I had never realised that there could be so much charm in the day without ever planing it. That there were places to go, things we’d never seen or done, never experienced and yet weren’t on any vacation apps or google recommendations we had scoured.

Of course non of this was because I decided on a whim to be carefree today. The day was already set in my head and the day plan and routes were on my phone for reference, for my friends and I with regard to anything that could go wrong. The morning began when we stepped out of the caravan for coffee at a local cafe, leaving behind our temporary home parked in front of a serene view of the beach. Except, when we came back we couldn’t open it. Our trio tested the handle one by one, pulling and shoving it but it wouldn’t budge. All our belongings were inside. We were stranded without our phones and all the information of their trip and navigation apps. Our phones left inside due to Kiki’s suggestion of ‘being present and living in the moment’. Only our wallets in our hand and half drunk coffees in the other.

It was my worst nightmare. All the dedication and hours spent planning and finding cheaper alternatives and places worth sight seeing, all went down the drain. Suddenly my resolve was broken and my two loyal best friends had to talk me out of a near breakdown; after they had gotten over their own dismay first.

Whatever the plan and been the new next thing on the itinerary was scouring for assistance, to make a phone call to…somone who opens vehicles for people who lock themselves out? A locksmith, we discovered after a quick google search on a very kind stranger’s phone. With a locksmith called and coming at two, all we could do now was wait. We had plenty of time to wait.

“I don’t even remember where we were meant to go now” I said after we carried out our on the spot emergency plan.

“Here’s a wild idea, we see what the day brings”, Kiki replied in a tone that was half wonder and half mocking me for being dramatic.

“If only you didn’t speak like a vague grandma, then maybe I’d-“

“We walk! We go and keep walking and see whatever is here. Here.” She emphasised.

“Eh why not”, Ameera joins in nonchalantly, like she was about everything when we planned the trip. Which drove me insane.

So we walked. Following the path surround the beach we began our trek to somewhere…

But, it was nice, the air, their company and the nice conversations in between. The real turn of our day happened when we decided to venture into the inner streets of the town. Walking by restaurants, kebab shops, sweet shops; this town really loves food. When I spotted the discount variety stores we stepped inside and may have spent some money on a few silly things. I bought a bubble wand, which I haven’t had since I was a kid. But, the secound time we passed a discount store, Kiki and Ameera had threatened to physically restrain me from going inside. Farewell, my dear dollar stores.

Travelling futher and further into the streets, it hit us that we may be lost on our way back from the number of turns we took. Initially, we kept repeating things we had past and the direction we had turned to remeber the path back, but our memory had soon lost track.

“Wait! Let’s check this out”, Ameera broke our now lazy walk, with unexpected enthusiasm.

We enetered the store, or at least it looked like one. There were bright paintings on the white walls and tables of paints and brushes neatly organised. It turned out to be a ‘paint and sip studio’ which none of us had ever heard about before and it certainly wasn’t amongst the parks and beaches google had reccomended we see here. The lady at the desk gave us a tour of all the supplies we could use and where we would paint and suddenly we were painting together. In a street which’s name I couldn’t recall on a sunny Tuesday.

It brought me back to visual arts lessons in highschool and we tried to think of something to paint based on what we had learnt. Between the three of us, we didn’t recall much and so what better way to drive home the spontaneity of today then by painting without sketching or thinking too much about it.

After an hour, I had drawn a farm, Kiki the beach and and Ameera…it was very abstract but I loved the purple and grey colour palette she had chosen. When we were done and revealed the canvas to eachother of the completed paintings, we laughed at the mess we made. Our paintings didn’t look like what we had invsioned but even though nothing was going according to plan today, it was absolutely perfect.