San Javier has some of the clearest waters I’ve ever seen.
A vast expanse of emerald and turquoise hues, the ocean is so beautiful that local geniuses even put up railings with steps into the sea every few hundred yards, turning it into one massive natural swimming pool.
The weather finally brightened a little and we raced out to the neighbouring city of Murcia to admire its historic sights and gothic architecture.
Apologies for the photo quality of that one ^, again was busy taking photos on my iPhone before realising this place really deserved some proper beauty snaps.
So, first day out in Spain… We had no idea where to go, what to do, what to eat (we were seriously disorganised. My parents decided to go on the holiday then demanded I do all the research, despite me having a full time job and erm, no time to research). We decided to wing it.
We drove to Cartegena, found somewhere to eat (ish) that was open, had relatively decent ratings on Google and was close (ish) to where we were trying to head (ish). They didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Spanish. This was obviously going to turn out well.
After battling with the menu we managed to order…
Clockwise from top left: tiny, slimy eel – whole, eyes and all with pickled onions and prawns | green goop (supposedly avocado mush), crumbled hard-boiled egg droppings with prawns | potato salad, anchovies and olives. Read More
Murcia: the region in South-East Spain bordered by Andalusia and the Valencian Community on the Mediterranean coast.
A major producer of fruits & veg and flowers, it boasts ridiculously warm weather and something like 360 days of sunshine a year (okay I may be exaggerating there, but you get the idea).
In fact, the climate is so perfect the region has 120 ~ 150 days/year where the sky is totally clear, says Wikipedia.
And because it’s on the coast, that basically spells sun, sea and miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches.
The best part is everything there is has been made crazy cheap as the EUR is so weak. Perfect place for a holiday, my family and I thought. Temperatures were reaching early-mid 20ºC the week before we arrived. I was so excited. So, bikinis packed and sun lotion prepped, we donned our summer gear and headed over for a week during the Easter hols.
We must have chosen the one week the weather decided to suck.
We arrived in San Javier to gale force winds & drizzly rain and frankly didn’t want to leave the warmth and comfort of our air-conditioned holiday abode. No joke, for a day we just went nowhere.
To be fair, we had a pretty nice holiday home. After the initial confusion and frustration due to lack of communication from the letting agents (although they were great in the end), the home itself was wonderful. It’s spread across 3 floors with a living room, separate kitchen, ground floor bedroom & en-suite, two double bedrooms and a fancy bathroom, terraces on all levels and the second/final floor is a rooftop terrace!
My sister and I played cards whilst our parents watched their Chinese drama.
Slightly a waste of a holi-day in Spain, but the change in environment was very welcome.
After all, the most important part of a holiday is sleeping in family time, no?
Finally after a day the weather cleared a little and we jetted outside to make the most of it.
Hey guys…
I’ve had this blog for a while now and believe me, I really, really love it. I’ve had friends and colleagues tell me they enjoy reading it and even kind comments from readers I’ve never met before, and I love that – thank you all so much. You have no idea how much that all means to me.
Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances I will no longer be able to blog. It breaks my heart to say, especially as I’ve just got back into blogging regularly. You have no idea how much I wish things could be different but it is with a heavy heart that I must now announce I have to shut down the blog.
I can’t tell you much about it, but I can only hope for your understanding and support.
Thanks so much for sticking with me for as long as you have. I hope this won’t truly be the end though so as soon as anything changes I’ll definitely keep you posted.
Take care, and don’t get into too much trouble in the mean time.
I’ll leave one last silly pic for you to make this a less painful goodbye. I did say I’d post some face-pulling photos after all. Please do click the read more below.
