Nicole schreibt...

In recent years Spain became one of my favorite countries in Europe and so I try to visit a new area of it every year or at least every other year. Knowing that neither the horse-riding adventure in the Jordanian desert nor a jaunt around the eternally soggy island of Britain would provide me with proper relaxation I had decided to tack a few days on a Spanish beach onto this summer. I couldn't make up my mind between Valencia and Ibiza, so I let my friend decide who preferred Ibiza. I had been on the Balearic party island eons ago with my parents but remembered very little of it, so I was definitely interested in revisiting the place. Since I was eager for a bargain, I ended up in the resort town of San Antonio (which is, now that the Balearic islands have opted for politcally correct Catalan, called Sant Antoni de Portmany), the one place I had not wanted to go. Though despite the overabundance of British bars and pubs it actually turned out to be pretty nice after all. I had dawdled over booking so long that the Air Berlin flight I had been keen on had gone up in price and out of my range, so we ended up on bloody Germanwings once again and by the time we got to the hotel it was 11pm, so there was nothing left to do but crash into bed.

The first day was dedicated to chilling, but oddly enough the bay of Sant Antoni, built up with hotels for 2-3 miles, has very few natural sandy beaches, only rocky cliffs. The beach closest to our hotel, the Platja Xinxo, was quite nice though and what more do I need than a sunchair, an umbrella and gorgeous cool water to swim in?

In the evening we walked all the way into Sant Antoni proper, where the crowds made for great entertainment. Ibiza has had a reputation as the coolest party island in the Mediterranean for ages with huge clubs in Ibiza City and Sant Antoni and half-way along the highway. I am not a clubbing type at all and couldn't care less for the clubs as such, but I admittedly enjoyed being in a place full of young lively people after Tenerife had felt like accidentally trespassing into a pensioners' home. And the way some people dolled themselves up for the clubs was priceless to watch. Not to mention that Sant Antoni, on the north-western coast of Ibiza gets to see spectacular sunsets. Oh and that weird thing on the photo is the "Egg of Columbus"!

I had wanted to see Ibiza's old city "Dalt Vila" which is an UNESCO world heritage site and which I don't think we ever visited during my first family trip. Losing nerve about trying to figure out the bus system in Sant Antoni, we finally got a taxi that took us straight to Ibiza City across the island - it's little more than 20 kilometres anyway. The town as such is rather small, but the climb uphill to the cathedral was worth it for the amazing view all over the city, the marina and the southern coast of the island. Cars are not allowed beyond the medieval city walls except with special permission so it was also rather quiet and there were surprisingly few shops too. I was relieved to find at least a vending machine for water on top of the hill, but oddly enough the machine took my Euro coin, spit out 70 cents change and no water. Whatever that was, was beyond me.
The "modern city" at the foot of Dalt Vila, consisted mostly of tiny streets full of shops selling what has become known as "Ibiza fashion" - lots of white clothes and wide hippie-ish garments - pubs and restaurants. I was a bit surprised to not even find the Spanish staple of Zara, Bershka and other chains (except for a tiny Mango shop), but then I guess Ibiza is just too special for the mainstream chains. Recovering from the climb up and down the hill of Dalt Vila in a cafe, we finally sought and found the bus station and managed to get back to our hotel in Sant Antoni by public transport.

Back then we had stayed somewhere between Santa Eularia and Es Cana and I had been curious about revisiting the area anyway. And for some reason, while I remember we had talked about it back then, we had never made it to the famous "Hippy Market" at the Club Punta Arabi in Es Cana. It had started in the heydays of the early 70's when Ibiza had been one of the hippies' favorite places in Europe when the resort gave local hippies the opportunity to set up stalls on the resort's grounds to sell self-made trinkets and clothes. While the market is huge and crowded today and many stalls seem to be selling the usual cheap "made in India" clothes, there are still some stalls with truly self-crafted jewellry, clothes and stuff. The beach of Es Cana was vaguely familiar to me but the huge water slides which I had adored as a child (and were the only thing I could really remember) have long gone. Getting there was quite an operation: First a bus from the hotel area to Sant Antoni bus station, then a bus to Santa Eularia (it being Wednesday, the day of the hippy market, the demand was so high that they needed three buses to ferry everyone across the island) and then another bus onwards to Es Cana and from there another kilometre's walk to Punta Arabi - and later on the whole expedition back. But at least I did get some nifty harem pants and we still had time to flop at the pool for two hours before dinner.

The actual Cala Bassa might be a pretty bay with a gorgeous sandy beach and crystal clear water normally, but it was crazily crowded on this day. We also missed the last boat back to Sant Antoni - the ferry boat being the much nicer way to get back to the hotels, but luckily there were still buses going too. After a break at the hotel and dinner we walked into Sant Antoni again to enjoy one last balmy Spanish summer evening with Pina Colada in a lovely bar by the marina, where we could people-watch again. We spent the last day at the hotel pool before it was time to go to the airport in the late evening. Germanwings of course contrived to be half an hour late, so we weren't in the air till just before midnight and landed in Cologne at 2am. Ugh. At least I miraculously managed to sleep on the plane, so it wasn't too bad. For a short jaunt to the beach and Spanish weather Ibiza was definitely worth the revisit, but I have to admit that I liked Mallorca better, so I need another short break on the beach, I'd definitely be back at the Playa de Palma that time.