Keep going on girls' weekends until you are very old
It took two years (corona is a bitch), but finally, I got into the car on Friday afternoon at half past five heading to The Hague. My favorite weekend began. With my three girlfriends, way too full suitcases, and a bottle of Moët in my handbag, off to the city behind the dunes.
With each extra cross on the calendar, the group chat buzzed just a little louder. Has anyone booked the hotel? Where are we going to eat? Who's making the reservation? Has the champagne for getting ready been picked up? Do we have a shopping list and what size suitcase is acceptable for two nights away? Looking forward to my girlfriends' weekend makes it even more fun than it already is.
Of course, we see each other in between, but this weekend is the enlarged version of our friendship. It’s safe, it’s familiar, and no one counts the dimples on your butt when you run from the bathroom to the bedroom. By being together non-stop for 44 hours, the conversations deepen, it’s fine if you don’t say anything for a while, and you have at least one fit of giggles every hour. I cried three times this weekend, and it was all from laughing. But with those girlfriends from the past, it’s not just about having fun, because you dare to say anything to them. Sometimes you have the deepest conversations just one minute after leaving. A nice bonus for girlfriends with children: sleeping in, drinking wine without limits, and showering, putting on makeup, and doing your hair without hearing ‘mamaaaaa’.
Going on a girlfriends' weekend is also the way to protect yourself against impulse buys. You get a brutally honest verdict on what fits, the condition is that you have to show everything. I was dubbed a forest ranger by putting on a padded green body warmer. The only thing we never think about is that everything and more has to come back. Problematic, because my best friend stuffed so much into a slightly too small suitcase at departure that her wife asked how many months she would be back.
It’s always so lovely to reminisce about the past. Two of the four still live on the island where we grew up together. So every year it’s a party to go over the ex-boyfriends from high school. Are they still with the childhood friend after you? How many kids do they leave the schoolyard with on a weekday? And do they celebrate their birthdays a bit cheerfully? It’s a matter of staying updated.
Do you need more reasons to go on a trip with your girlfriends until you’re wrinkled, gray, and nearsighted? I didn’t think so, so I have a few tips to make it a next-level girlfriends' weekend.
To do’s:
– Make goodie bags for your girlfriends. This is the plan I have every year, but that I never properly execute by the way. The bag should contain: a bottle of water, paracetamol, a piccolo of Moët, something sweet, something salty, and of course a handwritten card. (Loves, next year. I promise.)
– Open a savings account together, so you don’t have to look at anything at all. The money is there before you leave, everyone has enough to spend, and it can all go overboard. Our final balance was +14.95 euros, a good score.
– Immediately plan the next weekend. In 2023, we are going to Paris. A weekend in an apartment in Le Marais, laughing at each other’s poor French and eating croissants along the Seine. I’m already looking forward to it. Look, there you have that extended enjoyment again.
