Chill, you're in Mallorca

Our destination was the North of the island, a small, mainly residential part of Alcudia called Alcanada. We had booked a week all inclusive in a hotel there because we were in major need (*salutes major need* - HIMYM has a lot to answer for) of some rest and relaxation. Trouble is, when we got there, we'd forgotten how to relax... even with a pillow view like this...

It was 5am, my very kind mother-in-law took me and Norngirl to Belfast International Airport where we got in a queue. We'd booked the holiday through a travel agents for the first time in a long time (as it proved to be a cheap yet easier alternative when the transfer is included). This turned out to be a bit of a confusing situation at such an early hour in the morning, especially after an evening drowning our sorrows from the cup final loss with Guinness and Wine.

The thing being we're used to our self reliance when it comes to travel - with booking everything yourself and working out all the ins and outs and making sure everything is printed you get in the right mindset. With just a print out everything seems too simple... and so it proved to be as we realised we only had a print out of the reservation from the time of the booking and not the details of the booking references that came in an email a couple of weeks before the day. These days though we have technology on our side and although we didn't have a print out with the references, after a quick attempt on Norngirls android phone (whose reception was messed around with by the check in hall) followed by a quick check on the web (once I'd remembered by email password) we had all our booking references for the transfer and what not too. On this occasion, apart from being helpful, the booking references were not really needed, it seemed that most things were just done by name. After the slightly precarious start to the trip we were kind of expecting things to go wrong, but nothing else did, in fact it was surprisingly all comfortable and easy going, but we didn't know that at the time and as easy going as it was there was always that thought at the back of my mind.

We flew into Palma airport and although late for the transfer on paper (due to apron vehicle jenga puzzel that was funnily commentated on by our friendly sarcastic air steward) we were put on another 3/4 empty coach and were the first to be dropped off at our hotel.

Quickly checked into our room,everything was better than we'd expected, our room was spacious and had an excellent view. Everything worked. The closest we came to a problem was taking a few minutes to find the bathroom light switch.

Instead of problems, Mallorca was turning out to be better than I'd expected. I have to admit, I was slightly worried that Mallorca might be like the images of boozy brits in Magalluf you see on TV shows or that we could end up in some Benidorm like place, but it turned out a holiday in Mallorca can be, well, nice.

We had arrived mid afternoon and so had a snack at the hotel bar before heading for a walk to the end of the bay to get a grip on where we were other than what we'd seen on Google Earth.

Later on the evening meal was the biggest all you can eat buffet I think I've ever been to and the quality of food was excellent too.

Sadly, I hadn't managed to relax - it'd been such a long period of time since we last had any proper down time that it was becoming obvious I'd forgotten how to chill out properly.

In the evening we took in the hotels evening entertainment which was a game of tri-lingual bingo, it was a small group taking part but it made for excellent instant bar service. We had fun but the early morning was catching up with us and before the bar had closed we took a night cap up to our room. Turns out, the first stage of recovery towards re-finding the ability to chill out is in fact to take a break... who knew!