The Holiday

So it’s been a while since I package holiday-ed. In the last 7 years my vacations have consisted of road trips, city breaks, staying with friends & Disneyland. Pretty much anything but. It’s funny how quickly the whole process comes back to you though; the nonsense flight times, finding your ‘rep’ at arrivals, the long/stifling coach trip to your resort – coupled with that awful feeling in your stomach while you drop off the other passengers - hoping the classy hotel might be yours and the dive is not…

10 full days in Tunisia and we didn’t leave the complex once. Part of me is slightly embarrassed that I still don’t know what the country even looks like but the other part knows I got exactly what I wanted out of the holiday. Rest, relaxation, chilling, reading lots of books, time with just each other, eating/drinking as much as we want and at any time of the day, without feeling guilty. And SUN J! It felt so good to see not 1 cloud in the sky the entire time I was there and just soak it up. By the end I had my fill and was ready to come home but I feel rejuvenated and refreshed and ready to face the world again. Job done!

I love how you think you know someone inside out but on a holiday you get even more of an insight…even if you live together already – it’s just something extra, when you’re in that holiday mode. Inside jokes galore – we met Ice Cube, Curly Sue, a dead ringer for our friend’s dad & Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons…true story.

Although I clearly wasn’t immersing myself in African culture, I did take a night out the 10 to enjoy the hookah delights, a beautiful Tunisian sunrise, as well as chat to some of the people working in the complex, who lived locally. One guy working in the small bookshop was always there, no matter what time of day we seemed to pass! He was really friendly, so enthusiastic but un-pushy and always had a smile on his face/said hello, so inevitably we would stop and chat. We found out that he is planning to marry a girl from Paisley in October, so for the last few years he has worked 10-10, 7 days a week in order to make enough money to afford the wedding and visa costs. My face must have been a picture because he laughed and said he didn’t mind it one bit, as it’ll be totally worth it in the end J. We ran out of books to read near the end so thought we’d see what they had in the shop but they were all pretty much in French, German or Arabic. He stopped us before we left, then went rummaging around in the back and came back with a handful of English novels. The one that he handed straight to me was Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho, which proceeded to blow my mind. What a buy/read. I plan to make my way through the rest of his books asap and cannot wait.

Don’t think I’d be in a great rush to do the all-inclusive package thing again any time soon, but I most definitely got what I wanted and needed so I’ll take that. Next stop Charlotte, NC for Thanksgiving/tattoos/road trips

xo