Wow! So a looong delay since my last entry, but I'll do my best to recall the majestic events of the trip to Ibiza that Dagmara won as part of her prize for winning the Queen of Poland beauty pageant. We flew out of Warsaw on the 9th and arrived in the afternoon to a round of applause from all the Polish passengers. Apparently the pilots did a good job not crashing….either that or everyone on the plane was half in the bag by that point, pregaming for a week-long party.
(A quick background on Ibiza might clear a few things up for those of you unfamiliar with the island: it is considered to be the party capital of Europe. It's a sort of coming of age journey for many Europeans, especially Brits. The island is known for its drugs and clubs, which is sad because most people who visit never see all the beautiful things the island has to offer.)
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| View of Platja d'en Bossa from our hotel Syrenis Goleta |
Dagmara and I took a little different approach to the week, and probably had a better time than most. I was pretty excited when we arrived at our all-inclusive 4 star hotel. It wasn't perfect, but it was way better than most hotels I've stayed in. The view was pretty nice, the food was good (I gained around 8 pounds I think), and the drinks were free. The hotel was located on Platja d'en Bossa, which is probably definitely the ugliest beach on the entire island by far….needless to say, Dagmara and I were beginning to question our vacation destination choice as we walked along the beach that first night, exploring our surroundings.
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| Platja d'en Bossa |
Ibiza is home to some of the biggest and most famous clubs in the world: Space, Pacha, Eden, Privilege, and Amnesia to name a few. I mentioned before that a lot of young Brits vacation here, but being a Spanish island, there are at least as many Spaniards, which meant I got a chance to practice my Spanish again, a welcome change to always taking a backseat to Dagmara in public interactions in Poland J. Of course as soon as they hear my accent most people begin to speak English, but an easy way around that is to pretend you don't speak English, which was pretty easy being with a Polish girl.
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| Pacha |
Our first full day we just took it easy, relaxing and enjoying the resort. The 2nd full day, we did more of the same, until the evening when we went to our first and only club. David Guetta, the techno/house music superstar, has a show (Hug* Me, I'm Famous!) every Thursday at the club Pacha. Entrance was ridiculously expensive, but we're both fans of his music, so we decided to go. We showed up at 11pm to make sure we would get tickets. The atmosphere was crazy, the club interior was like nothing I'd ever seen. The music was not that great, however. After a few hours, the place was packed, shoulder to shoulder, impossible to even get into the main room of the club where the DJs were performing (they had big video screens in each room of the DJs). There are always a few DJs that play before the main guy comes on, but we did not anticipate that David Guetta would wait until 4 AM to start spinning. His music was so much better than the guys before him, but at that point Dagmara and I were pretty exhausted. We stayed for half an hour and called it a night. I think I understand now why so many people do drugs in those clubs—for us drug-free folk (besides alcohol), it is impossible to dance past 4:30 am, and the fun starts to disappear after 2:30 anyways. I believe the club closed at 7am, maybe I'm getting old, but there's no way I could have made it that long.
The next day, we took it easy and slept in, of course. In the evening, we went to a quiet bar and played a little pool and called it a night because we were about to make the best decision of the trip early the next morning: renting a car.
Now, there is public transportation in Ibiza, but it only has regular service to the so-called tourist hot spots and clubs. With a car, you can get to the best, most secluded beaches and cliffs. Our first destination was the Saturday morning Hippy Market. A quick note about renting cars in Europe: they are all manuals. I had driven a manual before, but it was probably 7 years ago in Webster (ie no traffic, hills, or stoplights) when Matt let me try his manual out for fun. I was a bit nervous, because Ibiza has all of the aforementioned things, including numerous roundabouts. I was told that one of the biggest tests to driving a manual is on a steep uphill where you balance the clutch and the gas to keep the car still. I basically was forced to do this for one hour in terrible traffic on the way to the Market. Ironically the only place I killed it was at a traffic light on flat ground with no traffic.
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| Cala San Vicente |
The Market was interesting, but expensive. I only purchased a sweet pair of earrings, but Dagmara got a lot of cool stuff, including a leather/alligator purse. After the market, we just drove. We stumbled upon the most beautiful beach I've ever seen, Cala San Vicente. It appeared between the trees as twisted and turned on a very fun and dangerous road on the rocky coast of the island, bright blue and turquoise. We decided to keep driving and come back another day. We had heard that another beach, Portinatx, was supposed to be really beautiful. It was nice, but not as good as San Vicente. Being fairly remote and inaccessible, Portinatx is more of a family resort area. That being said, the beach was borderline nude with middle-aged people, which left Dagmara and I a bit uncomfortable.
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| Port de Sant Miquel |
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| 2 star-crossed lovers |
Our last planned stop of the day was Port de Sant Miquel, where we hoped to see their famous caves. We arrived maybe 20 minutes too late, the last tour of the day had just left. The trip wasn't a complete waste, however. The caves are located at the top of a cliff overlooking a beautiful bay. We ended the day going for dinner in Sant Antoni, one of the bigger cities on the island, opposite Ibiza Town.
The next day we got an even earlier start (11am) and took the car towards what people had been telling us was the best beach on the island: Cala d'Hort. We never quite made it there, but we did make it somewhere better—Torre del Pirata (The Pirate's Tower). The southern coast of Ibiza offers beautiful views, and we couldn't resist the temptation to hike to Torre del Pirata, which overlooks the beautiful small mountain island of Es Vedra. The hike wasn't the easiest, especially with sandals, but we made it. The view was amazing. We could see half the island, including Cala d'Hort, which didn't look as impressive as San Vicente. You get the best view of Es Vedra and below, you can see the rock that was carved to make the tower, along with water so clear you can see the shadows of the yachts on the ocean floor. If you ever make it to Ibiza, take the time to go to Torre del Pirata.
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| Dagusia with Es Vedra in the background, on top of Torre del Pirata |
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| View from Torre del Pirata |
After that, we went to San Vicente to relax on the beach for a while, then toured the northwestern coast of the island, a largely ignored area due to its remoteness (by this point I was a pro at the manual). We basically had no clue where we were going, so I can't tell you the names of the beaches/cliffs we saw, but it was very beautiful. We also got a good look at the interior of the island, which is full of olive and grape plantations.
That night, we had heard about a free rock concert from one of the locals, so we went to check it out. The band was "Barón Rojo", or Red Baron, one of Spain's biggest rock bands from the 80s. It was pretty fun. They were selling lots of beer and a little food during the concert, which took place inside a school playground. The most interesting part of the evening was a young mother with her THREE YEAR OLD son. She was breastfeeding him in the middle of the crowd while simultaneously rocking out to the music.
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| Sunset at Cafe Del Mar |
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| View from Ibiza Fort |
The next day we went to an okay beach close to our hotel, Ses Salines. It was veeeeery crowded and extremely hot. That evening we drove to Sant Antoni to catch the sunset made famous by the painter José Padilla at the Café Del Mar Restaurant. It was beautiful but definitely not romantic as there were several thousand tourists packed into a very tiny area. Highly overrated experience. After the sunset, we finally toured the historical Ibiza town. There is a castle/fort located on the bay, so we decided to climb it. The view at night was incredible, but the climb up was also long and cobblestoned.
After we got back to the car and were driving home, we witnessed another awesome spectacle. The streets of the island are very narrow and include a lot of one ways. We were on one such one way and had to wait for some idiot to parallel park in a space that was half the size of his car. His approach was as good as any for a 6 foot space. His rear bumper gently hit the bumper of the rear car already parked, and he apparently realized that he wasn't going to fit. He moved a little forward and I thought the ordeal was over, then he went backwards even faster and hit the car harder. Still not realizing he was hitting the car, he proceeded to try and push the car backwards, really putting on the gas. That didn't work, so he went forward again. Then he went back and rammed the car one last time, moving the car backwards maybe half a foot. After hearing the crunch of the car, I think he finally figured out that he just wasn't going to fit.
And that was our last night in Ibiza. Overall, a fun trip, but if you ever go, I definitely recommend renting a car, because the best places on the island are hard to get to. Also, pace yourself. Half the passengers on our plane back to Poland looked pretty hung over…
