Oleada's VirtualTourist Home Page

My first holiday memory is now one born from a photograph that I’m sure is probably crinkled and laying around in the loft of my parent’s home. A typical late 1980’s package holiday to a Spanish island. Tenerife or Ibiza, I believe. I suppose it represents the dream of a young family of five, children all under seven, on an adventure to somewhere other than home. They show happy smiling faces, and the photographs fifteen years later present the same content and fortunate expressions.

The second memory is some years later, aged eleven. You could say that it was one of my first major turning points in becoming who I am today. Never a great fan of laying around in the sun, I walked into reception and sat learning basic Spanish words from the Airtours information folder. Many years and countries visited later, I am about to embark on my most exciting and daunting year. Living and working in Spain as part of my University degree, finally reaching a level of fluency in the language and culture that grabbed me more than a decade ago.