What To Expect When You Don't Make Plans

the beach had this massive rock in the middle

Me horseback riding on the beach

The lighthouse

Randi, Kelly and I on the top of the sand dunes

Matalascanas

This past weekend didn't exactly turn out like we had expected. We made the most of it though and still had a blast. So Friday morning 4am comes around and Kelly and I are grabbing the last few things around the house before we to the airport. I grab the bocadillos out of the fridge and we head to the airport. After we got out of the elevator, I went to put my purse into my rolling carry on and the zipper totally broke on it. This was only the beginning of my bad luck to start off this weekend. I had to rush back upstairs and throw all my belongings into my duffel and hope that it was Ryanair size approved. After that slight delay we were off to grab the airport shuttle. When on the bus, we were hungry, so we went to go eat the bocadillos that our senora packed us. We were horrified when we opened the paper to discover we had accidently taken Maria's raw meat and animal fat instead of our sandwiches! Once at the airport, we needed to wait for the ticket counters to open at 6am to see where we could possibly be off to.

We soon learned that showing up at the airport to buy tickets for Spains equivalent of Memorial Day Weekend, would not end well for us. We had the option of going to Barcelona for a mere 144 euros...one way. We passed on that option quickly and needed a new game plan. We decided we would rent a car and drive to Lisbon for the weekend...we were soon told that you needed to be 25 to rent a car. We had stuck out everywhere. We headed back to Sevilla to go to the bus station to see what it had to offer us. We ended up getting a bus ticket to this beachy town in the south of Spain called Matalascanas. We had no idea what to expect but we were off. 

We got off the bus and were instantly floored at the amount of elderly people we saw. What had we just gotten ourselves into. We knew we needed to find somewhere to stay for the weekend. We ran into this nice train driver who suggested we stay with this women who had 8 rooms in her house. We went there and it was so nice and cheap. We changed and headed right for the beach. Thinking it is only February, I stupidly thought there was no possible way I could get a sunburn. Three hours and a perfect bow imprint on my back later, I realized this was so not the case. We were all a little crispy to say the least. After the beach we went back to take a nap before heading out to dinner. Along the way we realized that it was opening weekend which helped us understand the lack of people that were there when we first arrived. 

Saturday was filled with more hours at the beach but this time dousing myself in my usual SPF 85 (seriously). We made a little picnic and attempted to frolic in the freezing Atlantic. It is crazy to think that it is the same water we bravely try and master in Wellfleet. After that we went on this amazing two hour horseback riding adventure along the sand dunes and beach. Horseback riding with a wicked sunburn on your calves and back is not for the weak. But then again my little retard horse Niebla wasn't helping my situation at all either. He loved to stop and graze on flowers and take his sweet time going anywhere, but then randomly decided to gallop at the most inopportune moments, like going down steep hills and what not. After the horseback riding adventure we were walking back into town and we ran into like 10 APIers. They were equally as surprised to see us as we were to see them. 

For dinner on our last night there, we went to this amazing seafood place and basically ordered blindly since we could barely understand the menu. We had this great appetizer dish of clams and mussels. Dinner consisted of a mix of shrimp, mushrooms and ham in a wine sauce. Sooo yummy. All in all we had a successful weekend. It wasn't what we has expected but then again what can you expect to do when you have no plans :)