Earlier on this year, Lozzie decided she wanted a week in the sun in a villa for her birthday celebration and with her birthday being back in February, it proved a bit tricky to organise a sunny week around that time of the year, so instead this past week was her postponed summer villa holiday down in the Costa del Sol of Spain. There were a total of 13 of us who has signed up for it, so it was no doubt going to be a good week away, wherever we landed up going!

On Saturday morning Una and myself flew out of Gatwick and into Malaga, in the south of Spain. Unfortunately somewhere between London and Malaga they managed to misplace or lose my bag. Great - so not the best start to the holiday! But after speaking to the airline and trying to understand their broken Spanish, we caught a taxi to the hotel and thought we'd wait for a phone call from the airport saying they had my bag. We were staying in the Tryp Malaga Guadalmar Hotel, which was fairly near to the airport conveniently and right on the ocean too. Once there, we checked into our room and dropped our bags, or in my case, just my hand luggage. The hotel seemed really nice, plus the room had a stunning sea view with a balcony!

We decided to take a walk down to the beach and since I had no swimming gear, decided a swim in the sea would have to wait and lunch would be a priority. There was a little restaurant on the beach, with the tables and chairs scattered around in the sand under umbrellas, so thought we'd try it out and went for the tapas option of fried octopus with a beer to wash it down. After lunch and while walking around, I got a call from the airport to say my bag had arrived on a later flight, so at least that all came together. They offered to drop if off the next day, but we decided to head to the airport and pick it up, easier than trying to organise it to get dropped at the villa or the hotel if it was earlier. Too much hassle to be honest. So after fetching the bag, it was back to the hotel and by now it was fairly late so decided on dinner, again down at the same place since it was so good at lunch. For dinner, Uns and I shared a massive selection of seafood tapas, which was absolutely amazing - some of the best seafood I've had! So besides the issue of the bag which was now sorted, that holiday feeling started to kick in :)

On Sunday, we had breakdown down in the hotel, then headed to the beach for a walk along there as well as a swim in the ocean. It had been a while since I'd last swam, so made the most of that opportunity. After the swim, it was back to the hotel and then to find a taxi to take us down to the villa, about a half an hour drive away. We arrived at Villa Kathleen around mid-afternoon, and met up with Lozzie, Martin and Luke who had gotten in on the Friday afternoon, so were well settled in there already. Later in the afternoon, both Tom and Katie as well as Chris and Dovile arrived, so we were almost a full house. After a quick swim in the pool, we took a walk down to the beach, which was about five minutes away or so. Unfortunately, it was a no-swim zone as the entire Costa del Sol was in the midst of a jellyfish infestation. Seriously? Talk about bad timing, so it meant no swimming. You could actually see the hundreds and hundreds of little buggers in the surf as well as on the beach. So there goes my swim for the afternoon. Instead it was back to the villa for more sun and swim in the pool. That evening, the rest of the crew arrived - Diego, Al, Helene and Matt. They had decided on the car option and drove from Paris through to Malaga, which was quite the journey. But at least everyone had arrived and the holiday could commence - even thought the only plans were sun, food and swim!

Monday and Tuesday were spend doing very little, except for lying in the sun, swimming in the pool, or reading in the shade. And it was a good mix of that all day. Both evenings we had a BBQ up on the roof terrace, overlooking the other villas in the area - yes, it's a tough life! Wednesday was much the same, except for a small medical incident involving Martin who landed up with an inner ear infection, and had to be taken to the hospital near to Marbella. And it turned out to be quite severe and unfortunately for him spent the rest of the holiday lying around on the couch and unable to swim and drink alcohol. So not the best thing to happen on a beach holiday, the poor guy.

On Wednesday we decided to head into Marbella, the nearest city to the villa. Marbella is particularly noted for the presence of aristocrats, celebrities and wealthy people and is a major destination for luxury cruise ships and yachts which dock in its harbour. There was a local bus that took us straight there, so spent a good part of the day walking around the city as well as some delicious tapas for lunch at a place recommended by Dovile, who used to live there years ago. So that was handy. We also tried walking on the beach, but there was some crazy mist and visibility was only a few meters in front of us. Plus there were just as many jellyfish. So not having much luck with this swim in the sea. The others left to go back to the villa, but Uns and myself quite enjoyed walking around the streets and later sat down to some Churros, a fried-dough pastry snack, which basically is just a Spanish doughnut. After eating and walking the place flat, we headed back to the villa around dinner time.

Other than relaxing and chilling out, I was hoping to try and snap a few decent sunrise and sunset photos, so a couple of morning and evenings we headed down to the beach, and I spent that time trying my best to grab a few pictures, and think I got some that came out nicely. As much as it was never easy to wake up that early on holiday, once up and down on the beach, it made it all worth while. And there really were some beautiful sunrises, and sunsets.

On Friday night we decided to head in Fuengirola, the neighbouring town to where we were staying. Fuengirola is a major tourist resort, with more than 8km of beaches as well as a medieval Moorish fortress, which we hadn't planned to go and visit. We had secretly planned to use that as Tom's informal stag party, since him and Katie would be leaving for Australia just after we got back, we thought we'd surprise him then. So after dinner in the central and busiest street of the town, we went for a couple of cocktails at one of the bars, then decided to split from the girls and pub hop from pub to bar to pub again, helping Tom along the way with the odd drink or three. After a few hours, myself, Chris and Al decided we'd had enough and got a taxi back to the hotel, and left the others out who made their way back a few hours later. Was certainly a good night, and Saturday was quite the struggle for everyone there. But think Tom enjoyed it, which was the main thing.

After a good dinner on Saturday evening to mark the end of an awesome holiday, Sunday was just a random day to pack up and try to maximise our time in the sun, pool and on the beach. We thought we'd head down to the beach just down the road and chill out on the sunchairs with umbrellas until the time came to head back home. The others went to find food, but Uns and I thought we'd try the local restaurant but with them taking forever to serve, we landed up just getting a drink and cancelling our order unfortunately.

We then headed back up to the villa, met the others and waited for our taxis to take the lot of us back. Diego, Al, Martin and Helene had left that morning to drive back to Paris and then bus it home, so it was just the last few of us left. Once up in Malaga, we checked our bags in, waiting for our flight and boarded the plane back to not so sunny London. Unfortunately. But at least yesterday was a bank holiday here, so none of us needed to go to work and got a try acclimatize back into the real world before heading back to the office this morning. Oh well, I guess all good things have to come to an end sometime. Just wish it didn't fly by so quickly!