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(Day 48, 49 & 50) Oh. My. Goodness. Where do I even start? I thought I hadn't blogged for ages last time - this time I'm not even sure it's worth it haha! I have been procrastinating getting back into it as I just didn't know what to begin with and didn't want to leave anything out. But I realise the longer I leave it, the higher the chance I'll forget more, of course lol. So it's the 19th of August today and I need to blog from the 3rd of August which was a Sunday - the family and I headed down to Malaga to go and stay with one of Kiké's brother's family. We were heading down with the other brother of Kiké too and his family so in total there were 18 or 19 of us! Just a small group; in one house that only has 6 beds haha!! But I was definitely looking forward to these next few days as it meant a holiday before a holiday - as I would be heading from Malaga to Italy on the 6th of August...
It was a solid 3 hours or more drive to Malaga but once we got there it was well worth the wait - the family's house is right on the beach...like you walk from the house through their garden and open the gates to find yourself on the sand looking straight into the water! Paradise! I wish I was Au Pairing for this family haha!!!! The father (Kiké's brother) is an architect as well so the house is amazing and he helped build a lot of it apparently. They have a gigantic size tree house with a day bed underneath it on the ground along with 2 beautiful black doggys, 3 kayaks/canoe's, snorkeling gear, a boat and 2 massage chairs which I will note is my good karma coming around as I have been massaging all 4 kids nearly every day for the past week and now I could actually enjoy a massage for myself hehe! They have 3 children as well; two girls and two boys who are lovely but don't speak much English. The other family (the other brother lol) who I have spoke of before are the family with the three children Carlos, Malta and Jose. So all of us together was like a non-stop fiesta and never a second of silence hehe. Dinners were full on but fortunately they have 2 huge tables outside that accommodate everyone. The day after we arrive we head straight for the sea to go swimming, kayaking and sunbathing. The weather was perfect, the water was perfect, and I love kayaking! Jaime, Carlos and I headed out in a 3-person canoe which was fun and I will admit that it's a little scary being so far out in the water as I'm so used to being afraid of sharks back in Australia. We were in pretty deep and the boys dared each other to jump in the water and then swim to the boya (the big cone that floats in the water) and back! Carlos went first and then Jaime refused to go until I did it but I was honestly sh*ting myself haha!!! After about 15 minutes I finally stood up in canoe, with it wobbling all over the place and I jumped in the water screaming and laughing. I swam to the boya and back as fast as I could but once I got back into the canoe I was happy I did it lol. Jaime still refused to jump in the water the little chicken lol until Alvaro soon met us in a kayak that he had paddled to us with. We told him how Jaime wouldn't jump in even though he had promised to and so Alvaro jumped in the water and we all shouted for Jaime to do the same! (peer pressure lol!) He finally jumped in but was too petrified to swim to the boya... it was quite a funny sight!!! Later on, everyone decided they wanted to go on the jet boat that the family has and do the water skiing on those doughnut looking floatie things (great explanation hey!..) so one group went off first and then I went in the next group along with Jaime, Alvaro, Carlos, Patri, a few other of the cousins and then the mum and dad who live here; so 9 of us! Most of the kids wore wet suits as the water was pretty cold but I was just in my bikini haha so off we went way out in the water. I've never done water skiing like this before and was feeling pretty excited as I watched Alvaro and Carlos go first. Alvaro was amazing at it and only fell off once and the boat was going so fast! After everyone had a shot, Carlos and I decided to go together and I held on to the handles bracing myself for what was to come. I didn't realise how fast it would feel being on the other end of it and definitely wasn't expecting how funny i would find it haha!...I'm still trying to figure out why I found it so funny but I was literally laughing my head off from start to finish! Every time the doughnut bounced over the waves and made us fly through the air, I was in stitches! Carlos was laughing beside me too, probably at how much I was laughing, and I held on as tight as I could even though I could feel my bikini bottoms being pulled down by the pressure of the water!!! There were a few close calls but I held on longer than Carlos as he got flung off into the air haha. I think we were on there for a good 15 minutes and I only let go twice. I would have to say this experience marks one of the best feelings I've ever felt. You just feel free and amazing and you find yourself completely letting go (but not literally) of anything and everything else that exists! I enjoyed watching the people in the boat ahead smiling and waving too as we were getting pulled along. I felt like a kid again and even though Carlos is only 14, I get along with him so well and I seem to act his age a lot of the time haha. I got a few awesome photos too.
At night we all relaxed had dinner and watched a movie. and I will note though that I have been feeling a little anxious and that it has been a little impossible trying to have the one-on-one time with the kids here for English study as they love being with their cousins and we have been doing so many activities all together but Eva seems to think I should still make it happen...like practically follow them around haha...ummm nope I don't think so! For the first time since arriving with the family I explained to Eva that obviously we are still communicating in English but with how manic it is and with the children just wanting to be together all the time, it is hard to pull them away (and it's only for a couple of days) - instead of focusing on how much progress the kids have made and the positive things, Eva decided to just focus on the one negative and found it a problem but hey, if you were there you would understand lol. I don't expect anyone reading this to get where I'm coming from but I guess this is more of a personal account or blog for me and I'm not going to pretend everything is all rosy and sweet all the time; because sometimes, it isn't haha! Try looking after 4 very active, loud and stubborn children all day every day while cooking, cleaning up, playing with them and teaching them all at the same time...I'd say I'm doing quite well, especially considering I've never done it before :) I'm not going to be a push over just because I'm nice and Eva needed to see that. Fortunately, she backed off afterwards and could see that the kids were still engaging in a lot of English conversation and wanted me to play with them but that they just wanted to have fun with their cousins. In the afternoon, I went into a small town to get my legs waxed (very necessary when you're in a bikini 24/7!!) by a lady who was recommended to me. She was lovely and I'm glad I met her but...the wax wasn't the best shall we say hahaha...anyway, sleeping arrangements were hilarious once we got to bed time and there were 3 people in each bedroom along with **** in the tree house and me on the couch! The family thought I was crazy for offering to sleep on the couch but it was going to be a luxury compared to the airport chairs I would be sleeping in on the Wednesday night haha...
On Tuesday, we played on the beach again, I capsized in the kayak twice, and some of the family's friends came over for the day, so that made about 25 of us lol! We had lunch together and then I packed my things ready to leave for Italy! Eva had booked me a bus from Malaga to Seville and so dropped me off at the bus stop and said adios! I absolutely loved Malaga and the few days being on the sea and just chilling out so I actually felt like I didn't want to go to Italy haha and instead just stay there but I knew that Italy would change my mind :) The bus ride was a good 3 hours to Seville; Plaza de Armas and then I had to catch a further bus from there to the Airport. Eva said it would be worth having a look around before heading to the Airport but once I arrived it was dark and there were a bunch of Moroccan looking men surrounding the station and kinda just floating everywhere so I didn't feel so safe wondering around by myself with a backpack on my back indicating that I was definitely a traveler lol. So instead, I got some dinner real quick (McDonalds omg...don't remind me lol) and headed for the bus stop. Eva and I had sorted out that there was a bus every half an hour until midnight but as I got to the stop I saw a little sign saying that on Tuesdays and Thursdays or something, the last one was at 11pm and it was currently 10.20pm so I'm glad I didn't end up walking around until midnight lol. On the bus I was the only one for some reason and I was so indulged into an e-book I was reading that I missed the airport stop haha and then the bus driver turned to me like 'what are you doing still on the bus' haha so he turned around and took me back thank goodness haha! Fortunately it was only 5 minutes or so but that'll teach me! The airport was like a ghost town, especially in the departures upstairs but there were 2 or 3 people sitting around looking extremely bored and unimpressed. It was 11pm when I got to the airport and my flight wasn't until 6.40am so I would have to make myself comfortable! My phone was flat and I couldn't find a charger socket so I ended up charging my phone in the bathroom for half an hour haha before going back into the main area to find a seat. By this stage there were a few more people and a very loud and talkative bunch of girls who didn't seem to notice everyone else trying to sleep :p for me this was a safe zone though so I plonked by bag near them and got myself as comfortable as I could (how comfortable can 3 pieces of metal be?) and plugged my iPod in with my scarf over my face. I think I probably got 2 naps of about 20 minutes each before seeing it was nearly time to check in. I was completely knackered as well from hardly getting any sleep the previous two nights as I was going to bed around 3am and then waking up around 7am as soon as the dogs woke up or the kids came running into the room lol. Upon check-in I discovered that I'd actually already checked-in online and didn't have any luggage to check-in so I could just go straight through haha whoops! I headed through security, to which my jewelry beeped as usual...
Solo Travelers Tip No. 7: don't wear so silver jewelry when you travel, especially in Airport because you Will beep and you Will have to take it all off and go through the beeper again and you Will probably hold up the line haha. I wear my jewelry every day, as most people do, but, maybe I could wear a bit less ;) anyway! I headed through, got some breakfast (at 5am which is practically dinner time for spaniards!) and sat around until my gate number appeared. This was the first time I had been alone without the children since arriving in Spain so even though I had all this time to spare, I really lapped it up and made the most of it. I didn't have to do anything at all, so nothing at all I did lol. Once it was time to board, I felt a little nervous just because I'd never been to Italy before and you never know really what to expect..I've found this is normal wherever you are going and is just something that happens when you're on your own, but at the same time I was excited and couldn't wait to see my friend Mattia. On the plane I was completely knackered and hit my head a few times on the wall of the plane as I kept nodding off lol..good one Chloe! Window seats have their pros and their cons. A few hours later I felt the plane begin to descend and I couldn't believe it was already 9.15am and I was in ITALY hehe :) I got as excited as someone could on no sleep and awaited Mattia in Arrivals.
I will continue in the next blog :) ...
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