Even though university was getting a bit ‘meh’ in Granada (poo hadn’t quite hit the fan at this point), I still found myself completely enamoured by Spain and the astounding city I was lucky enough to call home.
During my time at university in Portsmouth I was #blessed (and still am!) to have a close group of girlfriends (and not forgetting Casalooch). Being the only one of the ‘uni galz’ to take a course with a year abroad, I found myself missing out on third year house fun (we shared a house in second year and I can honestly say those girls got me through – the coursework; the mice; the stressful part-time job). If I’m honest I was so excited to be abroad that I was trying to forget the fact I was leaving behind my friends, and would actually have to *gasp* make new ones. In a way I was jealous that they all got to stay together and continue Uni antics without me; hangovers, rodents and all. It came as great news to me therefore, that five of them were planning to make a visit to España (Ellie it’s okay, I don’t hold it against you, but you missed out on good kebab) – OLÉ! To say I was looking forward to it would have been a massive understatement.
The night before the girls’ flight I travelled to Malaga to stay with Joshua and, as was the ritual, he cooked Carbonara, we drank wine, and then caught up on how Uni was going (not well), how money was going (WHERE is it going?!) and how our Spanish was coming along (better…with wine).
He had told the girls he would meet them at the airport when they arrived, before they all planned to bus it up to Granada together. As a surprise I decided to come along as well, and as we came out of the train station just opposite the airport, we could make out a group of weary travellers. At this point I hid behind Joshua as he strode towards them *cue girly screams*. So overcome with emotion, I ended up doing the slow-mo-long-distance embrace with Liz and attacked the others with equally expressive hugs and ‘IT’S BEEN SO LONG I’VE MISSED YOU’s. You could have told me otherwise, but for the four days they visited, it was my birthday weekend. Five of my TOP FRIENDS had come to see ME and we were all going to get drunk and have a merry old time in Spain.
Priorities first though. From what I understood the girls had not gotten much sleep on their flight, and they had travelled all the way from Pompey at too-early-o’clock in a cab to the airport. They would now have to endure a train, coach, then cab journey to mine… With this realisation we took the next train back to central Malaga, and FOOD.
After chowing down on some burgers (“Sam, how do you say chicken with lots of mayo?”) we moved on from Malaga to mi nueva ciudad. When we finally arrived at Casa de Monos the girls seemed impressed with my building, and my flat (“Oh my god, it looks just like the one in Taken!”), although the space in my bedroom I had once thought was more-than-enough was now rather questionable… I had made a bid for the flat’s spare mattresses in advance, and after a bit of ‘Changing-Rooms’ type interior design, managed to turn my abode into the Sleepover Club. It made for an interesting night, and those who did not like snuggles (or my snoring) had to put up with it. We were 21 going on 12, and I was updated on all the goss I had missed from third year so far, and in return was obliged to spill the beans on what Erasmus life was really like “Sam do you even go to Uni?” “I’ve seen you go to the beach a lot” “Have you made many friends?” “Any Spanish friends?” “All you do is go out isn’t it?” Nuff with the third degree guys. We had planned to go out that night but everyone was shattered from the cab, plane, train, coach, cab (plus being Top Lad, poor Nicola had been out on the town the night before, POST-hockey match) so we saved our energy for the next day…
Sammy Wandering Abroad 