Fail to plan... plan to fail! Well, nearly at least.

I'm new to this whole blog thing but thought I might as well give it a go, so here it is....

Leaving home for a long period of time was never going to be easy for me as I'm a bit of a momma's boy at the best of times! I didn't help matters by leaving things last minute (as I always do) and eventually finished packing on the morning of my flight - at 5.15 a.m. to be precise. At 5.45, after weighing my bag on the bathroom scales, I realised that my bag was heavier than my allowance and so on the way to the airport I hung myself (not literally, although it crossed my mind...) over the back seat and made a few 'last minute' changes to my travelling attire. With Mum suggesting that I wear 3 jumpers to Granada to minimise weight, I now decided to take 3 hoodies on the plane with me and wear jeans instead of shorts - turned out to be a wise decision! 


Being greeted at Terminal 1 by stalemate traffic wasn't what I had in mind for my big send-off at 6.00 in the morning, but nevertheless, that's what we had. So, with 6 minutes until my bag drop closes, out of the car we got! With my brother carrying my case on his head like some African woman, we straddled the cars and eventually arrived at the building. Stress over! Well, not quite...


Jet2.com is known to be nowhere near any of the other check-in desks at Manchester so we had to figure out how to get downstairs- a problem in itself - but I got there to be surprisingly met by my Grandparents and Uncle who had taken a cheeky route to avoid the traffic, as only my Granddad would! With very rushed 'hello's, I put my bag on the weighing bay to be informed by the incredibly miserable, and arrogantly unhelpful check-in clerk that this was in fact the Ryanair check-in not Jet2... Awesome! I'm sure you are well aware of the state of the queue for Jet2. Mahooosive! After being thrown to the front of various queues I eventually managed to get my bag sorted and then had to face security. Excited wasn't the word... I stood in the queue for security and was beckoned aggressively by all 6 members of my family as they'd managed to get me in fast track - a deceptive name to say the least, but I could well have still been there now if I stayed in the normal queue!


After running through the airport like a nut-job (in jeans and with 3 hoodies!), and nearly mowing down a woman with a walking stick, I arrived at my gate out of breath. As stressed as the stewardesses were, they appreciated that I had run there unlike everyone else, so at least that got half a smile! 'Thanks for running, Daniel' were their first words I think, before I had even opened my mouth, not that they had been waiting for me or anything!!


Well I arrived to 38 degrees of heat (around 100 degrees old money) so was glad I had my jeans and hoodies with me. Two hours on the bus left me at Granada bus station. Now what? I hadn't thought this far ahead... I managed to get my hands on a map and find out where the hostel was, or at least where the tourist info guy thought it was. It wasn't there.
With a stressful call back to my worrying mother, I got the details of the hostel - the same details that I had printed that morning but forgot to pack. After touring Granada on foot, and with suitcase, I arrived at what appeared to be backpacker-central. Everyone looked like they were auditioning for Cast Away, in their wife-beater vests that they had got from Thailand and other far-out places from their travels. Not really my scene, but I tried to mingle!


Well, that'll do for my first post I think, especially considering that both the people that I think will read this, already know what I've been up to!! I will get some more up soon about my flat and some of the interesting sights that I've already encountered....