This morning we left Barcelona with a flourish – rooms and bags all packed up (with what seemed like more space than when we had the initial debacle of packing our bags), checked out of our hostel and wandered up to the common room with the intention of leaving our bags and going to find a final bite to eat. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that some of our bags wouldn’t fit in the lockers and you could not leave your bags in the locker room without them being in a locker and you had to pay for s minimum of 6 hours (we only wanted an hour and a half). Given that it was only 11 we decided to just stay with our bags and grab some grub when we got to the airport (perhaps only half aware that often the level of deliciousness decreases as well as the price increasing). We made good use of our time by assisting other travelers with the lockers and helping a lovely British girl get her money back from a greedy machine and a grumpy attendant. 

Despite the fight being more than a little bit bumpy and the plane seeming somewhat rickety, we landed in Ibiza to applause from the passengers (much to Rosh and Max’s surprise and enjoyment)! We got a taxi to our hostel, which was much simpler than the bus, and we were greeted by our lovely front desk clerk (I used this phrase lightly, he was really a cheery hippy-beach-bumb with dread locks who appeared to take frequent naps but really was happy to help). He ran us up to our rooms and showed as they lay of the land. Our room was called Morocco and was decorated as such, the walls had paintings of deserts and camels and there was even a shisha atop our lockers. Safe to say the hostel was as wonderfully quirky as the desk clerk, the hostel itself was a bright blue, the rooms all had different names and decorations, the corridor had glow in the dark paint, there was fake grass on an elevated platform where you could enjoy meals and beanbags around the place to sit on. It had spirit and a great energy!! We loved our stay there, it was in a terrific spot and would certainly recommend! 

Once settled, we decided to head straight to the beach to cool off! After first trying the rocky, small and drab one directly in front of our hostel we wandered 7 minutes further down the beach and found this lush stretch of sand where we swam and stretched out on the sand until the sun started to set. Two hours later as we were walking back to our hostel, gushing over how lovely our holiday had been so far, a sign for €5 cocktails caught our eyes. This is probably the moment where things started to go wrong, although we would not fully know that until tomorrow afternoon. 

 

There is nothing quite like sitting outside at a restaurant, shoes off, over-looking the water, watching the sunset and drinking cocktails with your friends. We chatted about everything and yet nothing in particular, played a million rounds of “would you rather”, were entertained by the charming and hilarious waiters (who, for some reason, all came from Italy) and enjoyed copious amounts of tapas and cocktails. While trying to decipher what some of the tapas was made of, we struck up a conversation with a British couple at the table next to ours. They had moved to Australia many years ago and gave us some tips on things to do in Ibiza as well as working in the UK. They were very happy for us that we all had “real” jobs and had very strong opinions “Geordie Shore” and “Ex On The Beach” (which we loved). Before we knew it we had been there 4 hours. Thinking it would be a brilliant idea to try out the Ibiza nightlife we had heard so much about, we headed back to our hostel, got ready, made a friend in the common room and together headed out on the town (at 1am obviously because we had read that one simply does not go out before 12am here). We asked the taxi driver to take us somewhere we could dance. He delivered. We boogied away, making new friends and eating lollipops from the bathroom (yes – apparently it’s a thing) until we made it back to our room about 4am and crashed, but not before telling our new, and not yet introduced, room mate “sweet dreams, love you”. Ahh. I’m sure we will laugh about that later.

Dread. I think this is probably the word that best describes all of our feelings as we attempted to get ready for our pre-arranged boat party that started at 1. We attempted to rectify this by going for a dip in the ocean, which worked for maybe 10 minutes? We tried to eat food, get dressed, play music, all of which had the above result. Mustering as much enthusiasm as possible, we headed of to the “Beautiful People Boat Party” meeting point, joining up with a friend from home along the way. Initially things seemed okay, we had our welcome punch, the boat started sailing and the music started playing, surrounded by a majority of uber keen British and American people. Before too long regret set in. Seasickness mixer with hangover mixed with hot weather. Things looked up on two occasions – when the banana boat came out and when lunch arrived, both short lived. Max was the only one gutsy enough to go on the banana boat, which reinvigorated her for all of 20 minutes and lunch was a pasta salad filled with disappointment. Initially we were scoffing at a few of the passengers who were taking naps on the benches in the boat, but soon we were just as bad. Sitting on the deck with our heads between our knees was how we spent the first 4 hours of our €80 boat trip. Success. Thankfully we had a pause from the excitement of sailing on the smallest of Spain’s Balearic Islands – Formentera.

 Formentera – often called Ibiza’s ‘sister island’ – is something we wish we had been able to properly enjoy. We would have loved to rent a scooter or bike and explore the island (it is just 22km long and in its thin central section is just a couple of kilometers wide), appreciate its beautiful beaches and take in the serenity. However, we felt plain old cruddy. The ferry docked in the little harbour at La Savina, down the road from Formentera’s diminutive capital, Sant Francesc Xavier. We stumbled off the boat, not as bad as one chap who slid his way down the stairs with a thud (don’t worry he was fine), grabbed an ice cream and started walking towards the famous beach Platja de see Illetes, describe in our guide as “bordering the world of dreams”. Now I don’t know about that, but in any listing of the best beaches in the Mediterranean, it always come somewhere near the top. Along our walk we tried to help someone learn to ride a bike. She was an adult. Who we later found out did actually know how to ride a bike, just that the pedals were sticking weirdly. Making us look like the idiots. Once we arrived at the beach we had the realisation that in our wonderfully brainy state this morning we had decided to not bring towels. So there we were, after enjoying the beautiful water and beach (though not nearly as much as we should have/wanted to with its creamy white sand and water that dazzles with perfect clarity), sitting/lying on our dresses, trying to not be totally covered in sand. 

Back in the boat things started to look up (well for a few of us). We managed to have a bit of a seated jive to the beats and a few of our pre-paid drinks as the sea-sickness seemed to have resolved for the most part. We enjoyed watching people struggle to walk from one side of the boat to the other as they tried to avoid the poles, benches and other passengers. Needless to say this was a very difficult task as the boat hurtled back towards Ibiza and we all came off with a few bruises of our own. Now I know that €80 is clearly a lot of money for the type of day we had, but I will say that we did expect the lunch to be a bit better/exciting at least, and I heard more than one other person complain about the quality of lunch and activities provided. Next time/if anyone else is planning on doing a boat party in Ibiza, I would suggest do a night one. Hands down. 

Once back on dry land Max returned to the hostel and Rosh and I went on a search for dinner. We found this delicious little place, not 3 minutes from us, called Superbuono. All their meals/products were home made and ingredients sourced locally. Despite the fact that we had to wait an hour for a meal, it was delicious!! We were lucky enough to move to a waterfront table during our wait and the nighttime city views across the water were to die for. Most entertaining of all was who happened to be sitting next to us – the British couple from last night!! We filled them in on our boat party antics and they told us about the famous San Antonio de Portmany’s sunset which we filed away for our agenda tomorrow. After what was supposed to be our “wild day” in Ibiza we trotted off to bed to nurse our heads, stomachs and hearts. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be more like the day we had imagined for today – sun-kissed, beach-bejewelled, pine-clad and all-night raver.