The day started off very early, with a 5am taxi ride to the airport. I might have been able to make it on public transport, but didn't want to take the risk. The journey was a slightly interesting route, about twice as long than as the crow flies, but I guess the driver knew what he was doing as we got to Gatwick in time. Only when I got there did I realise that the little train that links the two terminals is being rennovated, so using the train (which stops at the South Terminal) to get to the North Terminal, would have been even tighter for time.
Anyway check in and security were pretty handy, and after a quick breakfast stop, I reached the gate. There I realised that my first trip on Easyjet would not be the same as other fights. There were at least 2 hen and 3 stag parties on board. I was fairly sure I was in the oldest 10% of passengers. Even on the bus out to the plane (which drove for more than 10 minutes, it felt like we were driving to Tenerife) the blokes were already trying to chat up the girls. Once we got onto the plane I got a decent seat, although I did wonder about the people who paid for priority boarding, because it seemed like all that did was get them on the bus first, not the plane.
Once we took off it was a fairly OK flight, except for the amount of drink taken. Now remember this is a 7am flight, and yet more drink was drunk on that plane than most nights in Gibney's in Malahide. The cabin crew couldn't keep up, and ended up just serving from the front like a bar. I was a bit worried when the seatbelt signs came on for turbulence towards the end and the crew didn't seem to bother getting people back in their places. I don't care if one of them gets injured, but they could quite easily hit someone in their seats. Anyway eventually the crew must have made their bonuses for selling alcohol, as they tried, and almost failed, to get them to sit down. Seriously airlines cannot complain about passenger behaviour when they serve so much booze.
Anyway once in Tenerife, and with only carry on baggage, I was out and to the taxi rank fairly quickly. I got a taxi to the hotel, although the bus seemed a reasonable option, as I wanted to send texts to the family to see where they were. Before I could though, I got one from mum, asking how things were in London. I answered they were fine, for all I knew it was. But I didn't say I wasn't there. Anyway the text didn't raise suspicions so I was able to get to the hotel and check in. There was a nervous 15 minutes in reception hoping nobody walked past, but I was able to get into my room and changed without anyone seeing me.
Once sorted I headed out to find the family. I decided to head for the big pool, which was down about 10 flights of steps. It turns out the hotel was built on the side of a mountain. I got to the bottom, and lo and behold there were Ian, my brother in law, and Paul, Clare's boyfriend, sunning themselves. So I jumped out and said "where are the beers". They were a little startled by the nutter jumping out, and took a couple of seconds to work out who it was (my hat and sunglasses were a good disguise). But they recovered quickly and were suitably impressed with my slight of hand.
After that we planned how to sneak up on the parents sitting up in the shade. In the end we decided the simple thing was to just have me walk up behind them. So we did, and although I didn't jump out this time, there was still a few minutes shock. Although dad was a bit less surprised than he should have been, I think he had a sneaking suspicion I'd be turning up.
So all that was left were my sisters. They were off at the shops, so we decided I'd hide before they got back, but I wasn't quick enough when they got there but they were still suitably surprised. However again it wore off very quickly. I guess in this day of cheap air travel flying 4 hours unannouced someone just isn't as surprising any more.
After that it was on with the holiday. As an all inclusive there was plenty of food and drink, but of course I wanted to head out and walk. So the lads headed out to organise a boat trip for the next day, and a few pints. These pints were dirt cheap, 1 euro, which was so cool, even though the beer was free in the hotel. Which of course was where we had dinner and more drinks later. You can see a pattern when it comes to all inclusive hotels.
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