Tash's Blog: PortAventura

A bit of a contrast from my last blog!!!

Having lived just down the road for nearly three years we have finally been to PortAventura. I’d heard so much about it from my students, with stories of both amazing rides and colossal queues, that I was both looking forward to and dreading the trip. I’ve never been to a “proper” theme park either and the couple of rides I went on as a child wouldn’t have made it into the kids section here! During the school holidays in June was perhaps not the best time to go either, but we’d been given a free ticket so braced ourselves for the crowds and took the plunge...

Well, the crowds certainly did not disappoint! We spent an incredible amount of time packed in with hundreds of sweaty people, most of which were smelly teenagers oozing body odour and/or alcohol. Great people watching though - it’s not often you see so many fashion victims, bad tattoos and sunburn all in one place!

Despite lasting less than a minute each a few seconds, the rides were pretty incredible. We started on DragonKhan (well, we actually spent an hour queuing for another which broke down but I’m trying to banish that waste of time from my mind!) which was a short sharp shock to the system!!! Upside down and loop the loop - very different to the Caterpillar rollercoaster at the West Midlands Safari Park 20 years ago!

The only ride I didn’t enjoy was “Hurakan Condor” a 100m tower from which you are dropped, and as the brochure says, “feel the speed of the theme park’s only free fall, but don’t panic, the God Hurakan will stop you from hitting the ground”. Well the views were stunning and the God Hurakan did stop us hitting the ground but what a horrible feeling as you drop!!! Horrible!!!!

The other rides and shows were brilliant though, all very different, some jerky and bone rattling and others such as Shambhala, the highest rollercoaster in Europe and brand new, were smooth and literally breathtaking!

Likewise, despite being a consumerist paradise with astronomically priced sugar and junk to tempt you around every corner, the park itself was an impressive place, much nicer than I’d imagined with loads of trees and gardens. Each area had its own theme which I thought was really well done. We went to a couple of shows too, seeing some cowboy action, acrobatics from shaolin “monks” and some incredible bubble making – I never thought you could fit a grown man inside a bubble!

But I really don’t think I’m cut out for theme parks, neither physically nor mentally. I still feel like I’m on a rollercoaster 24hrs later, but most of all I absolutely HATE queuing and being ripped off (5 euros for an ice cream?! No thanks). Give me a deserted mountain in the Aiguestortes anyday!

So, to sum up: a once in a lifetime experience – good fun for the novelty but I’ve got no desire to do it again!