Easter Holiday 2012

The puke-filled field trip was over, lessons were observed, books were marked (kind of) and I was ready for a holiday! I spent the weekend not packing and procrastinating until the last minute...as per usual. As I was going literally from one holiday destination to the next, I packed for Norway as well. Hannah picked us up on Monday morning and we headed for Gatwick. A cramped and boring plane ride later, we touched down in breezy, warm Tenerife! We headed to our hotel and took some time to explore the area that we were staying in, Los Cristianos. Rather than go through a painfully detailed retelling of the entire five days, I can sum up the holiday in the following:

• Breakfast at our condo
• Beach for the day. We had to take some breaks from the stresses of sunbathing to have some lunch (AKA cheap cocktails) at one of the restaurants along the water.
• More sunbathing
• Swim in the pool at our hotel
• Dinner, drinks and exploring Tenerife by night.

It was a great holiday....aside from getting a wicked sunburn, as was to be expected. Strangely enough, it was the backs of my legs (from the knee down) and the tops of my feet that got it the worst. I stocked up on the SPF 50 and avoided the sun like the plague for the rest of the week. So much for coming back bronzed and beautiful, like Mary & Hannah. While we were there, we went to a neighbouring town, Las Americas, where all the nightclubs were. On our first night out, I met a Finnish guy named Niko who was on holiday with his brother and father. Bless him. Not sure how good your game and pickup lines can be with your dad sitting beside you. Aside from Niko, we met a couple of other very unwanted guests in the form of cockroaches in our apartment. Hot damn, those things are fast. And very, very gross. Creepy crawly disgusting bugs.

Hannah & I went whale-watching on our last day in Tenerife...there are pods of Pilot whales found off the coast, and Hannah was dying to see them. The trip took about 2 hours and we saw entire families, including little calf whales..so cute! Hannah was so excited, and I loved seeing them. For such huge creatures, there is something graceful about the way they move through the water.

The week went by incredibly quickly and we soon found ourselves on the way back. We landed at Gatwick just past 2 AM, where Hannah's friend Mark was waiting to pick us up. Mark dropped me off at Heathrow where I killed time until my flight to Norway. Thanks to a lucky upgrade, I got to fly business class...no complaints here!

My trip to Norway didn't involve Finnish men, cockroaches or stray cats that wandered into the apartment (true story, happened a couple of times in Tenerife. I wanted to keep it) but involved family, friends, movies about Space Nazi's and more food than I care to even think about again. Most of the week was spent relaxing at Sarah & Kristian's while they were at work, with trips to his parents, the cinema and out to dinner mixed in there. I went for walks around the lake, fed the ducks, had a duck bite my shoe (ok, I may have stuck my shoe out to see what the duck would do...I kind of deserve it, apparently) and visited with Michelle to meet her new little boy, Teodore.

Norway was so relaxing and a great holiday. Sarah & Kristian just bought a new house, so my next half-term holiday will probably see me back in Norway, unpacking them into their new house! Can't wait :).

So, it was back to England last Sunday, and back to work on Monday. The week went by incredibly fast, and the next couple of weeks are bound to be incredibly stressful. Great...When is my next holiday?