Ibiza - August Bank Holiday Weekend 2007

Friday

Ducked out of work around 2 (not that hard when you’re working from home ;-) ), and headed out to the airport. We had a connecting flight via Barcelona on the way down. A 45 min connection time combined with the inevitable delay getting out of Heathrow had Jen and I cutting to the front of passport control queue and then SPRINTING the entire length of the Barcelona airport in order to the make the flight.

Still – not as bad as the other 2. They had a direct flight from Gatwick that virtually assured them of arriving ahead of us (along with much ridicule the week before for us having booked a non-direct flight), but their flight became severely delayed and they ended up getting into Ibiza just a bit after us. (2 beers after to be exact, but who’s counting?)

The same could not be said of our luggage. But, since we didn’t feel like waiting around for the next flight in, we decided to write it off for the night and headed out to find our apartment. We were staying in an apartment building in Playa den Bossa. Our apartment was a plain place which seemed to be full of german and italian tours and not exactly in the centre of things. But, whatever, it would do, and considering we'd only booked it a couple weeks before, we're not complaining. It was right on the water, and when we got there the wind was HOWLING off the water.

Friday night was pretty tame. Well, if you can consider a litre of vodka and small corner store’s worth of red-bull tame. We finally thought it would be a good idea to head out around 3. We quickly realized that if we were to do anything beyond staggering around drunk for most of the night, it would have to be to a club. As we weren’t quite in clubbing shape, we staggered around for a bit and then headed home - although not before paying 50€ for four dodgy drinks. Got back to apartment around 6, had a night cap and went to bed.

Saturday
Saturday dawned with some more howling wind and even a little rain. Not feeling too chipper form the antics the night before, we were a bit slow to get moving. Nevertheless, we did end up getting out of the apartment. We go out to the airport anyway to pick up our missing luggage.

We decided to head over to San Antonio to check it out. It didn't take long for our suspicions to be realized - that we had just walked into an English ghetto. One road had nothing but pubs, football and drunk northerners. I had entertained thoughts of watching the Arsenal game, but didn't fancy hanging around there for too long. We instead found a café by the beach a few doors down from Café Del Mar and had a few beers and the waterside. Cafe Del Mar wasn't open until 5, so missed out on that.

We headed back to the apartment and crashed out for a bit. Clive and Jen went over to Bora Bora - which has a bar right on the beach. They texted after they'd been there for a bit and persuaded Ashok and I to go join them. It was pretty hopping with the main area being closed in by a fence, but there were a good couple of hundred people out on the beach, drinking from their own cans brought from the store. Very cool.

After a quick stop home, we headed into Ibiza town to eat. Found a great tapas restaurant and got re-introduced to alliolli - the Spanish garlic sauce, Mmmm Mmmm. We did have big plans to head out tonight, but decided in the end to call it a night at around 2. We justified ourselves by saying TOMORROW we'd go clubbing.

Sunday
Sunday dawned bright and Sunny. Perfect day to go to a club. I must admit I had my doubts about heading to Space and spending the day clubbing, but off we went. Tried to blag our way in at the door (60 euros!) but got turned down with a scornful look from the ticket girl ("We JUST opened"). We ended up getting single entry tickets down the road for 30 euros. Much more reasonable.

Headed into the main room first, and then when that closed down - headed out to the terrace. It was hot outside, but they had massive fans cooling everyone off. Music and crowd were great with everyone going hard. There were a few people that looked like they had been going all night (OK quite a few) but on the whole the crowed wasn't that sketchy for a Sunday afternoon. Maybe some had done the same as us middle aged clubbers, and had a good sleep the night before coming out.

We ended up leaving around 4 or so as we were starting to get hungry. We headed into Ibiza town and after hiking up to old town, ended up back in town and hit a restaurant for lunch. The plan was then to find the "secret" bar that Ashok's friend had written out directions to. It took a bit (like an hour) to get the directions to correlate to where we actually where, but once we did we found the windy, potholed road out to the cafe. This place was AMAZING. Some nice chill-out music playing (including a live saxophone) and huge comfy chairs and sofas that were all positioned to catch the sunset. We spent a couple of blissful hours there having a drink and watching the sunset. It was definitely time to leave when millions of mosquitoes seemed to appear instantly and start feeding on us.

Back home for a quick nap (for me), and a shower and we're off to a restaurant that Jen had a recommendation for.

The Bambuddha Grove was another exceptional find. Great food and a very cool atmosphere. We got there for dinner at 11, and the place was hopping.

After dinner we headed over to St. Antonio and to Eden. Not before getting stopped and my having to do a breathalyzer. I had decided earlier in the night that I wasn't going to drink so had only had a glass or 2 of wine at dinner, so no problem. There was the slight matter of my driving license having expired a couple of weeks ago, but they didn't ask to see it. whew. :-)


Then went to Judgment Sunday at Eden, which actually ended up being quite good. It mostly like being in a big club in England. Danced non-stop to Randy Katana in the main room - he was wicked. Ended up staying right til the end when the music abruptly stopped at around 6:30. Got home and in bed (well me anyway) by 7.

Monday
I slept, but the others headed to DC10 and the after party that was there. They came back after a couple of hours though saying that the club was dark and a bit sketchy, and they didn't feel like waiting around for the outside terrace to open. Sounds like a good choice. Instead, we spent the rest of the day hanging out by the pool and drinking the rest of the increasingly warm beer that we had left over.

At 3 Jen and I went to the airport and commenced what is now our usual Weekend Break 9 hour journey home.