it was nice to have a touch
of home about the place, plus a litre of sangria was €8 which is nothing
really.
The week went quite a bit quicker with the distractions of
other people around but luckily I still felt like we were away for a long time.
I have come back stress free and full of ideas to get everything in my life
sorted which is a positive feeling. I still have the ‘I’ve been on holiday’
smile as well, although I’m sure I will only need to be back a week before I am
planning my next trip away!
