2 more Americans in Ibiza... July 8-13 (words and pictures)

Htrain

Member
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 :rolleyes:) 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. :D 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….

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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)

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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 :twisted:. We hung around until about 12:30, but then took off as we also had tickets to Judgment Sundays that night.

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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.

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Judgement Sundays at Eden


To be continued...
 
Leaving We Love to head to JS?! A totally alien concept!! Even so, I look forward to the rest of it...
 
Leaving We Love to head to JS?! A totally alien concept!! Even so, I look forward to the rest of it...

I did We Love back in 2010, great party but we just wanted to give judgement sundays a spin. slowly chipping away at all the major nights.... those pre-9:00 pm tickets they had for only 20 euro ended up being a little last minute bonus for the trip

next installment coming shortly....
 
They have Funktion-One sound systems on Ibiza boats?

Our first full day in Ibiza began with a quality hang over. We made the mistake of not picking up bottled water the day prior :spank: so it was a tortuous first half hour or so before we left the room and headed to Playa d'En Bossa for some much needed hydration, food, and beach. After literally finishing a 1L bottle of water and a kebab, I was feeling a bit better. Laid out for a while in the sun and got a swim in, but before we knew it the clock was ticking and we needed to get to San Antonio for the Driftwood boat party. We were running late, so didn't have time to navigate the buses and had to shell out another 30 euros for a cab ride across the island (this becomes a recurring theme in this trip….). Some combination of a hot cab and the twists and turns of the island roads driven at excessive speed wasn't sitting well with my stomach, so I almost had to tell him to pull over. It was a long 20ish minutes, but I held out and we made it safely to Itaca without incident. We had about an hour before the boat was set to launch, so we grabbed a little food and nursed a couple drinks at Itaca. They were having the “pre-party” upstairs, which basically just meant the boat resident djs had taken over the music and were blasting all sorts of trance anthems, no complaints here. 8) By the time our stomachs were accepting beer again, it was about time to load the boat. Having no idea what to expect and feeling completely sober, I drew out a fair amount of cash expecting drink prices similar to clubs or at least the beach bars.

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Beers at Itaca

We were herded across the marina, and taken to a boat which was still unloading a slightly different crowd (families, old people, kids, pretty sure I saw a dog, etc). Included in the ticket price was a free drink, which ended up only being a small cup of sangria (this party was still a good deal though, 45 euros for the cruise which included 10 euros off ASOT admission price and free entry to Colors the following night, I'll take that). I had no idea what to expect with this boat cruise, as it was my first one. As we pull out of the harbor I start to notice a few things. Though no music is being played yet, the boat is equipped with a Funktion-One speaker system. Perhaps where I'm from is behind the times, but in my experiences that kind of sound quality is reserved for legit, high end nightclubs. Also, the clientele seem very intoxicated for 18:00 (and not just alcohol I might add ;) . After a quick safety brief, the music started and the party began. What a great time! It was a predominately UK crowd, and they were going nuts. People were dancing hard, drinking hard, and falling around on the unsteady boat hard. L and I quickly became celebrities on the small boat, as not only were we not from the UK, but we weren't even from Europe. On top of that, this was my fourth Ibiza visit and her second, whereas most of these people were on their first or second trip. This led to many a fun discussion regarding English slang and terms. “Its holiday, not vacation.” “No I'm on vacation, a holiday is like Christmas or New Years.” “It's pronounced ‘Ibitha' not ‘IbiZa.'” “No, there's a Z in the word, is clearly pronounced ‘IbiZa.” We made lots of friends, laughed at each other's accents and had a great time listening to some quality tunes. :p

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Driftwood Boat Party

Solarstone was the DJ they brought, and his “Pure Trance” party refused to play any “trouse” or “progressive house” songs. Adding to my praise of the boat cruise, beers only cost 3 euros each, making my initial worries about drink prices irrelevant. Another great thing about the boat was nearly everyone was headed to Armin that night, so we made plenty of plans to meet up later (Ha, of course none of these people were seen again, not like Privilege is a big club or anything). No one seemed to have a clue where the boat was headed (one girl I asked grabbed my shoulder and said “back to England!”) but I guess that wasn't the point. Turns out it just goes out to the rocks and cliffs Northeast of San Antonio along the coast, very scenic. Towards the end, all the sun and booze was beginning to take its toll on some people. There were numerous people passed out downstairs and even one of the Go Go dancers was sitting down looking very sick. She wasn't drinking so I'm guessing she gets sea sick? Probably not the best job to have if that's the case. After a perfect sunset, the boat pulled back into the marina and the music stopped. The partied-out crew stumbled off, and everyone went about their evenings. After a brief discussion of our timeline for the rest of the night, we decided we didn't want to miss any of the ASOT night, and thus needed to get back to our hotel in PDB quickly (it was already pushing 22:00) in order to freshen up and get ready for the night. Another 30 euros to the Ibiza taxis…..:rolleyes:

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Sunset on the boat


Street Cred

Our initial plans of arriving right at the stroke of midnight didn't quite pan out, but we still made it out of the hotel by at least 12:10 and headed to catch the Disco Bus. Our hotel was right next to Sankeys, and as soon as we passed the first bar next to the club on our way down to the main PDB strip, someone grabbed my arm. Initially annoyed thinking it was one of the PRs hustling you to stay and have a drink at their establishment, I turned around and was pleasantly surprised. It was one of the British guys we met on the boat cruise. This was hilarious because he was very bug-eyed, jittery, and overall messed up on the boat, and his state hadn't changed a bit. No comedown if you just keep taking them I guess... :twisted: we had no idea how he made it this far across the island (his hotel was in San An) but I guess he was tagging along with one of his buddies and they were going to see A-Trak and Diplo at Sankeys that night. We chatted for a moment but had to run as we were already pressed for time.

We lucked out and didn't even have to wait 5 minutes at the bus stop before the disco bus arrived, paid our fare and climbed aboard. I love the Disco Bus. Everyone is drunk, noisy and you can always chat with cute girls. This was no exception. All the seats were taken so we stood somewhere near the middle. Some guy must have recognized the ASOT 550 shirt I was wearing, because he tapped me on the shoulder and asked if we were going to see Armin tonight. I replied yes and he asked if I knew what stop to get off at. I told him this bus only has three stops, Amnesia, Privilege and San Antonio. We would be the second stop. He was drunk and started going off about how it was his first time and how much fun he was having so far. Yay! Then he wanted to confirm that we would catch all of Armin's set, a question I found a bit odd because it was only 12:30 at this point. I told him my guess was Cosmic Gate would open till 1:30, then Markus Schulz would play till 3, Armin would do a two hour set and Dash Berlin would close. The second stop came, he got off with us and we all walked up. Sure enough, posted on the wall next to the door were the exact set times I had just rattled off on the bus. He looked at the sheet, let out a little gasp then looked back at me with a look of amazement and bewilderment. This guy was last spotted on the upper levels of Privilege, looking like a small child on Christmas morning, completely blown away with the sheer size and grandeur of the venue. Ibiza claims another life-long fan.

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ASOT @ Privilege

I was surprised at how full the venue was for being still pre-1:00 am. The main dance floor up front was already pretty full, and we posted up there for the remainder of Cosmic Gate, who was definitely setting the stage for the night to come. Hits like “Be Your Sound” and “Firewire” had the energy building and the crowd starting to go wild. At 1:30, on comes Markus Schulz, one of my all-time favorite djs. It was during his intro that Privilege really started to flex its muscles. New graphics popped up on the giant LED screen, the lasers started to appear and the fire blasts in front of the DJ booth started going off. Markus played his style of darker, moody, trance and did not disappoint. The club was very full by this point, and he had them going wild. We took some time to walk around, check out different parts of the club and overall had a blast. Only downside was this was only the start of high season, so Armin hadn't opened up the Vista Club yet with smaller djs as he did in August so I'm still yet to see that part of the club. Before we knew it, 3:00 was rolling around and it was about time for the main man himself. Armin's into was full of confetti, new lasers, flames, sparks, just about anything you could think of. Energy in the club was insane. Tracks like “Language” by Porter Robinson fit in surprisingly well with the trancier tracks like “Invasion” by W&W. This was my 15[SUP]th [/SUP]time seeing Armin, and I was reminded why he remains my all time favorite. His interaction with the crowd, the music, the energy, it all added up to a memorable night. Privilege was decorated with all sorts of ASOT things such as giant inflatable ASOT aliens, the Go Go dancers had on space-suit like outfits, making it truly feel like one of his special radio show events. They even played a brief intro clip for each DJ before they came on.

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Armin Van Buuren

I saw Tiesto at Privilege in '08 and '10, but this was a totally different experience. Multiple big name DJs, a better sound and lighting system, overall better effects all made this my most memorable trip to the biggest club in the world. Dash Berlin took over at the 5:00 am mark, and as usual his set included just about every current vocal trance hit, mashed together. Normally this would be a tad cheesy for my tastes, but we were drunk and a nice sing along at 5 in the morning was a perfect way to finish the night. Needless to say, I was pretty much in heaven the whole time. All good things come to an end though, and a bit after 6 we decided to call it quits and try and grab a cab before the whole club would empty out. There was a small line of people waiting for a taxi in the early morning hours, but it didn't take long and we were able to split the fare with two other guys headed back to PDB. Scored some pizza from that restaurant below jet apartments, stole a couple ASOT posters as souvenirs and went back to the hotel. What a day.

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Morning stroll in PDB



To be continued.....
 
If you do something twice, it's a tradition

Tuesday started out in a similar fashion to Monday. At this point the past two nights were starting to take a toll, and our original plans of being up before 2pm quickly vanished. Before it got too late though we dragged ourselves out of bed for the usual stroll down to Playa d'en Bossa for some lunch and beach time. While we were laid out on the sand a couple girls approached us trying to sell us tickets for a boat cruise the following day. We declined their offer but turns out they were Americans as well, attempting to work a season there. Things weren't coming easy for these two girls though, (their commission was only like 50 euros for every 10 tickets sold or something), plus they didn't get to Ibiza until late June so jobs were pretty scarce by then. Real friendly girls though and I was interested in hearing about their attempts at working a season over there, something I'm planning to do in a few years. We hung around for a couple hours then swung by Bora Bora for a drink. It was just after 4:30 by now so the loud music had just kicked on, but the place didn't seem that busy yet. In 2010 we went to Bora Bora just about every day, and I seem to remember it being a lot busier back then. Maybe it was just early though.

By about 6pm we headed back to the scooter and hit up a grocery store to get supplies for our annual “sunset picnic.” I say annual just because we did the same thing last year, but there's some cliffs we found on the southwest edge of the island that have spectacular views overlooking the Cala d'Hort beaches and Es Vedra off to the south. We went for a classy selection of drinks and food this year (compared to cider, beer, and potato chips the year prior) so this time we were equipped with a selection of cured meats, cheeses and crackers to accompany a bottle of red wine. It took a combination of memory, a few familiar sounding town names, and a good deal of luck to navigate the winding roads (forgot our map) but 20 minutes and only one wrong turn later, we found our favorite sunset spot on the island.

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Sunset over Cala d'Hort

The weather turned out perfect, and with hardly a cloud in the sky we got to enjoy our snacks while taking in some of the truly amazing scenery of Ibiza. It's easy to get caught in a nonstop drinking and partying cycle and completely miss some of the more beautiful sides of the island when you come for the clubbing, so this is one way we set aside some time to get out of the main towns and spend a little time enjoying the quiet parts of Ibiza away from the crowds and commotion. I picked up a cheap $5 pair of portable speakers with this exact evening in mind, so we had some mellow tunes to complete the ambiance. ;)

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Sunset Picnic


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Views of Es Vedra


Electronic Cigarettes?

After enjoying our second perfect sunset of the trip (first being during the boat party), we loaded our things back into the scooter and made our way back to Playa d'en Bossa. It was time to get back to business :twisted: Grabbed a quick kebab and picked up some beer and liquor and headed back to the hotel to get things going for our third night. We wasted no time getting the music fired up and putting some drinks down, and before long were feeling pretty good and ready to go. On the agenda for the night was the Colors party at Es Paradis, definitely not the biggest night of our trip, but Andy Moor was playing so we knew the music would be right up our alley and we had a wristband to get in for free, plus L had never been to Es Paradis before and was curious to check it out. The wristband required us to be in by 1am, so we were going to be smart this time and use the disco bus to get across the island instead of paying for more taxis. Shortly before midnight, we were out the door and making our way down to the bus stop.

While walking along the main strip we passed a couple few familiar faces in one of the restaurants. It was Steve and his friend from Space the first night! We ended up sitting down for a bit, having a drink and sharing stories of our trips so far. Steve and his friend were on their last night and had originally planned to see Carl Cox, but unfortunately his buddy was sick with an ear infection or something so Steve was planning to just make it a quiet night in. Soon as we got to chatting though, he decided he'd rather join us instead of staying in on his final night. I warned him it was a trance night so the music would be very different from Carl Cox, and his reply was “I love trance! I listen to Trance Around the World by Above & Beyond every week!” Fair enough, you'll have a blast come with us. We hit up a vendor real quick to snag him a discounted ticket, and by now it was past 12:30 and the clock was ticking to get into the club with our wristbands. Oh well, at least this time we had a third guy to split the cab with….

The drive went quick, the line wasn't long, and we made our cutoff by about 3 minutes. I was actually a bit surprised at how many people were already inside club, this being early on a less popular night. We wanted to be smart clubbers this year so we brought ear plugs to Ibiza, but this would turn out to be the only night we remembered to use them, ha, oh well. After a quick walk around the club, we grabbed a few drinks and got our dance on in the little circular area in the middle of the club. We had 2 pocket shots each this evening, so between those, a few beers, and all the stuff we put down before coming in things were escalating fast. Andy Moor took the decks sometime around 2:00, and this is when I noticed the club really didn't feel any fuller than when we had arrived. I also noticed most people had got in with the same wristband we used, meaning this was about it for attendance. I heard later on that this party never really going all season, too bad in my opinion cause it had some good names on the line ups plus I always thought the interior design of Es Paradis was cool. I may have to give Hed Kandi or one of their water parties a go just to see the place full someday….

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Colors @ Es Paradis

But in the state we were in, it could have been ram packed or only the three of us and we still would have had a blast. The music was good, the drinks were strong and we spent the night wandering the club, dancing, meeting new people, taking pictures with the DJ, and just having a good time. At one point L comes up to me after chatting with a group of girls for a bit asking for 10 euros. I hand her some cash assuming she's headed to the bar, but instead she comes back with an electronic cigarette that apparently the girls were in the club selling. I asked how it works and how you fill it up and stuff and she just replies: “I don't care! Look the end lights up when you inhale!” :rolleyes: This pretty much gives an idea of how the whole night went. Hey at least we weren't breaking the new no -smoking rules in the clubs for once.
Andy Moor played until about 3:30, and shortly after he finished the club really started to empty out. We decided we'd had enough and left sometime before 4, and by this point the club was really down to its last handful of people dancing in front of the DJ booth. Steve was very familiar with the bus system, and knew where to catch the Disco bus back to PDB. After we got off, we grabbed a hot dog and said our goodbyes, making plans to meet up again next summer. Doesn't really matter what night you go to in Ibiza, with the right crowd it can all be fun. :)

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The three of us in Es Paradis

On our way back to the hotel, L and I were commenting on how at least we were heading to bed before the sun came up and would feel better the next day. Somehow after another beer in the room, listening to music and hanging out a bit L decided she was hungry again and wanted food (she barely remembers this part of the night). So off we go out to the PDB strip to get our second serving of drunk munchies. KFC is the choice for round two, and we run into a group of British girls in line and strike up conversation. Can't really say I remember the conversation at all, but I do recall they had gone and seen 50 Cent at Privilege that night, and it confused me and L as to why anyone came to Ibiza for that kind of party. To each their own I suppose. We sat on the balcony of our hotel and ate our fried chicken and watched the sun slowly creep up over Ibiza. So much for that early night….


To be continued...
 
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If you do something twice, it's a tradition

Tuesday started out in a similar fashion to Monday. At this point the past two nights were starting to take a toll, and our original plans of being up before 2pm quickly vanished. Before it got too late though we dragged ourselves out of bed for the usual stroll down to Playa d'en Bossa for some lunch and beach time. While we were laid out on the sand a couple girls approached us trying to sell us tickets for a boat cruise the following day. We declined their offer but turns out they were Americans as well, attempting to work a season there. Things weren't coming easy for these two girls though, (their commission was only like 50 euros for every 10 tickets sold or something), plus they didn't get to Ibiza until late June so jobs were pretty scarce by then. Real friendly girls though and I was interested in hearing about their attempts at working a season over there, something I'm planning to do in a few years. We hung around for a couple hours then swung by Bora Bora for a drink. It was just after 4:30 by now so the loud music had just kicked on, but the place didn't seem that busy yet. In 2010 we went to Bora Bora just about every day, and I seem to remember it being a lot busier back then. Maybe it was just early though.

By about 6pm we headed back to the scooter and hit up a grocery store to get supplies for our annual “sunset picnic.” I say annual just because we did the same thing last year, but there's some cliffs we found on the southwest edge of the island that have spectacular views overlooking the Cala d'Hort beaches and Es Vedra off to the south. We went for a classy selection of drinks and food this year (compared to cider, beer, and potato chips the year prior) so this time we were equipped with a selection of cured meats, cheeses and crackers to accompany a bottle of red wine. It took a combination of memory, a few familiar sounding town names, and a good deal of luck to navigate the winding roads (forgot our map) but 20 minutes and only one wrong turn later, we found our favorite sunset spot on the island.

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Sunset over Cala d'Hort

The weather turned out perfect, and with hardly a cloud in the sky we got to enjoy our snacks while taking in some of the truly amazing scenery of Ibiza. It's easy to get caught in a nonstop drinking and partying cycle and completely miss some of the more beautiful sides of the island when you come for the clubbing, so this is one way we set aside some time to get out of the main towns and spend a little time enjoying the quiet parts of Ibiza away from the crowds and commotion. I picked up a cheap $5 pair of portable speakers with this exact evening in mind, so we had some mellow tunes to complete the ambiance. ;)

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Sunset Picnic


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Views of Es Vedra

Nice review so far 8) Partner and me got engaged on them cliffs earlier on in the season:D
 
**Authors note: Sorry for the delay, I'm blaming this on the damned internet over here in Afghanistan. Costs me $60 a month and it's barely up half the time. Anyhow this has been done for the better part of a week, but here we go...


Pools, Girls, Shots, and Commercial House: Ushuaia

By day 4 all the partying was really takings its toll. Despite sleeping in past 3pm we still woke up feeling very rough. Not even the usual splash in the sea and kebab for lunch seemed to do the trick this time. Losing a day to a hang over in Ibiza is expected and nothing out of the ordinary especially given our schedule thus far, and since the clubs don't get going till well past midnight, its not a big deal if you still feel like junk even up until dinner time. Unfortunately, it was Wednesday and we had tickets to see Axwell and Dirty South at Ushuaia that evening. Alcohol was out of the question for the first few hours, and it wasn't until we grabbed dinner that our bodies finally started feeling even remotely normal. I forget the name of the restaurant we ate at, but it was on the main PDB strip near the Jet Apartments, the one with the wooden support beams and the live seafood on display. Paella was the goal, and we succeeded. The portions were ample, and we had a table right by the sidewalk which was great for people watching. Over the course of dinner, we split a bottle of the house wine and gradually started to get back in the swing of things. The hang over was fading, but it had put us pretty far behind schedule. By the time we finished dinner it was already past 7:30pm, and speculations as to set times were that Dirty South was due on at any moment. We made a quick stop to pick up some beer and red bulls, but were still in no condition for heavy chugging at the last minute. We snagged a couple extra pocket shots figuring we would need them later in the evening, and made our way to the entrance around 8:30. I wasn't able to finish my vodka red bull, and stuck the open can in my back pocket and surprisingly snuck it inside with relative ease.

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Heading into Ushuaia

Once inside we were relieved/surprised to find out Axwell and Dirty South were going b2b that night, and they weren't due to start until 9 so we wouldn't be missing anything, awesome! :p I know a lot of people don't like the whole Swedish House Mafia thing and think they're too commercial etc. but I enjoy their music and you can always count on an energetic set and a very enthusiastic crowd, which is a big reason I go to Ibiza in the first place. Another thing I noticed (and I'm not sure if this is the result of the venue or the party) but the place was full of gorgeous women. It seemed they were everywhere you looked, plus it was Ushuaia so a fair amount of people were dressed pretty well. Normally I'm not a big fan of dressing up for clubs like in Vegas or Miami, sometimes things can get a bit pretentious and people seem more concerned with taking pictures and looking serious in the VIP booth instead of dancing, but the crowd here still seemed very fun and up for it, so it worked. We headed for the bar to grab a few sodas to make our drinks and then found a nice spot to hang out near the pool with a great view of the dj booth and the whole club.

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Ushuaia

Once inside it took no time at all to completely forget the hangover and jump back into party mode. Our pocket shots were used up in the first half hour, and we spent the first bit of our evening dancing around the club, taking shots from each of the different bars, and drinking beer. I remember some sort of deal where if you bought 6 beers at once they were cheaper, so there was definitely a moment where we were both dancing our asses off with 3 beers each just having a blast. L and I have seen all the members of SHM together and separately, and normally the sets are all pretty similar, but that didn't seem to be the case tonight. Maybe it was because of Dirty South? Some of the big hits were still there, but the djs seemed to be having fun and branching out more with a good deal of tracks I didn't recognize but still liked. It's always a good time when DJs you're familiar with surprise you. :D

All this drinking inevitably led to my least favorite part about Ushuaia, the restrooms. The club seems to have just about everything else down perfect, but it's a pain in the ass just to take a piss! The lines were long, and we had to get escorted through part of the hotel in groups by a member of the staff. You would think a little more thought would have been put into restroom accessibility when building a brand new super club :spank: Inevitably, the line for the ladies was longer so I grabbed myself a vodka lemon (delicious!!!) while I waited for L to come out. While standing outside the restroom minding my own business listening to the music, two girls approached me and asked me if I was American. I was a little surprised by the question, but said yes and asked how they knew. My clothes? Hairstyle? Nope, apparently it was the way I was dancing. I didn't think I was really moving much at all, but I guess something gave it away. Though they denied it, I'm fairly certain that was code for “bad dancer,” but hey they were cute so I went with it 8) Turns out one of them was also American, she was spending the summer in France working as a Nanny for a wealthy couple and whenever they went on vacation, she got to tag along to take care of the kids. Ibiza works out perfectly for this, kids go to bed right as the nightlife is starting to take off, so all she had to do was struggle through a few hang overs on the beach during the day and got an all-expenses paid trip to go party it up on the White Isle. Not a bad deal, especially since the family also let her bring one of her friends she met in France. By now L had emerged from the bathroom and we chatted with the girls for a while. I was in a pretty rowdy mood, so rather than spend the rest of the night talking I proposed everyone get shots and head up to the front! :twisted:

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Axwell and Dirty South

We choked down some vodka and proceeded to make our way up towards the stage. Obviously it was very crowded up there, so one or two ice cannons later our new friends were nowhere in sight. This didn't bother me though, I was having a blast and by now Axwell was starting to crank out all the SHM bangers for the last half hour of the set. It was while “Miami 2 Ibiza” was being played that I noticed another girl next to me seemed to be inching closer and closer and I caught her looking over a few times. Like I mentioned earlier, the place seemed to be crawling with beautiful women this particular night; it's a shame beans wasn't there I'm sure he could have scored at least 10 dances in the last hour alone. Alas I was taken on this trip to Ibiza, but I still may have snuck in a “hello” during the breakdown in one of the songs ;) Well as midnight loomed closer, the crowd was worked up into a frenzy and Ushuaia was firing off all the fireworks, lasers, ice cannons and confetti you could ever ask for. The night concluded with a sing-along of “Save the World,” and afterwards the music stopped, the lights came back on, and the crowd started to empty. Another huge night at Ushuaia under our belts.

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Final moments of the night


Crossroads

Needless to say, we left the venue still buzzing, wired, and also quite drunk. We had tossed around a few ideas for what we might do after the show earlier, but decided to wait and see how we were feeling before buying anything ahead of time. First order of business was food, so we decided to discuss options over a few slices of nice greasy pizza. We headed over to the same pizza joint by Jet Apartments, grabbed some food and watched all the busy revelers walking by on the street. Within in a few minutes of sitting down, some guy came up to our table and started babbling on about something I can't remember. Well it just so happens that this guy was also American (haven't run into so many of us in one trip ever before, Ibiza must be catching on back in the U.S.) and he had also just stumbled out of Ushuaia. We got to chatting a bit, and turns out he was also from Rochester, New York which is where L grew up. Small world. We invited him to sit down and join us for some food, but his choice of recreation that night left him without much of an appetite ;) At this point, he offered to sell us the rest of his stash, for he was flying out the next day and didn't need any more that night. Originally, L and I had not planned to do anything besides drink on this trip, but some combination of knowing (kind of) the quality of the product, the drinks from earlier, and our rowdy mood, our minds seemed to have changed. As L put it later, “Before I knew it, M was in an alley buying drugs from a guy we just met.”

After the exchange we parted ways, he went off to go find his friends and we started walking back to the hotel. By now it was pushing 1 am, and it was time to decide what we were doing for the rest of the evening. These were the options:

1. Head to Amnesia for their foam party (something we've still yet to do)

2. Head to Pacha for Subliminal (not a real big fan of Erick Morillo, but AN21 and Max Vangeli whom I've yet to see were also on the bill, though their music would likely be similar to what we just saw)

3. Head to Space for Be (Michael Woods and Mark Knight were playing; we're fans of the former and haven't seen the latter.)

4. Head to Sankeys for Viva Warriors (nothing we're familiar with musically, but we really wanted to check out Sankeys and someone gave us wristbands earlier to get in for 15 euros each)

5. Head back to the hotel, call it an early night, get some sleep and make the most of our last full day on the island.


Decisions, decisions, decisions……
 
Nice review, those pocket shots are awesome!! Wish we could get them in the UK!

Any more to come?
 
Had most of this done back in the fall, but never really got around to finishing it, then had a computer crash on me....anyhow enough excuses, my next Ibiza trip is right around the corner so its high time I finish my 2012 review before my next one is due! Sorry for the delay, but hope you enjoy the final installment!

The Last Hurrah!

There aren't many places where going to bed at 1:30 am is considered an early night, but Ibiza is one of them. By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were starting to feel the wear and tear of going non-stop thus far, and decided to save our euros, rest up for our final day and call it an early night. Not the most exciting choice :oops:, but looking back definitely worth it.

We woke up around 10am Thursday morning feeling the best we'd felt all week. It's amazing what a good night's rest can do for you after a 4 day bender. Refreshed and rejuvenated, we headed out for some beach time and shopping. Actually being out of the room before noon felt like an accomplishment, so we celebrated by getting breakfast, a meal long since forgotten on this trip. Satisfied with a full English breakfast in our stomachs, we jumped on the scooter and headed to Las Salinas beach. Slightly embarrassed to admit, but this was the first time in 4 visits I'd seen a beach besides Playa d'en Bossa :spank: It was a tad crowded, but we staked out a good spot and proceeded to relax and nap in the warm sun. We jumped in the water a few times, and noticed the water seemed to be clearer and cooler than in nearby PBD (I attribute this to less piss and spilled beer from Bora Bora). We went for a walk past the crowds, southeast towards the rocky outcroppings that hide a multitude of smaller, more intimate patches of sand. The scenery was gorgeous, and our final day on the island was shaping up to be a memorable one.

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Rocky shores and coves near Las Salinas

Also on the agenda for today was shopping. After a great early afternoon in Las Salinas, we headed back towards the hotel and then onto Ibiza Town. L had a few people to shop for, I snagged myself a Privilege t-shirt, and after a quick kebab snack, the sun was starting to sink lower in the sky and it was about time to start preparing for our final evening and night out. I returned the scooter while L headed back to the room to start showering and changing. Cream was on the agenda, the grand finale, and I know of no better way to prepare for it than a bar crawl through the West End :twisted:. We wanted to catch a sunset on the sunset strip, so we headed out early in order to figure out the buses and avoid paying for another cab. Still not sure why they don't have a San An- PDB direct line during the day, but the bus driver was nice and let us know where to get off and how to connect. Right after we got off the first bus, I realized we forgot to grab our presale tickets off the table in our hotel room! At 45 euros each, there was no way we were just going to leave them, so we grabbed a taxi from Ibiza Town back to our hotel. By now it was getting late, and we would miss the sunset if we tried the bus again. You win again, Ibiza taxis.
A short ride later we were across the island and taking in the beautiful views along the sunset strip. We had a big night ahead of us, so decided a lighter dinner fare would be best, and settled on Kama Sushi on the south end of the strip. We got a table right on edge of the seating area with unobstructed views of the ocean as another perfect sunset commenced without a cloud in the sky. :D

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Dinner on the Sunset Strip

The sushi was delicious, the sangria was refreshing, and the views were perfect. You couldn't have asked for a better day so far, and the night was still young. By the time we wrapped up dinner and headed up towards Mambo, the FMIF pre-party was in full swing with Sidney Samson cranking out some very loud, aggressive electro-house. We grabbed a drink and watched the gathering crowd. A fire dancer was performing down on the rocks and had attracted quite an audience. The atmosphere all around was buzzing, and so were we, now onto our 5[SUP]th[/SUP] or 6[SUP]th[/SUP] drink each. While L was taking a bathroom break, I noticed Mambo had several copies of DJ Mag's Ibiza Guide issue laid out on a table, so I picked up a copy as a souvenir since I didn't have a subscription to the magazine this year. After 30 minutes or so and the second round of 12 euro mojitos, we'd had enough of Mambo and took the plunge into the West End.
Though it gets very mixed reviews, I personally like the West End for what it is. Great drink deals, easy to make friends, and just about every kind of bar you can imagine all crammed into a couple blocks. We managed to fend off the first few waves of PRs and made our way to Tropi, our favorite bar in the area. For those who haven't been, their music policy is the only thing that really sets it apart from all the others. Trance. Lots of trance. Lots of very loud trance. We said hi to the dj (who was one of the promoters for the Driftwood Boat Cruise whom we had made friends with on Monday) and grabbed ourselves some vodka Red Bulls and took a seat. By now we were both starting to feel quite tipsy, and started singing along to a string of vocal trance hits being played. Several others in the bar noticed and joined in, and soon there was a decent little group of us all yelling at the top of our lungs the lyrics to tunes like “Sun and Moon,” “Home,” and “Concrete Angel.” Rounds of shots kept appearing, and our little impromptu group was getting louder and more enthusiastic with each song. This kept up for a bit, but eventually we decided we'd better take off or else risk getting stuck there till 5 am :!: Drunk and defenseless, we were no match for the army of PRs and were soon roped into another bar just a few spots down from the Tropi. Naturally, 10 euros bought more alcohol than two people could hope to finish in a week, but we accepted the challenge and got to work. Halfway through our second pitcher it was obvious we couldn't finish it all, so we took the shots and headed out. Our light dinner was wearing off, so a stop at KFC was in order. After what was probably the most delicious chicken sandwich I've ever had in my life, we escaped the West End and headed towards the Ibiza Rocks Bar where buses to Amnesia were supposedly picking up Cream-goers. It was just a bit past midnight by now, so we grabbed a couple beers and joined the line for the buses that was forming inside the bar.

While in line, we struck up conversation with a couple guys from London. We told them about how the next day we were flying there, and discussed our plans of going to the Ministry of Sound and then seeing the Swedish House Mafia at Milton Keynes Bowl that weekend. One of them made some remark about how MoS stays open until like 8am, clearly sleep was not on the immediate horizon ;). After a few minutes, the bar staff took a wave of us outside and across the street to one of the double-decker Amnesia buses. These buses are my favorite way of getting to Amnesia or Privilege. Even more so than the disco-bus, everyone is drunk and excited and in a chatty mood, plus you have the added fact everyone is going to the same place.

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All Aboard! Next Stop: Cream!

Well needless to say the 1:15 bus to Amnesia on a Thursday is a pretty rowdy one, and there was plenty of hooting and hollering going on. Not entirely sure how they pulled this off, but some group of people in the back had snuck a whole case of beer aboard :eek: and were going to town on it, sharing it with other passengers, myself and L included. They were excited to hear we were Americans, and one of them got to talking about how he was headed over to live in California in a few months. They were a mix of Ibiza virgins and veterans themselves, and as usual were surprised to hear how many times we'd made it to the White Isle. One of them asked me what I was doing with a magazine, and I told them I was keeping it as a souvenir, and that I was going to stash it in the bushes outside Amnesia and grab it on the way out. He seemed skeptical of my plan, and granted after a night in Amnesia there's no telling what could happen. There was a big cheer as soon as the bus pulled up to the club, and we got off and made our way around to the entrance. The line for presale tickets was considerably shorter than the regular line (go Spotlight! 8)) , so it took no time at all to enter. No pat down by the bouncers so our efforts at hiding cameras and more serious contraband were unnecessary, and just like that we were inside and ready for our last night out of the trip.

First stop was the restrooms of course, and despite it being only 1:40 or so this took a minute to navigate for the club was already rammed. After picking up a Red Bull to go with my last Pocket Shot (only water for L at this point, she was nearly over the edge and wanted to remember this years' Cream Party a bit more than last years') we posted up in my favorite spot in the Amnesia Main Room: facing the booth just left of center, even with the ice cannon. Can't say I remember anything out of the ordinary for the opening DJ, but he seemed to have the crowd nice and warmed up for Above & Beyond who were due on at any minute. Finished my vodka and made one more quick trip to the bar for a beer and it was 2:00 and Above and Beyond literally came running into the booth. It was Paavo and Tony providing the tunes for the evening, and they proceeded to smash out the usual combination of Group Therapy tracks and current Anjunabeats releases. Quick side note, I would later go on to see Above & Beyond three more times within the next two months after this night, and was extremely disappointed with how similar all 4 sets were :rolleyes:. However, this was the first time I'd seen them in a while (probably had been about a year), so I was loving it! :p Our plan was to take our party favors right after their into, but we were so enthralled with the tune selection it took until the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] or 5[SUP]th[/SUP] song before we finally (reluctantly) pulled away for a quick trip to the restroom stalls.

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Cream @ Amnesia

Did the deed and then it was right back to our favorite spot for some more dancing, hands in the air, fist pumping, jumping, cheering, chatting with strangers and everything else you do on a trance night in Amnesia. I was having a blast, and before I know it L is tugging on my arm asking if I'm “feeling anything yet.” I hadn't been paying attention, but it had been a solid 45 minutes at least and I still wasn't feeling even the slightest effects of our last trip to the restroom. Oh well, I guess they may have been duds. Rather than go “shopping” inside the club, we gave it 5 more minutes, then just gave up and headed back to the bar. Bad idea. Literally the moment we returned to our spot after picking up a round of beers the ice cannon went off and as soon as the smoke cleared, it hit like a wall :eek:. Turns out they were quite potent after all, and L was in the same boat. I guess it all depends on what you get, but some nights I can still drink while rolling, other nights I can't. This was going to be a non-drinking night, and I'm pretty sure I held onto that warm beer till at least 6:00 am. The combination of the come-up and being pretty drunk makes the next hour or so a bit fuzzy, but we had a blast and suddenly the little messages they were typing up on the LED screens seemed more and more profound.

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Profound Messages on the Big Screen

Somewhere in the back half of their set we decided to wander over to the Terrace and check out a little bit of Laidback Luke. I'm not a big fan of the guy, some of the “big-room house” tracks he plays I can get into, but I've noticed in the past he'll throw in some pretty obscure selections. Our rule with Laidback Luke is we'll watch until he starts playing dumb stuff, and on this particular night we barely made it to a spot towards the back that wasn't completely rammed before some Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit remix or something was being played. I guess throwing in an old rock song is cool, and the crowd was definitely going off, but given the state we were in this just wasn't working out, so we made a bee-line right back to the Main Room in time for Above & Beyond's predictable “Sun and Moon”-invite someone from the crowd to hit the drop- antics. Even at this time I was well over that song, but again given our state a little sing along went down just fine. Shortly after this they played their final track, an acoustic version of “On A Good Day.” I could see this working well if it was 7:00 am and the night was almost over, or if you were closing out the main stage at some big festival, but at 4:00 am right as Cream @ Amnesia is at its peak and most rampaging? Bad move in my opinion, sorry guys :confused:. Others in the crowd seemed a tad confused as well, but there was still a decent contingent singing along to the popular lyrics. Once the track ended Above & Beyond waved goodbye, and Gareth Emery took to the decks. He opened with “The Saga,” the ice cannon went off and just like that the party was back on track where it was before the questionable ending of A&B. I'm a pretty big fan of Gareth, of all the former trance DJs who have started drifting towards that electro-house realm, I think he pulls it off fairly well (don't get me started on Sander van Doorn on the other hand….:evil: ). He was cranking out a nice mix of the current trance hits and big-room house anthems, with a few of his own productions mixed in, and the crowd was really going off. As L would later describe the set: “It was just like his podcast! All of my favorite trance and progressive house tunes mixed together!” I'm not sure when this happened, but sometime well after 5:00 I looked around and noticed the guy/girl ratio seemed to be nowhere near where it started, looks like it was going to be mostly dudes holding it down till the end, oh well! 6:00 am started to draw closer and closer, and the effects of our “supplements” were starting to wear down so we migrated towards the back of the Main Room by the bar. At about 5 minutes till, we decided to call it a night, hoping to catch one of the last buses back to PDB because neither of us was in the mood to try and find a cab or negotiate the large crowds that ensue once the music stops. The main room was still very full at this time, and he didn't seem close to stopping. We ducked our heads into the Terrace on the way out, and it was completely dead (maybe 100 people left, I feel bad for whoever they had closing there).

We stumbled out of Amnesia, ears ringing, still buzzing, into the cool morning air, and made our way back around to where the buses pick up at. I snatched my magazine out of the planter box, and we jumped aboard one of the buses headed to PDB. The journey was quiet for the most part, and we hopped off somewhere near Bora Bora. Food was out of the question this particular morning, but we swung by a supermarket to pick up some water before heading back to the hotel. Upon arrival, we sat on the balcony for a bit watching the sunrise and reflected on our trip. It definitely a good one and it really is funny how you get “better” at doing Ibiza each time you visit. We went to more parties :twisted:, met more people :D, drank WAY more :eek:, and still managed to see a fair amount of what the island has to offer 8). Up next for us was a quick trip to London, but in the back of my mind I was already planning my return in 2013.

We learned our lesson from 2011 :idea:, and booked an afternoon flight out of Ibiza instead of a morning one, so after we got a little sleep and checked out of the hotel, we still had time to get lunch and do some last minute shopping for t-shirts and souvenirs. Eventually though, it was time to make our way to the airport. After checking our bags, I stepped outside to snap a few pics of the airport (doesn't make for nearly as good a photo now that they changed the signs, but oh well). Turns out I wasn't the only one with that idea, Paavo (from A&B) was also outside taking pictures of the terminal so had a little chat with him. Real nice guy, and it was funny telling him how we were going to see them play again in Denver the following weekend. Turns out he was also on the same flight to London as us (A&B's management books them on Ryanair? Yuck).

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Photographers at the Airport

And just like that, Ibiza 2012 came to a close. Even before we started this trip, we had a lot of people interested in coming along for 2013, so the initial planning for my next trip began almost immediately. By November we had our dates figured out and the group mostly picked, and by January 2013 we had our villa reserved. Now I'm mere days from heading back to my favorite place in the world, and am actually a bit nervous in a strange way. Time to see if a vacation I've been planning for over 9 months can live up to the anticipation! I'm returning with 9 people this time, and we have a villa rented. We're doing 8 nights starting on the 18[SUP]th[/SUP], so a considerably longer trip than I've ever done. If you're going to be in Ibiza this upcoming week, send me a message!

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!!
 
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