The Griswalds go on vacation. European Vacation.

Ibiza 2007

We had the kind of vacation that you couldn't even write about for a National Lampoon's movie, I swear. We decided to go to Ibiza for our 2 year anniversary (thank you, thank you) as well as to meet up with 5-6 friends of ours from Germany that were going to be there as well. I was initially a lil leary on going in the first place because Ibiza is expensive, especially with the Euro bitching-slapping the Dollar upside the head. But more importantly, we had been to ibiza before with Billy, Cameron, and Porky in 2005. And it was the best vacation ever so I knew pretty much nothing could top that Ibizan adventure.

So, I've come to the conclusion that Ibiza had gone down the Miami WMC, models & bottles downward service spiral as price-gouging due to greediness has skyrocketed in the past few years due to a serious influx of visitors. Each year is a record year for Ibiza in terms of footprints on the isle. Just some examples: renting a bed on a beach was 90 Euro or 125 USD. Simply sitting at a table at Cafe Mambo to hear some music from BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong and enjoy the sunset on San Antonio's beach was 175 Euro or 245 USD-- minumum price. Anyway, here's pretty much how our vacation went, mishap by mishap, with a few saving graces:

We arrive at Berlin Schoenefeld airport and our flight is already 1 hour and 45 minutes late. Great start. But I taught Michi how to play Scala Quaranta (a famous Italian card game) and enjoyed kicking his ass repeatedly on the plane ride.




Passing over the Alps.

Saturday night: We arrive at our hotel in Ibiza, check into our hotel. The reception is particularly nice and quite energetic and begins to go over all the services we have with them, which include buying illegal drugs as well. How nice of them to offer to be drug dealers. I mean, hell, who wants to go find drugs on your own when your reception has them at the front desk for you! We finally get to our overrated hotel room, which does have air conditioning but has zero ventilation in the parts where you really need it. Ahem. Then we go over to our friends' hotel room to pregame before going out to Pacha. I plug in my iPod player to get the entertainment going, and Boom! Everything blacks out. Not only did I blow a fuse, I also blew my nice, expensive JBL OnStage speaker. (ipod is still alive, though, thankfully.) Great, $150 down the drain.

We get to Pacha around 2am and the entrance is 60€ per person. We make an about face and decide to have a few drinks at the very chic but not so expensive Beach Bar near the port of Ibiza Town. The check arrives, Michi picks up the tab, and inadvertently gives our waiter a most gracious, whopping 17€ tip. Anja, Dennis and myself decide to protest and demand that he get his money back, even though the deed was already done. Dennis and Michi go off to the management with red faces (for more reasons than one) while Anja and me enjoy the rest of our drinks. A half hour goes by and we decide to survey the situation. Ends up they're chatting it up (and spilling their sorrows) to the owner, Maria, who, interestingly enough, happens to be from Calabria but was raised in Germany, and who also happened to make a phone call for us at Pacha to make sure we get in for free and subsequently saved us a massive total of 240€. After having a chat in Germany, Italian and English, we make friends and head to Pacha, pockets full. Michi got 5€ back too. Nice.

Sunday: The next day we pick up our rental car, which looks like one of those mini vacuum cleaners. Unable to correctly understand the rental car agent's broken English, I even thought it was called the Broomster. (In fact, it was called the Roomster.)

By the way, the weather sucks in Ibiza at this point. It's cold and cloudy and I'm not liking it thus far.

Monday Day: Weather's getting better and we spend the day at my favorite club in Ibiza, DC10. Michi and I dress in matching boyscout outfits (off-beat costumes are the norm here. My favorites so far were the house-cleaning trio, complete with broom, brush and dust pan, and feather duster and well as the killer chefs) to dance to bassy minimal techno all day long. I even met some random friends from NYC there! The party goes til midnight but our friends wanted to leave early to get a disconap in for Cocoon @ Amnesia with Sven Vaeth and friends.

Best day.

Monday Night: After a few too many Fanta vodkas, Anja decides to stay in. The party at Amnesia was meh, except for the ice cannon of course, which is basically like a regular smoke machine on crack, furiously spitting out dry ice (aka vaporized carbon dioxide) at god knows how many miles per hour. The first time, 2 years ago, I lost my sunglasses, because anything loose on you will indubitably disappear forever. So when you hear it roaring, you brace yourself good. While it only lasts a few seconds, maybe 10 at the most, it's the best part of that club in my humble opinion. After one went off, I screamed out (most likely in the tone of a 5 year old): "It's like being on a rollercoaster without the rollercoaster!!!!!" Oh yea, I live on the edge. :)

Video of the ice cannon in action (Fast forward to the 2 minute mark to see it)



Tuesday: Weather sucks, again. We sleep til late, and go to see the revered Mr. Laurent Garnier at Space with Carl Cox. It was the first time I had ever seen LG, so I was way excited. Amazing music, just as I expected from one of my favorite DJs.

****I kept forgetting to take my camera everywhere we went, sorry for the lack of interesting photos, or photos at all!****

Fast forward to Wednesday: Michi gets baptized by his first ever fever blister. (Many thanks to me.) Weather's ok, Anja's got full-on flu symptoms, so Dennis, Michi and I decide to hit up a glorious mountain side beach called Cala D'Albarca. With hunger learing at bay after 1 hour of purposefully hiking a mountain path that seemingly crossed the mountain instead of going down the mountain, we decide we'd better grab a bite and then hit up another beach "easy" beach (ie, one where you don't have to descend a steep, rocky mountain path for 45 minutes on foot before actually reaching the water.) Michael decides to drive and as we're finally coming to the main road, makes a right turn and hits a cement sewer drain protruding from the ground. Hard. None of us saw it, of course. In the past 2 years, there has been much new construction all over the island; new highways, new roads, and apparently, new sewers. Who the hell builds a cement sewer drain the protudes 1.5 feet from the ground? The axel of the car is now bent and the car is rendered undriveable. However, be it that we're at least 15 miles away from civilization, we have no choice but to drive the car further, to the nearest city to figure out what the hell to do now. We drive it to the nearest rental station and they tell us to drive it another 15 miles to the airport, where we rented it. We drive it to the airport, where they tell us to drive it to the headquarters. What did you say, a "tow truck?" I think Ibiza has none. God knows how much more damage we caused to the broomster doing so. We get to headquarters and after having 2 mechanics look at the underside of the car for 4 seconds while it's still in the makeshift parking lot (grass), they decide that the costs will be €1250.00 to repair everything. Oh, and they also tell us that we don't have CDW (collision damage waiver insurance) so we'd have to pay for everything out of our pockets unless we can perform a miracle...

Thursday (Miracle Day): After a long day of researching via internet and going around to fax and copy shops to send things to a friend of ours who happens to be a lawyer, I decide to call my CitiBank Mastercard on a whim, which happened to be the card I charged the rental on (also done on a whim. Hey, I'm a capricorn.) Incredibly, I have complimentary rental car insurance with them. Ho-lee Shit.

The day-- the vacation, rather-- has been saved.

So after losing exactly 24 hours of our vacation, we finally trade the car in for another, pay the damn damages and get on with life.

Michi and I decide to celebrate by driving to a semi-secluded beach and eating dinner (on the beach) at Ca Na Sofia, one of Ibiza's best restaurants, located in Cala Vedella. Although not particulary well known, it has an amazingly artistic menu, albeit, with high prices. But after 24 hours of praying for divine intervention, a gourmet salad with arugola, spinach, rocket, melted brie, goat cheese, crispy parmesan and almond slices was really what I needed.


Ah, but not so fast. As usual, the plot thickens.


Friday Day: Nice weather. We decide to hit up another beach so we go to the car. But there is no car. Oh yes, the car is gone. Despite the lack of designated areas where it is legal or not legal to park, the car is towed. (Huh, guess there are tow trucks when it's convenient.) The next hour and a half are spent going to the towing lot to get it back again. Another €110 down the drain.

Friday Night:



The 3 Musketeers go to Villa Mercedes, a sweetass (i.e., unexpensive and supernice) villa-cum-lounge/bar in the San Antonio port before heading out to Amenesia again for Manumission, a party known for wild cabaret-type dancing and acts.


The boys lounging in our cabana thingee.

Saturday: Our flight was around 8:30pm, so we decide to have a nice drive around the island, since I had been complaining that we hadn't done one new thing since the last time we were in Ibiza in 2005. So, with less than 1/8 of a tank of gas in the car, we decide to drive up Sa Talaia of San Josep. About 80% of the way up, the gas light comes on and I feel my heart in my throat, my eyes bugging out, and my gut about to explode. I'm hyperventilating even though Michi's telling me it's going to be just fine since we're already at the top and on the way down, no gas is needed. So, with all my rationale in tact (obviously), I decide to turn the car around, head back down the treacherously serpetine mountain to get gas 3 miles away and then drive allllll the way back up again. Pure genius, I know.


View of Ibiza Town


View of San Antonio


South of the island

Shadow on the mountainside


peekaboo!




Pretty darn high.




Michi not wanting to leave Ibiza


Michi the Explorer decifering species of trees or something. "Would this be ok to use as toilet paper?"




Shit bricks much?


This is a two-lane road, by the way.


Who wouldn't feel a sense of accomplishment doing all that now, right?