A Typical Day in Ibiza

---

Some couples have matching fleeces, others have matching shoes or bookbags, today as we wrap up the Ibiza leg of the trip, we have matching pimples on our noses and nausea in our stomach.

Yes, we are ready to leave Ibiza, don´t plan to come back in the near future. And this could be good or bad, read on and you decide...

Since yesterday was our last full day here, we were committed to live our day in pursuit of the essence of the island and to live it up. What that meant was getting up at the hedonistic hour of 3PM, then go for a dip and some tanning in the pool. As 6 pm approaches, we ate, tried our best to glammed up, and set out for sunset drinks at the world famous Cafe Del Mar, facing the West.

The sunset was as glorious of an event as they say - the picturesque view of the bright red sun retiring by the horizon, lucky parasailers flying by the colorful proximity, sparkling diamond like beams of light dancing on the ocean, beautiful boats of various sizes floating by, live DJs spinning ambient house mix in every bar by the strip entertaining its patrons paying $36 for each small pitcher or Sangria, and even bigger hoards of tourists snapping photos and standing around admiring. And just like in Santorini, when the sun finally sets, everyone on the deck, in restaurants and lounges, on the boats, claps appreciatively and whistled. Then as the darkness befalls the island, music is turned up, people start to get wild and crazy, and various beach side pre-parties start the night off.

The two of us, after a couple of sangrias at Cafe Del Mar, got tickets to Amnesia, one of the most famous clubs in Ibiza. As all else affiliated with nightlife here, the pricetag is a hefty $65 a pop ($90 if purchased from the front door directly). After a 1-hour wait in the taxi line with the rest of the clubbers (that would be, everyone else on the island), off we go.

Let´s just say Amnesia is the biggest club we´ve seen, warehouse style, high ceilings, featuring 4 DJs spinning at any one time, big screens projecting shocking images that will surely lure your eyes (let´s just leave it understated at that) - and live shows of masqueraded men juggling glowing balls and pins, Beautiful cow girls and muscular spanish cow boys dancing provacatively, crowds of club enthusiasts from every European country I can think of bouncing to fantastic vibe, around 15-20 bars, and even more “feel good gas” stations (stations that pumps some mysterious and legal gas into a balloon for patrons to suck in and apparently feel high for 10 seconds), - Amnesia, in all its glory, lived up to the reputation of a glitzy Ibiza Club.

Apparently, prices for drinks also effortlessly live up to the same reputation. At one point during the night, the two of us decided we need a redbull and vodka to continue to compete with the mostly mid 20s energizer bunnies around us. When the bartender voiced the price in Spanish to Derek, and he turned to me and said - I know I must be wrong, but I think she just said 36 Euros in Spanish!! (tranlation: $57 for 2 redbull and vodka). To our dismay, he had heard correctly.

I swear it, 1 drink each was all that we had during the 4 hours, and it must have been the combination of sugared taurine and mysterious (almost certainly unfiltered) vodka, and clouds of thick cigarette smoke and deafing speakers around us, both of us felt quite ill by the end of the night. We caught the Discobus (a bus that goes to every major club in Ibiza picking up party animals from 12:30 to 7:00am every morning) at around 5am, and we had to do everything in our power to refrain from getting sick. Of course the sweaty and aromatic European gentleman sitting next to us contributed to our state of affairs.
When we walked home like zombies at 5:30 in the morning, the sun was about to come out, and the island was still very much alive with music, drunken conversations, people walking around. Incredible, this place.

So today, the two of us did the best packover (refer to previous entry for definition) we could given our state, after lunch of the usual (greasy hamburger and pizza), and updating the blog in the comfortably AC-ed internet cafe for an hour, we are catching a boat to Mallorca, to a life far far away from this crazy island, a life of a bit more peace and quiet, and more fresh air and salads.

Pictures to update later...

---