One of the best impulsive decisions of the year so far. Ahmed and I hadn’t had a “date day” in months, so when I saw that there was an opportunity for an ‘extreme day trip’ to Spain, I had to welcome it with open arms. We don’t have a ‘village’ to raise our children as both our parents live far. However, my parents were visiting this weekend and I had to maximise having child care and decided to book flights to Spain to have a ‘date day in Alicante’!

What an eventful day it was from start to finish. Everything went smooth sailing in the morning, from parking the car to going through security. Once we sat on our allocated seats and buckled up, I was excited that within a few hours I’d be soaking up the sun… until I heard some chaos coming from the front of the plane. I looked up and realised there was some arguing and shouting as a female was being escorted off the plane! Everyone, as expected was trying to figure out what was happening. We didn’t have to figure out for too long as Ahmed was sitting at the front and I text him to see what was going on. In his texts, he explained that a drunk couple got into a fight and were swearing at one another despite being told to calm down a few times. This led to almost two hours of delay as we had to wait for the police to take them away!

As I got off the plane, I realised Ahmed had already gone to queue up without me.. Great date day you say, you’re not kidding (yes, I am being passive aggressive). I ended up waiting in the queue for over 30 minutes. This was kind of a crazy experience for me as I was the ONLY person of colour and the only person wearing a hijab. Not going to lie, I felt on edge and apprehensive as this was the first time I really felt ‘different’. The machines took forever at security and I cannot help but wonder if it’s because I look completely different to my passport photos. In my passport photo, my hair is down and I am not wearing glasses. Whereas now I usually rock glasses and a hijab.

Now that my stories are out of the way (for now), let’s get to the things to do. As soon as you get out of the airport, grab the bus on the right hand side called C6 and it takes you directly into old Alicante which is where we wanted to be.

We got off at the marina and this is how our day went!

• Walk through the marina
• Then a casual stroll through Passeig Esplanada d’Espanya admiring the beautiful floor/tiles
• We then headed over to the infamous “mushroom street” which is pretty cute and unusual
• Our next stop was Barrio De Santa Cruz where you see the most gorgeous homes, decorated with beautiful tiles and colourful pots hanging around. At this point I wish I had listened to my gut and stopped for a drink but I didn’t
• We ended up climbing to Castell de Santa Bàrbera which is a bit of a hike! You can get a lift from near the marina but since we were already enroute we decided to keep going. Once at the top they have a lovely Cafe with panoramic views, icecreams etc. We sat down and sipped on cold drinks and enjoyed an ice cream.
• We then walked down and walked aimlessly for a few minutes before sitting down for some Spanish cuisine.

Yep, time for another story. As I went to sat down the waiter asked “where are you from”. This question always gets me, do you mean the place I live or my heritage? Anyways, long story short he told me he was from Kashmir. Of course the second he said Kashmir, my heart skipped and I asked “where exactly from in Kashmir?”. When he replied “Mirpur” I couldn’t believe it. How are we meeting someone from Kashmir in the middle of Alicante! We carried on talking and he told me about the village he was from. UNBELIEVABLE, it’s a neighbouring village of ours and this guy used to play volleyball with an uncle of mine. I mean, what are the chances?! He knows all my family members and neither of us could get over this beautiful connection! The world really is small.

• Of course we opted for some tapas and paella!

Post food, we decided to stroll around the beach to burn off some calories and digest all the carbs we consumed. It’s such a lovely beach and has a small play area for kids. I really missed the kids at this point as I was full of guilt that we came without them – I was soon reminded it was a good decision as I heard some kids screaming in the background! If we do bring the kids next time, it would definitely need to be an overnight trip so they can really enjoy the beach and their surroundings.

After the stroll, we were really quite tired. We had walked over 20,000 steps and had been up since 3am. We went back to a Cafe we had come across at the beginning of the day called “Santagloria”. It was honestly the most relaxing and chilled couple of hours. We ordered coffees, fresh orange juice and a range of desserts to share. We people watched, read our books and took it all in.

We grabbed the C6 which took us straight to the airport. The airport experience was a breeze Alhamdulillah. We went straight through without any hassle or drama.

As we were boarding the plane, I noticed a family with four young kids and lots of bags. We were flying with RyanAir, who have a reputation of being super strict with the size of the luggage. The staff members made this couple unpack and pack multiple times and told them they needed to pay. I don’t know if I was overtired or over emotional but I found that so difficult to witness and felt a sense of helplessness. I tried to interject and support them with the packing, but they had too much luggage and ended up waiting till the end to speak to staff. Note to self, either pay for luggage or pack lightly.

While we were waiting, a guy came along in a wheel chair and I noticed he had two prosthetic legs. His hoody said “I’m really tired but I’m trying to be really brave about it”. I don’t know, I guess this is one of my favourite things about traveling. It humbles you and makes you realise how everyone “does life differently” and is tested differently too.