been reading these reviews for a couple years now, figured its time to give it a go myself. hope you enjoy! maybe reading this will have the same effect writing it has had on me; bringing you back to a warm, sunny, happy place in the Mediterranean.....
Round 4…
Mid-May 2012. Work had brought me to a tiny town (2,000 people) in the middle of Missouri for two weeks. Nearest signs of civilization were St. Louis (2 hours away) and Springfield (1.5 hours away). Middle of no-where. Needless to say, the nightlife reflected this. So I spent the majority of my time in the evenings playing on my smart phone (no internet in the hotel) and reading all the previews for the upcoming Ibiza season and closely monitoring line-up announcements. Early attempts at putting together a crew for this year were unsuccessful (damn $1,000 trans-Atlantic flight is what slows most of us Americans down), and as the two weeks crept by the idea of a solo trip started to sound more and more appealing. Then on my last day there, Armin's team released the first wave of line-ups for his new ASOT party. Done. I called my friend L (who went with me last year, and whom I had already bugged several times about a return trip to no avail). This is about how our conversation went:
Me: "Armin released the first line-ups for Privilege. It's him, Markus Schulz, Cosmic Gate and Dash Berlin for that week we were talking about."
L: "I think you just found yourself a partner for this trip."
Two days later, flight booked, hotel reserved, and a 5 pack of tans purchased at the local tanning salon. Ibiza 2012 is a go. 8)
The Journey Begins
A little extra planning meant the two of us would both connect in Toronto and be on the same flight to Madrid despite starting off in different cities. After dinner in the airport, it was time for our red-eye flight to Madrid. Somehow she suckered me into watching The Lorax (which she even fell asleep halfway through ) but after that and a snack I tried to get a little shut eye before we hit the ground running. My plan of resting up before Ibiza this year instead of staying up all night the day prior to travel backfired slightly, as my well rested body had trouble sleeping on the plane (I've never been that great at it to start). Still managed to catch a couple hours, but before long we were touching down into Madrid in the late morning. I always find I can score a better deal by booking my flight to Madrid or Barcelona separate, then flying some Sleazyjet or similar cheapo airline for the final leg to Ibiza. Downside to this is claiming your checked bags, going through customs, then standing in line to re-check into a different flight, all while feeling the effects of jet-lag. It quickly became apparent why our follow-on Ryanair flight was so cheap; they only hired one employee to work the check-in booth which had a line taking up a majority of the terminal. No less than an hour later, we were finally checked in, bags dropped, and barely had time for a quick lunch before our flight to the magical island. Upside to the cheap flight: this one was packed with young party-goers (how I always imagined a flight to Ibiza should be), full of excited chatter, airplane drinking, and a round of applause accompanied by hooting and hollering once the plane touched town. We had arrived. It didn't take long at all to grab our bags, walk out to the taxis, and get a cab to our hotel. I always love drive out of the airport, reading the billboards advertising all the clubs, checking out the new designs, reminds me we're back in paradise. We originally booked the Squash Apartments in PDB, but upon arrival something must have been lost in the reservation because the hotel wasn't tracking us despite the fact I had already paid the first night's stay. No issue, we were upgraded to the slightly better Bon Sol Prestige Hotel across the street for no extra cost. Score! We dumped our bags and quickly headed out to rent a scooter and pick up some essentials. It was about 18:00 at this point, and I was feeling the effects of minimal sleep on our way in, so we decided to take a brief nap till 19:00….
Hotel Essentials
Night 1
The hour went way too fast, but it was time to start putting down some drinks because our tickets to We Love… required us to be inside before 21:00 and I wasn't in the mood to donate 100 euros to the bars at Space. No worry, they make energy drinks for times like this; sleep is for the weak, I can do that at home. After a few drinks we were feeling pretty good, and had a very amusing scooter ride over to Space, making our cut off by about 10 minutes, nice. I love sitting up in the Premiere Etage socializing and sipping on a drink while the sun goes down, what a great atmosphere. It was the perfect time to implement one of our money saving tricks, bring your own booze. Vodka Sprite at Space = super expensive. Sprite at Space = expensive but not as bad. This is why we buy multiple boxes of pocket shots, a lovely American invention, before any big festival or trip. They're essentially just booze in a plastic bag so you can hide them just about anywhere (pockets, shoes, bras etc) and don't need to worry about it getting confiscated at the door if the bouncer decides to give you a pat down. Armed with our sodas, we slipped in our own alcohol and went about our business. 8)
Pocket Shots
I don't know who was providing the tunes that night, but it was a fairly mellow mix played at a volume you could actually have a conversation over. It was while asking for a lighter that we met Steve, or Jetset Belgium, a new friend who would make a couple appearances during our trip. This guy has it made. Originally from Belgium, he and his wife are currently living in Marbella, Spain. She was out vacationing in Greece while this guy was partying it up in Ibiza. I asked what he did for a living and he replied, “This. I travel the world, and go to the best parties and clubs of all.†Not entirely sure how this pays the bills, but if it's working more power to ya. After a couple hours upstairs, we decided to get our dance on a bit in the Sunset Terrace and Terreza. Great atmosphere all around, we jumped back in forth between the two rooms and were having a blast, both of us still so excited at this point to be back in Ibiza. I was surprised how busy it was, for this was still well before midnight. I could have easily stayed at Space till 6 in the morning, but this was only the first stop on our action packed trip . We hung around until about 12:30, but then took off as we also had tickets to Judgment Sundays that night.
We Love... at Space
This part of the night is a bit fuzzy, but somehow we managed to scooter back to the hotel, grab a cab to San An and before we knew it were dancing in the main room of Eden to the sounds of Judge Jules. This was my first visit to Eden, and to be honest didn't find it exceptionally memorable (for Ibiza, of course). It was a packed house though, and the Judge was playing a mix of trance and some of the big room/commercial house anthems to a very enthusiastic crowd. John O' Callaghan was the headliner that night and his set didn't disappoint; plenty of 138 bpm with some of his hits and singles (old and new) thrown in. While walking around I bumped into Alex M.O.R.P.H. walking out of the lighting booth. He seemed a bit surprised someone recognized him, and I asked what time he was playing. To my disappointment, he had already played (not sure who thought he would make a good opener, but oh well). We stuck around for the remainder of O'Callaghan, and stumbled out around 5 or 5:30 when his set wrapped up. Can't say I remember much of the cab ride home, but 30 euros later we were back in the hotel room and passed out hard. Night one was a success.
Judgement Sundays at Eden
To be continued...
Round 4…
Mid-May 2012. Work had brought me to a tiny town (2,000 people) in the middle of Missouri for two weeks. Nearest signs of civilization were St. Louis (2 hours away) and Springfield (1.5 hours away). Middle of no-where. Needless to say, the nightlife reflected this. So I spent the majority of my time in the evenings playing on my smart phone (no internet in the hotel) and reading all the previews for the upcoming Ibiza season and closely monitoring line-up announcements. Early attempts at putting together a crew for this year were unsuccessful (damn $1,000 trans-Atlantic flight is what slows most of us Americans down), and as the two weeks crept by the idea of a solo trip started to sound more and more appealing. Then on my last day there, Armin's team released the first wave of line-ups for his new ASOT party. Done. I called my friend L (who went with me last year, and whom I had already bugged several times about a return trip to no avail). This is about how our conversation went:
Me: "Armin released the first line-ups for Privilege. It's him, Markus Schulz, Cosmic Gate and Dash Berlin for that week we were talking about."
L: "I think you just found yourself a partner for this trip."
Two days later, flight booked, hotel reserved, and a 5 pack of tans purchased at the local tanning salon. Ibiza 2012 is a go. 8)
The Journey Begins
A little extra planning meant the two of us would both connect in Toronto and be on the same flight to Madrid despite starting off in different cities. After dinner in the airport, it was time for our red-eye flight to Madrid. Somehow she suckered me into watching The Lorax (which she even fell asleep halfway through ) but after that and a snack I tried to get a little shut eye before we hit the ground running. My plan of resting up before Ibiza this year instead of staying up all night the day prior to travel backfired slightly, as my well rested body had trouble sleeping on the plane (I've never been that great at it to start). Still managed to catch a couple hours, but before long we were touching down into Madrid in the late morning. I always find I can score a better deal by booking my flight to Madrid or Barcelona separate, then flying some Sleazyjet or similar cheapo airline for the final leg to Ibiza. Downside to this is claiming your checked bags, going through customs, then standing in line to re-check into a different flight, all while feeling the effects of jet-lag. It quickly became apparent why our follow-on Ryanair flight was so cheap; they only hired one employee to work the check-in booth which had a line taking up a majority of the terminal. No less than an hour later, we were finally checked in, bags dropped, and barely had time for a quick lunch before our flight to the magical island. Upside to the cheap flight: this one was packed with young party-goers (how I always imagined a flight to Ibiza should be), full of excited chatter, airplane drinking, and a round of applause accompanied by hooting and hollering once the plane touched town. We had arrived. It didn't take long at all to grab our bags, walk out to the taxis, and get a cab to our hotel. I always love drive out of the airport, reading the billboards advertising all the clubs, checking out the new designs, reminds me we're back in paradise. We originally booked the Squash Apartments in PDB, but upon arrival something must have been lost in the reservation because the hotel wasn't tracking us despite the fact I had already paid the first night's stay. No issue, we were upgraded to the slightly better Bon Sol Prestige Hotel across the street for no extra cost. Score! We dumped our bags and quickly headed out to rent a scooter and pick up some essentials. It was about 18:00 at this point, and I was feeling the effects of minimal sleep on our way in, so we decided to take a brief nap till 19:00….
Hotel Essentials
Night 1
The hour went way too fast, but it was time to start putting down some drinks because our tickets to We Love… required us to be inside before 21:00 and I wasn't in the mood to donate 100 euros to the bars at Space. No worry, they make energy drinks for times like this; sleep is for the weak, I can do that at home. After a few drinks we were feeling pretty good, and had a very amusing scooter ride over to Space, making our cut off by about 10 minutes, nice. I love sitting up in the Premiere Etage socializing and sipping on a drink while the sun goes down, what a great atmosphere. It was the perfect time to implement one of our money saving tricks, bring your own booze. Vodka Sprite at Space = super expensive. Sprite at Space = expensive but not as bad. This is why we buy multiple boxes of pocket shots, a lovely American invention, before any big festival or trip. They're essentially just booze in a plastic bag so you can hide them just about anywhere (pockets, shoes, bras etc) and don't need to worry about it getting confiscated at the door if the bouncer decides to give you a pat down. Armed with our sodas, we slipped in our own alcohol and went about our business. 8)
Pocket Shots
I don't know who was providing the tunes that night, but it was a fairly mellow mix played at a volume you could actually have a conversation over. It was while asking for a lighter that we met Steve, or Jetset Belgium, a new friend who would make a couple appearances during our trip. This guy has it made. Originally from Belgium, he and his wife are currently living in Marbella, Spain. She was out vacationing in Greece while this guy was partying it up in Ibiza. I asked what he did for a living and he replied, “This. I travel the world, and go to the best parties and clubs of all.†Not entirely sure how this pays the bills, but if it's working more power to ya. After a couple hours upstairs, we decided to get our dance on a bit in the Sunset Terrace and Terreza. Great atmosphere all around, we jumped back in forth between the two rooms and were having a blast, both of us still so excited at this point to be back in Ibiza. I was surprised how busy it was, for this was still well before midnight. I could have easily stayed at Space till 6 in the morning, but this was only the first stop on our action packed trip . We hung around until about 12:30, but then took off as we also had tickets to Judgment Sundays that night.
We Love... at Space
This part of the night is a bit fuzzy, but somehow we managed to scooter back to the hotel, grab a cab to San An and before we knew it were dancing in the main room of Eden to the sounds of Judge Jules. This was my first visit to Eden, and to be honest didn't find it exceptionally memorable (for Ibiza, of course). It was a packed house though, and the Judge was playing a mix of trance and some of the big room/commercial house anthems to a very enthusiastic crowd. John O' Callaghan was the headliner that night and his set didn't disappoint; plenty of 138 bpm with some of his hits and singles (old and new) thrown in. While walking around I bumped into Alex M.O.R.P.H. walking out of the lighting booth. He seemed a bit surprised someone recognized him, and I asked what time he was playing. To my disappointment, he had already played (not sure who thought he would make a good opener, but oh well). We stuck around for the remainder of O'Callaghan, and stumbled out around 5 or 5:30 when his set wrapped up. Can't say I remember much of the cab ride home, but 30 euros later we were back in the hotel room and passed out hard. Night one was a success.
Judgement Sundays at Eden
To be continued...