The girls are back in town

It seems like a really long time since me and the girls went away. Actually, I just had to have a look through my photo albums to figure it out (Google Drive, not printed ones as I'm not that old) and it was Manchester, which was Feb 2020! So a year and a half later and we finally got away together again, this time for a mini summer holiday to Blackpool. It may not be the most exotic of destinations (especially since it rained for most of it) but wow did we have a good time.

After a good old trek up to the north seaside (we entertained ourselves by doing our makeup on the train and having a few tinnies), we arrived in Blackpool! It's hardly Dubai when it comes to hotel choices and having been to Blackpool countless times with my family, I was prepared to rough it a little. But actually, I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel we were staying in! The Seafront 419 was near to the South pier, and was really lovely and modern inside, from the bar area, to the bathroom. Although the bathroom was definitely style over substance, as the sink didn't drain properly, the extractor fan didn't work and we had an absolute nightmare trying to get the shower off the "scolding" setting. But the room itself was really nice with 2 double beds and 2 bunkbeds, plus a nice sea view! To say it was only £30 each per night, I'd definitely recommend it.

After "unpacking" (see also, dumping open suitcases on the bed), we headed out for a walk along the promenade in search of fish and chips. I mean, we didn't exactly have to search very hard, as there was approximately one fish and chip shop every 3 doors, but we ended up at a supposedly world famous one that didn't disappoint. And then it was time for drinks! Having seen a sign for the Bloom gin and prosecco bar at the start of the North pier, we had a wander down to check it out and were pretty impressed by what we found. It was very un-Blackpool but really nicely done, and we shared a martini tree (there was a whole funny story to go along with that - as was the case with most things from the weekend) before heading out into the garden section. There, we had a couple of bottles of prosecco and enjoyed the live music; a singer was doing a whole host of classics like Stevie Wonder and by halfway down the second bottle of prosecco, we were up dancing along!

Our trip coincided with big Katie getting a new job so it was cause for celebrations! After some more prosecco and tequila rose shots in the room, we were off. It was so hard to work out what to wear to go out in. Our daytime outfits seemed to be more dressy than anything anyone was wearing in the evening! I knew it wouldn't be a house-of-CB-dress type of place, but people were on nights out in adidas leggings. Needless to say, we'd all brought much dressier attire but a last-minute shoe swap from heels to flats helped us to blend in a little more. My playsuit is luckily a bit of a chameleon and can be as dressed up or dressed down as you make it so I was glad I'd substituted it for another option at the last minute while packing. Although to be honest, after enough drinks, you don't care if you're overdressed and where better to make sure you get enough drinks than in an Irish bar (all good party places have one). But the flats ended up being a wise choice on many counts, as they were playing all the dance hits like 5, 6, 7, 8 and cotton eye Joe and so me and Staci resumed our roles as lead dancers, having lead the troops on all the routines at our old house parties.

We had been woefully unorganised with this trip, despite first booking it when we were still in lockdown (so months ago) and we didn't have a single thing planned for while we were away! However when I woke up feeling pretty delicate on Saturday morning, I was kind of glad we didn't have a jam-packed schedule. But it was nothing a bit of seaside air and some food couldn't fix, so after some lunch at the pub, we went to book a trip up Blackpool tower. It actually all worked out really well; the next booking was an hour away so we killed the wait time with a walk around the arcade and a ride on a little monorail thing that we thought might be a bit more exciting than it was, before coming back to the tower and getting the lift up to the top. It was really good actually; you had a 4D cinema experience beforehand, and then there's a glass floor you can walk on, and then 3 or 4 more flights of stairs outside that you can climb up until you're over 400 feet high! Now that's what they call a sea view. Naturally we finished the day with donuts, although seaside treats are clearly moving up in the world as there was nothing bog standard about these ones. I mean, yes, we walked pretty much the length of the promenade to find the kinder bueno ones, but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. We had a serious case of eyes bigger than our bellies though and only managed about 2 donuts each, but it was still worth the trek.

We really wanted to do a show on Saturday night and after considering then dismissing a whole host of options (Dreamboys? Not showing on that date, Drag show? Only standing tickets left, Dirty Dancing? Too calm and quiet, Circus acrobatic show? Might be full of kids and families), we ended up at Viva Blackpool; a Vegas-themed cabaret show with lots of singing and dancing. They did all the classic musical numbers, plus some great singalong ones so it was good fun but just way too long for us. It was a 3 and a half hour show; I feel like it could've done with being like 2 hours. Which was approximately the amount of time we waited for our drinks, but we'll keep things on a positive note. People seemed to be a lot dressier on the Saturday night (seemingly the stag and hen do night) so we braved the heels and I wore my white mules with blue tailored shorts and white spotty mesh top (both shein). Not only did the heels finally get an outing, but they also got to dance! This weekend was the first time us lot have been out together since restrictions lifted so it was nice to finish the night with a boogie in Revolution.

In typical sod's law fashion, it was gloriously sunny on Sunday (the day we went home). But having been chucked out the hotel at 10:30 and our train home not being until 1:15, we had a little time to make the most of it by exploring the South pier. We hadn't bothered with Pleasure Beach while we were in Blackpool as Staci and little Katie don't really like rides, and me and big Katie had been before, but we did have a little taster by going on the crazy mouse! Honestly the funniest roller coaster, especially when you're getting spun around and whipped with eachother's hair as you go. We also did a bit of sweet shopping and naturally bought some rock to take home with us, because you can hardly go to the seaside and not get any can you? After that, it was a nice long 5 hour train journey home, which was filled with as many laughs, in-jokes and accidental hilarity as the rest of the weekend had been. It felt like no time had passed since our last girls trip and it was so good to all get away again!