Lounging on Ibiza

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This morning we had an early wake up as we had about a 5 hour drive down the coast to the town of Denia in order to catch our ferry over to Ibiza. It was quite sad to leave Barcelona. We were only here for 2 days and in these 2 days, the city became my favorite city in all of Europe. However, I was very much looking forward to 4 nights relaxing on an island in the middle of the Meditteranean. The ferry ride to Ibiza took about 5 hours and was pretty uneventful. When we first pulled into Ibiza harbor and looked out into the town from the upper deck of the ferry, I was amazed. It looked like such a gorgeous little town with a fortress on top of a hill guarding it. It's hard to imagine that this quaint looking island is known around the world for it's over the top party atmosphere. Since we were arriving in mid-May, much of the party scene has yet to hit full throttle. Nevertheless, there was much partying that was still to be had. We disembarked the ship and with our luggage in tow, we walked over to our accomodations for the next 4 nights. It was only about a 3 minute walk away. The El Puerto Hotel and Apartments was very centrally located, only a few minutes walk from the harbor and the main parts of Ibiza town. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I noticed a Mcdonalds and Burger King right there on the corner. Although the rooms weren't the greatest, the hotel's location more than made up for it. Our room was on the 4th floor overlooking a busy side street and looked directly down into a small grocery store. American fast food, a grocery store, and the main shops all within a few minutes walking distance. You can't beat that. After dinner at the hotel, Colin took us for an introductory drink at a bar in the Ibiza old town. After a free shot, a few beers, and a Pina Colada, Shea and I decided to call it a night. It had been a long day. There were still 3 other nights to hit up the Ibiza nightlife.

Since we had nothing planned the next day, that morning we decided to sleep in until about 10pm. This is practically unheard of on a Contiki tour. When we did decide to venture out, we really didn't have anything in mind to do. After getting breakfast, we decided to just take it easy and explore the nearby old town called Dalt Villa. We started off by hiking to the on the top of a hill overlooking Ibiza town. The hike wasn't too strenuous and once we got to the top, there were awesome views of Ibiza town and the Meditteranean Sea. I was looking southward out into the Meditteranean and it was hard to imagine that the north coast of Africa was somewhere beyond that horizon. Also, at the top of the fortress were quite a few cannons left over from the days when the fortress was the main protection of the island. After taking in the breathtaking views and refreshing breeze, we hiked back down the hill to explore the winding alleyways of the old town. We spent a few hours just aimlessly wandering the maze of alleyways. There were lots of hip clothing stores, art galleries, tacky souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, and cd stores selling the latest techno/rave hits that Ibiza nightlife is known for. I only purchased a few ceramic vases to take home as gifts while Shea had a field day with her shopping. Today was mostly just a relaxed slow paced kind of day. We had no real rush to see and do as much as possible. We just did some light exploration to kind of get our bearings. After exploring the old town, there wasn't really much else to do. For dinner, we settled on Burger King as we weren't really sure as to where to go. Since yesterday, everyone was talking about hitting up the Ibiza nightlife. There was even some talk of going to some water/foam party. We asked around but nobody seemed like they were in the mood to do much tonight. We still had 2 days here on Ibiza and were kind of wondering what else is there to do.

We woke up the next morning, with no idea as to what to do. It seems as if there was nothing much to do in Ibiza besides the famous nightlife. At breakfast we ran into Colin, who informed us that the nearby island of Formentera is a completely different vibe from Ibiza and that it would make a really good day trip. We heeded his advice and made our way down to the harbor looking for a ferry that would take us to Formentera. Just like in Barcelona, Catalan was the primary language used here in Ibiza. It was very similar to Spanish but I was still having some difficulties reading the ferry schedules. We purchased 2 tickets on the regular ferry. There was an option for a fast ferry that was more expensive but the regular ferry still only took about 45 minutes. We docked at the small port town of La Savina on Formentera and I was amazed at just how small the town was. We walked around for a bit not knowing really where to go and we found a small shop that rented mopeds for 20 euros a day. We both looked at each other and decided why not have a bit of an adventure today. Having never ridden a moped before, I was a bit apprehensive at first. Just knowing how my luck is, I was probably going to eventually crash the damn thing. Once we got our quick explanation about safety and how to operate the moped, we were off on our own. When I hopped on mine, I must have pressed the accelerator handle too much and the thing went flying. It flew me off but luckily I was still able to hold onto it and prevent it from crashing. We rode around in circles for awhile trying to get used to them. Once we did, we were off onto the main road. With no idea as to where we were heading, we had to pullover so I can consult our map. I decided we should check out the small resort town of Es Pujols. It was a good 20 minute ride before we reached Es Pujols. On the way over, it was quite tranquil and peaceful. There weren't too many tourists visiting this small island and compared to Ibiza it was a completely different atmosphere. We arrived at Es Pujols and parked our mopeds to have a quick look around and maybe grab a bite to eat. The area mostly consisted of small hotels, bed and breakfasts, and shops catering to tourism. The entire area could probably be walked in less than 10 minutes. We poked around a few of the souvenir shops and then decided to stop to have lunch at a small restaurant called El Sueno. While having lunch, I noticed that many of the other people eating here were German speaking. I had noticed the same while walking around town as well. I suppose this little town basically attracted German tourists as opposed to Ibiza which is overriden by British tourists. After lunch, we walked down to the beach to have a look. There was a small promenade and a wide sandy beach. We decided to take advantage of the fact that there was practically nobody at the beach and layed out our towels to relax. We dipped our feet only to find that waters were too cold for swimming. So we just layed back and soaked in the peaceful atmosphere.

Back on our mopeds, we left Es Pujols to check out more of the beaches. We rode about 10 minutes until we arrived at Platja de Llevant. This beach was on the eastern end of a small strip of land that consistently gets pounded by the waves of the Meditteranean. At the western end of this small strip of land was Platja de Iljetes. This beach was more popular as it was sheltered from the huge waves. Thus, the waters were much calmer. We stopped at Platja de Llevant to do a little exploring. There was literally nobody hanging out here and we had the beach to ourselves. The waters were too rough for swimming so we just walked around and climbed the rocks. We got back on our mopeds to check out Platja de Iljetes. There were much more people here but by no means was it crowded. There was a bunch of lounger chairs so Shea and I made our way over to them to relax. After about 10 minutes of relaxing, we were approached by some guy who informed us that we had to pay for its usage. Not wanting to shell out a few euros, we grabbed our things and moved on. As it was getting late in the evening, we didn't want to chance missing our ferry back to Ibiza so we got on our mopeds and headed back to the harbor. Back in Ibiza, we were way too tired from our adventures on Formentera. We had dinner and were raving about our time on Formentera to the others. It looked like we convinced some of them to take the day trip there tomorrow. After dinner, we just decided to call it an early night and hit the sack. I was wondering if we were ever going to experience the famous Ibiza nightlife.

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Photos

Overlooking the Mediterannean Sean
Atop the fortress at Dalt Villa

Formentera Island
Checking at the boats at the harbor in La Savina

Formentera Island
Shea at the beach in Es Pujols

Formentera Island
Me at the beach at Platja de Llevant