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Published: August 31st 2011
After three long years we have finally met up with Sharon again. The main reason for her coming home was for Gary’s wedding in Poland.
Before the wedding, however, we had two weeks together. Firstly we had arranged a Bar-B-Que for all of Sharon’s friends here in England to welcome her home. It was a great occasion and lovely to see her catch up with old friends and of course, Gary. Sadly, Milena could not come due to her singing commitments.
The weather did it’s usual of course and kept us wondering if the rain would stop before it was time to light the Bar-B-Que! Fortunately it did – but only just in time!
At 10am the next day sharon, Stan and I flew off for some much needed guaranteed sunshine.
We spent a week in Ibiza, famous as a party island. We stayed in the quieter resort of Santa Eulalia, which was a far cry from the nightclubs of San Antonio, but still crazy-over developed compared to almost any beach in South East Asia. The plane ride itself was quite amusing, but annoying at the same time. Several groups of girls were waiting to board, all wearing very
little clothing (despite the fact that the airport was freezing) and all sporting the same hairdo of bleach-blond carefully maintained curls. Many were downing their bottles of hard alcohol before having to give them up as they boarded the plane. Within 20 minutes of take-off they had cranked up the dance music on their CD player and had ordered champagne – the party had begun! When we arrived at Ibiza airport we boarded a bus to Santa Eulalia. It was playing 80s light rock. I couldn’t help but wonder what the San Antonio bus was playing!
For the next week we spent our time travelling around much of the island on the highly efficient public bus system. As soon as you got away from the tourist areas the island was quite unpopulated. Little white washed houses stood in stark contrast to the green trees and vivid red soil. The same 80s light rock radio station seemed to be the music of choice on most buses.
On our first day we visited the Hippie Market at Es Cana and found it to have a mixture of Thai and Indian souvenirs – rarely a Spanish souvenir in sight! It was
a nice place to wander around but when the crowds got to be too much we headed for the beach. It wasn’t very nice so we continued along the coast until we ended up walking the 5km back to Santa Eulalia.
Another day we did a mammoth walk. We decided to “nip” across the river to the beach just beyond. It turned out to be awful so we decided to keep walking and exploring. We ended up trekking up and down two big hills through the pine forests. At the top of the first hill, Stan’s flip flop broke. We managed to hold them together with two of Sharon’s hair bobbles for the rest of the day. After 2 ½ hours of slogging up and down the hillside, we came to the beautiful inlet of Cala Llonga. The water looked so blue and inviting. I’m glad we saw it from above, however, as it wasn’t anywhere near as impressive once you got down to it.
The nightlife in Santa Eulalia was mostly low-key. We spent our first night in an Indian restaurant where the friendly Sri Lankan owner gave us free shots on our way out. Lots of
other nights were spent in the restaurants along the promenade with the odd jug of Sangria. We got a shock on our first lunch when we ordered a small bottle of water. It wasn’t listed on the menu but we just assumed it couldn’t be that much. After all, it was just water. The bill came and it was 5 euros for the water! That’s almost £5 for a bottle of water AND it wasn’t even chilled – outrageous! No wonder everyone drank beer at lunch – they couldn’t afford to drink water! That bottle of water became a standing joke for the rest of the holiday. Whenever we bought anything, we’d justify the price by comparing it to the £5 bottle of water!
The flight back to Manchester was much quieter than the flight out. We recognized one group of girls from the inward flight, the ones who’d been ordering champagne. They were no longer sporting highly-styled hair and make-up. Instead, they looked decidedly knackered and dishevelled as they sipped their coca-colas. It was much more peaceful for everyone else!
The only weird part of the flight was when we came in to land at Manchester and
then suddenly the engines roared and we started ascending again. It turned out that just as we were about the land, another plane had "decided to stop on the runway." Hmm, that's not a good idea!
We then only had two days at home which were spent frantically getting laundry done and re-packing for our next trip, Poland, for Gary and Milena’s wedding!
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