Day 1 - The longest day of my life
Waking up at 4am after just three hours sleep wasn't as difficult as I had speculated. After planning on getting an early night at 10pm, the excitement and anticipation of having a break from everyday life was enough to keep me awake for another three hours, filled with tossing and turning, thinking of the wonders of the ocean, the smell of suntan lotion and an endless supply of food and drink.
My sister Evie in amongst the suitcases
After jumping straight out of bed into the shower, shoving on a fashionable yet comfy ensemble for travelling in and popping my suitcase into the car, I was ready and raring to go. The two hour journey to Gatwick flew by as we all sat and nattered excitedly about what the next few weeks would bring and sang along to the songs on the radio. Leaving the car at a specified car park and taking the bus to the airport we were finally there.
I love everything about airports; the shops and restaurants, the hustle and bustle of people, the range of emotions on peoples faces - a mixture of stress, excitement, boredom, happiness...After checking in and thankfully managing to get seats altogether, there was security. As per usual, my mum wore what she referred to as her 'bling bling' with her whole assortment of bracelets, brooches, rings and necklaces all worn at once (to have more weight allowance in the suitcase for shoes - of course) and my dad's metal hip sent the metal detectors into a tizzy. Amazingly our flight was running on time and for once we didn't have hours and hours to sit around waiting so we headed off to Frankie and Bennys for breakfast as we do every year before vacation. As per usual I ordered my favourite - the full American breakfast - with crispy bacon, sausages, scrambled egg, baked beans, herb potatoes, a side order of toast and two American style pancakes on the side. Oh, and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Just enough to last me a few hours into the plane journey until the Pringles, peanuts and chocolate fingers could be bought from the trolley. Anything but plane food.
In awe of the vending machine that produces ice cream. Not just any ice cream. Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
Suddenly we heard that our plane was now boarding and we scoffed down the rest of our breakfast and ran to the gate. We were over the moon that we were flying with Thomas Cook as for once there was a decent amount of leg room and a TV on the back of every seat. We were even more hyped with the choice of films - New Moon, The Blind Side, Avatar and The Princess And The Frog. Never before have I been so excited about a plane journey. We left our dad to listen to his IPod for the journey whilst my mum, sister and I wept to The Blind Side, laughed at the acting in New Moon and felt like children again watching the magical The Princess and The Frog. Amazingly the ten hour flight flew by and we soon found ourselves descending.
Looking very attractive and at our very best after the ten hour journey
Once we hit the runway though, everything changed. Stepping out into Mexico expecting sunshine we discovered torrential rain. Instead of an easy breezy, pick up our suitcases and get on the coach in twenty minutes, we had a two hour queue for security. Expecting a 45 minute transfer, the time crept from an hour, an hour and a half to just over two hours before reaching our hotel. Sleeping on the coach was a no-no, with the wonderful commentary we received for half that journey bellowed out through a microphone about how the weather may continue like this for the next three days, dampened our moods even more so.
We were thankful when we saw the sign Sirenis, the name of our hotel and soon found ourselves each equipped with our own personal bellboy each towing our suitcases behind us and a drink in hand on arrival. Another bummer was that we had expected my sister to have been given an adult wrist band as we had thought the drinking age in Mexico was 16. It was 18. Like I said, bummer. We were then escorted to a small golf cart style car which took us to our hotel room. When we opened the door we couldn't believe our eyes. The rooms were huge, modern and immaculate. With a jaccuzzi bath, 6 jet shower, fully furnished balcony and complimentry bathrobe and slippers we were in heaven.
After unpacking and feeling shattered yet starving, we headed down to the buffet restaurant. Too tierd to look around the hotel or to appreciate the food on our plates we ate and fell asleep in our individual queen size beds.
No comments:
Post a Comment