April 1st arrives.....could anything go wrong now?

The week leading up to my departing for Spain was a lovely week. Lunches with friends, visits with friends, work colleagues and family, meals out in the evening it was a lovely wind down to my departure on April 1st. It was quite touching to find out just how many people would miss me when I departed to begin my new life in Spain with Stuart.


My flight had originally been booked with Ryanair to fly from Liverpool to Almeria. I would normally not give them business but the flight presented a convenient time of arrival which Stuart was able to match up to pretty well flying in from Tucson in Arizona. I had been scheduled to arrive at 12.25pm and Stuart found flights that would arrive within an hour of my arrival! This would have made for a very smooth start to our arrival in Spain. Of course things could not go as smoothly as that surely? Initially Stuart's flight was adjusted slightly but he was still arriving within an hour or so of my protected arrival time. Then about 4 weeks before I was due to fly I heard very credible rumours that Ryanair had announced in the Spanish press that they were going to pull the route if thee Almeria tourist board did not stump up 200,000 Euros to help fund advertising for the route. Now call me naive but I would have thought it sensible business practice to iron all of this out before offering flights for sale and taking people's money and sitting on it for over 3 months earning yourselves interest on other people's money. Not that I am infering Ryanair are crooked or anything, but it seems like a nice way to increase bank balances and operating profit without actually doing anything other than announcing something and a bit of HTML editing on their website! So once I learned this was actually happening we frantically began looking into alternatives so I could still arrive on the same day at a reasonable time to meet up in Almeria. 


Ironically the best option turned out to be the closest in terms of departure but not for arriving in Spain. I found there was an early flight from Blackpool International Airport to Alicante in Spain on April 1st with budget carrier Jet2. The only problem was Alicante is a 173 mile drive from Almeria Airport. To this end as well as a flight I had to book a hire car to get me down to meet Stuart. I didn't think this would be a problem as I have driven a lot now in Spain and felt comfortable at the prospect.


I went to bed early on the Saturday night hoping to get a good nights sleep ahead of waking up at 4.30am to get to the airport on time. Now at the time I had no way of knowing why but I woke at 1.30am and kept dozing off a little but waking up with mild stomach rumblings which I took to be nerves as I was excited at the prospects before us! When I got up at 4.30 I got myself to the toilet as one does when one first arises then came back downstairs and immediately began to feel rather nauseous. I was still convinced nerves were coming into play here but after taking a drink of water to try and settle my stomach it became obvious that this was rather more serious. I had to quickly revisit the bathroom whereupon I was physically sick. I declined any food or drink at this point, prefering to try and settle my self down prior to flying. My friends Dave & Vinny were taking me to the airport and they saw me through the check in proceedures and I went into the departure area to wait for my flight. Once I got in there I thought I might feel up to eating something but I began to sweat and feel rather faint at this point. I began to think I might not even have the strength in my legs to make it up the airplane's steps I was feeling so dizzy and weak at this point. I was panicking as I now had no way of letting Stuart know if I had been unable to make the flight. I was really worried. I made myself get on the flight and sat there was quiet as possible sweating profusely and still feeling dizzy and nauseous. Thankfully I had nothing in my stomach for me to expel but I realised I needed to hydrate myself so I got some water and some fresh orange juice to try and make myself feel a bit better. I still sat there trying to sleep through the flight and I thought I was doing quite well until the other end of my body began to grumble! TMI I know but you have to realise that plane toilets are not the best places to get ill like this! Anyway the needed deed was taken care of and I sat quietly again waiting for the plane to make it's approach to Alicante and the next stage of my ordeal!


Once I landed I collected my luggage and made my way to pick up my hire car to drive down to Almeria Airport. I felt confident of the drive as I had also got a TomTom Sat Nav to help me find my way. Before I set off from Alicante airport I had to visit the toilet two more times and I kept thinking how thankful I was that the A7 motorway was so well blessed with service areas in case I needed to visit facilities on the journey down to Almeria. I stopped about 50 miles down the motorway again and when I came back to the car the GPS had lost contact with satalites and couldn't get a fix and offer me route assitance! I was thinking jeez what else could go wrong on this journey and why was it all happening to me! Thankfully I was confident of the route as it was a straightforward journey down the A7 towards Almeria so I kept calm and kept driving! I eventually pulled into Almeria Airport's car park at around 15.40 and left all my luggage in the car locked up safely and went into the arrivals hall the seek out Stuart! Stuart's initial happiness to see me rapidily turned to concern when he saw my pale drawn face and the fact that I was walking like I had been kicked in the stomach! I had to go to the toilet on arrival again and Stuart suggested we go to the cafe area as I told him I had not eaten a thing all day due to my condition. I had a simple sandwich and some milk to put something into my stomach. We got our car swapped over and set off to our hotel for the evening Husa Gran Fama in Almeria City. We had originally decided to revisit there on our first night like we had back in October as we loved the hotel and we had found an amazing Tapas Bar with lovely food nearby. I went for a bath after relaxing for a while thinking I had turned a corner looking forward to the prospect ofr enjoying some excellent Tapas that evening. Sadly it was not to be as the clock rapidly turned back to my stomach issues of that morning and I was ill all over again. Stuart was a brick, bring into play some of his medical background and he went off to the Farmacia to try and get something to help me. He duly returned with supplies and I was dosed up but still not feeling well I said he should go out to eat and I would stay quiet in bed. So much for the romantic return to Almeria we had both been hoping for!