A new benchmark

Jack87

Member
I was going to leave it a few days before thinking about writing a review, if I was to write one at all. I've just woken up after a much needed 11 hour sleep, having arrived home at about 1am this morning. My suitcase is still in the hallway and I have no intention of dealing with that yet. Ibiza is still fresh on my mind, and I'm worried that I'll soon forget the little details that really make these reviews a good read. I haven't really written anything meaningful since leaving college in 2004, apart from a CV, and I'm worried that I won't be able to do the holiday any justice with my limited creative writing skills. But sod it, I've enjoyed reading about other member's experiences, so I feel I should have a crack anyway.


A bit of history

This was to be our first Ibiza trip since September 2010, having also been in June 2008 and August 2009. It was just the two of us going this time, and the only two that had made all of the previous trips. It was just us when we drove down as part of a European road trip in 2008, 7 of us in 2009, then 4 of us in 2010. So there was myself - a 25 year old lad, and my best mate, TS (26). Three girls that we went to school/college with were due to fly out for the last three nights of our week and were staying in San An, so we'd agreed to meet up for a night out or two during their stay.

We'd always stayed in San Antonio in previous years. It was fine for our first couple of trips, but as we were getting older and our tastes in music had changed considerably since our early twenties, we decided that it would be a good idea to give it a go in PDB this year. After a bit of research and price comparison, we decided on the Jabeque Apartments at a very reasonable €424 for the week between the two of us. Everything was organised and booked in June, and the agonising countdown to our Ibiza return was on.


The calm before the storm

Fri 21st Sept - The day has finally come, and we're absolutely buzzing. We've got a convenient 6.05pm flight from Bournemouth, only a 30-40 minute drive. I headed to TS's place early, via the travel agent to pick up some Euros. We had a couple of ciders and played some FIFA to kill the time, and talked about our expectations for the week ahead. We left plenty of time to get to the airport as the roads from Southampton to Bournemouth are notoriously ****e on a Friday. No such problems today however, so we had to stand about for an hour before being allowed to check our suitcases in :rolleyes: and get through to departures. A couple of overpriced pints of cider and more talk about the week ahead saw us through to the announcement to board our flight.
An on-time and uneventful flight was just what we were hoping for, and what we got. Seatbelt lights out, Raffa FL's podcast from 'I Voice Music Box' on (highly recommended), and we were touching down in Ibiza in no time. One of the many advantages to staying in PDB is the proximity to the airport. We landed at 9.30pm and had checked into the Jabeque apartments within an hour. Our first impressions were that we'd got an absolute bargain. Spacious, sea view on the 3rd floor, working air conditioning and a reasonably equipped kitchenette. We quickly unpacked, showered, and decided to walk down to d'en Bossa. We were too late to bother with Ushuaia for Sasha, and totally unprepared to pay €50 each for a night at Pacha. Bollocks to that, we knew we'd have plenty of opportunities to pay loads of money to do our best sardine impressions later on in the week.

So an easy walk along the front from our Apartment towards PDB, past the Algarb, saw us to the bars and shops in no more than about 15 minutes. The area was new to us. We'd been to PDB before to go to Space a few times but never really explored as we'd always been in taxis or on buses to hit the clubs straight away. We stopped for a couple at Top 21. 2-for-1 on most of the drinks, a lively atmosphere and table service made it a decent place to stop and have a few drinks, which we did. We went downstairs to check out the club part of the place but it was dead so we moved on after finishing our drinks. We (wisely) walked straight past Murphy's next door and decided to head to Bora Bora as we were a fair few drinks down, and in the mood for something lively. A €10 bottle of cider each and we made our way out the back and down to near the DJ. It wasn't busy there, but there were enough people dancing and having a good time to make it worth staying until we got thirsty again after the ciders ran out. We'd decided not to get too smashed or stay out late as the following day was set to be a scorcher and we wanted to be up early, so we called it a night and walked back to the apartment at about 4am. All in all, a very pleasant first night on the island, taking into account that we'd planned to have a quiet one.

Sat 22nd Sept - None of the nights on the island had really caught our eye for Saturday, and the following 5 nights had the potential to be huge, so we decided that we'd get up early and get the bus to San An for the day. We'd heard the day before that today's weather was due to be brilliant, and we weren't disappointed. I took this at about 9am from our balcony:


We sat on the balcony enjoying the sun for a couple of hours, showered, and then set off towards Ibiza town to find the bus stop. In hindsight, we should have got in a cab to Eivissa. It must have been 28 or 29 degrees at 1pm with not a cloud in the sky, and it's a bit of a walk to the bus stop. It's a nice walk around the bay through Figueretas, and we agreed that we'd have to find somewhere nice to eat here a couple of times. The rest of the walk is a pain in the arse though, hiking boots are recommended rather than brand new Vans without socks, which will do your feet plenty of damage. Terrible decision to go with the latter. :rolleyes: It's a big climb up and over the hill from the beach into Ibiza town, and we worked up a fair sweat in the heat of the middle of the day. The walk took about 25 minutes in total, and we were relieved to find the air conditioning on the number 3 bus was working well. We arrived at the Bus Station in San An at about 2pm, and walked down the beach to Ibiza Rocks Bar to grab some lunch in the sun. You really can't go wrong with a lump of chicken in a pitta, with coleslaw, wedges and half a lager for under €10. We both added a pint to that order, got a decent seat in the sun, and life is good. Plenty to look at too, the beach was busy due to the weather being so good, and the girls were busy at work trying to get people in for body painting for Zoo Project later that day. One of them was repeatedly painting the palm of her hand with rainbow stripes, and leaving big multicoloured handprints on unsuspecting passers by, which provided some good entertainment.

Both myself and TS are big football fans, I'm a Southampton season ticket holder and he's a Pompey fan :lol: so we wanted to find a bar to keep an eye on the football. We decided to take the plunge and head up the West End to find a bar. As expected, it was busy with pissed lads in replica football kits. That's not our thing at all, but we wanted to catch the football so you're not left with much choice. Sat and chatted to some Sunderland fans and watched as Southampton brilliantly came from a goal down to beat Villa 4-1. Oh, and Pompey got stuffed 3-0 by Notts County which TS was less than happy with. :D We left after the football and walked up to The Boozer to see John and the lads as we used to prefer that bar as a cheap West End option before going out. We sat and drank, and lost track of time as we'd planned to be down at Mambo before sunset. By the time we'd walked down there, via a shop for a bag of Rekorderligs, we'd just missed the sunset which was a shame as I'm sure it was a good one at the end of such a nice day. Despite that, it was going to be a nice place to sit and chill for a while. We sat on the wooden seating at the back of Mambo, drank our cider, chatted to a load of randoms around us, then listened to most of Solumun's set as he was DJing a pre-party at Mambo. Decent set and all in all a pleasant evening, topped off with a woman throwing fire around on the beach which we kept an eye on:





Pretty pissed by now, we walked back up to The Boozer where we met a couple of girls from Durham on their last night and had a few drinks with them. They had a transfer at 7am or something stupid like that so wanted to get back early. I can't remember how or why, but the 4 of us ended up in Plastik till gone 4am. It was cheesy but we had fun anyway, they were good company and we were all smashed. Hope they got to their flight ok, we got a taxi back to the apartment to sleep off the alcohol. We were very much in the mood for some proper nights now, and couldn't wait for the madness of the rest of the holiday.

More soon...
 
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Just a couple of things I meant to include in that first post. Just reading it back sort of took me back there and jogged my memory. I was going to mention something about the title of the review being about how much better this Ibiza trip was than previous ones, and trying to work out how and why, and how to surpass that in our next trip. I suppose it'll all come together in the end when it's written and read back. The other thing was I remembered why we were out so late and dancing. I went to Ibiza meaning to meet someone early in the holiday to rely on for 'supplies'. I remember chatting to a worker who was selling, so bought some X factors from him to 'test drive', and took his number for more if they were good. I remember doing a half to start with, came up gently so did one more before needing to go and be a bit mental somewhere - I had wanted to go to Itaca but the girls didn't want to walk that far, so we went to Plastik. Amazing what you forget in a week. :eek:


Sun 23rd Sept - We Love @ Space

So, after waking up feeling rough, we cooked up some food in the apartment, showered, then walked down to d'en Bossa to catch the football. The weather wasn't brilliant so we didn't feel like we were missing much by watching the football. We were late for the first game so watched at Murphy's, then along to Tantra for the second game, via Bora Bora to check out what it's like during the afternoon. Nothing to report on much of that day, it just passed us by but with the excitement building for the night ahead. Out of all of the nights we'd booked before we came, We Love was the one I was most looking forward to. We walked back to the apartment, stopping at the shop to stock up the fridge with alcohol, and sat out on the balcony drinking with the music up loud, as we always do to start a night off. This was when we met our new next door neighbours, who would become a big part of our Ibiza story.

We got talking over the wall of our balcony, and these 3 girls from Norfolk, all in their early 30's, had just arrived that afternoon. It turned out that it was their first stay in the area as well, and they were wondering about where to start a night off in PDB. They were also going to Space that night so we drank and talked at the apartments till about midnight, then set off towards PDB. We went to Top 21 as I'd said it was ok, but we couldn't get a table so we went further down on the same side and sat in a bar that I can't remember the name of. We got a 2 for 1 offer on borderline undrinkable vodka/rum and cokes, and free shots that tasted like I imagine battery acid would. One to avoid. Our only remaining task before heading to Space was to find some supplies, as I hadn't been to San An yet to pick more up for the week. This proves more difficult in PDB. I try to avoid buying from looky men or locals, and just as I finished explaining to the girls that we need to find a shady looking English bloke, one came over from another table in the bar and asked for a lighter. It turned out that one of his mates had some X factors to sell and he'd bring them over in a bit. Result.

So off we went to Space, I was REALLY looking forward to this now. One X factor down and in we went to make our way straight to the Terraza just in time for the start of James Zabiela's set. I've seen JZ twice before - once in Sankeys in Manchester and once at Exit Festival, and he is one of my favourite DJs. We picked a good spot on the podium opposite the DJ booth and agreed with the girls that that was the place to find everyone if you get lost. Poor quality photo but a great view of everything from where we were stood:



I'd been bigging him up to the girls and was happy that he didn't disappoint. He was incredible. I love the energy of his sets and he really builds with and works the crowd, and always looks like he's enjoying himself. I had foolishly drunk a lot and done 2 and a half X factors before his set finished, and I wish I could remember and recognise more of the tracks he played. I do remember the last 20 minutes or so being absolutely ridiculous. He's got so many tricks up his sleeve - the scratching, the iPad and scratching on that, and some other gadget he was using like a piano, but created some crazy mash-up of Born Slippy. The crowd was going mental for it and I was having a great time. Best set of the week by a distance. I went for a bottle of water and a wander around the main room after his set then returned to my spot on the podium as 2manydjs were on after Zabiela, and I was keen to see that. I was well and truly mashed by this point and can't remember many specifics about the set, but I know I was having a good time. They dropped Human League 'Don't you want me' which changed the mood in there and kind of slowed everything down, but you wouldn't expect anything else from 2manydjs, they're always doing something different. *thanks to greeny for the PM reminding me of that* Loved their white 3 piece suits as well. The girls' legs had given up so they said goodbye and left myself and TS to party at about 5am I think. We got talking to a group of lads and girls near us, they were younger but clearly knew their music and we were all having a top night, and we all stayed dancing until the very end. It was at this point I realised how exhausted I was. The 20 minute walk from Space seemed like a 20 mile walk, and I was still spangled from the tablets.

It's hard to keep this review split up into days. Days don't really mean anything in Ibiza, it's more based around the few hours before, during and after a night out. Ibiza days are only really defined by the official start time of a party, which in most cases is only a minute before the start of the next day. Or something like that. Anyway, the period of time immediately after Space was officially Monday morning, according to my phone, so.....


Monday 24th Sept - FBS @ Ushuaia and Armin @ Privilege

Sleep was impossible and I gave up trying after moving between the bedroom, the sofa, and the balcony several times. I think I accepted that I'd be up until Tuesday morning at about 10am, and sat on the balcony to try to sweat it out a bit, but again the weather wasn't very good. I took this pic of the water and Ibiza town sometime after sunrise:



I can't really remember much about that afternoon, I guess we just chilled at the hotel. I think that was one of the days we had a marathon table tennis session. Hard work after zero sleep. When booking Ibiza we had said we wanted to ensure that we ticked the new clubs off the list, so we had to fit Ushuaia and Sankeys in at some point. Ushuaia would have been good on Friday, but we arrived too late for it to be worth it, so we booked up Fatboy Slim, Jaguar Skills etc for Monday. Myself and TS headed off, the girls next door hadn't booked anything for tonight. We arrived just in time for the start of Jaguar skills, and having spent €24 on 2x33cl bottles of beer :eek: we made our way to the front to get a good view. Easier said than done, the place was rammed. I quite like Jaguar Skills, high tempo and something different. Out of the 2 sets, I got into his more. Fatboy Slim followed, and the place was even busier. It was too busy, and there seemed to be endless amounts of people trying to walk round and round the whole place. Most didn't bother trying to find a gap, they'd walk straight through you if they could. I find this most common with Spanish and Italians, they couldn't give a sh*t if they chuck drinks all over you, shove you into someone. The last 45 minutes or so, a lot of big yellow balls got thrown into the crowd, and the Spanish tossers we had stood behind us were jumping through people trying to hit them, sending people and drinks everywhere. I gave up, walked past the side of the stage and watched the end of the set from the side. It really p*ssed me off, maybe I was less tolerant because I was tired. Dunno.

We left Ushuaia at 12, bought a couple of Rekorderlig each, and drank them before heading to the taxi rank at Space to grab a taxi to Privilege. This was about as eventful as the night was to get. We were at the back of the taxi queue, and an argument between two groups of lads was happening up the front. In no time there was a 15 man brawl underway, people knocked out, flying kicks aimed at heads etc. The security staff from Space were a bit slow to react but didn't hold back when they got on the scene. We were pleased when two young girls at the front shouted along the queue, asking if anyone else was heading to Privilege, and we were the only people joining them so off we went. They were very young and a bit irritating after a while, so we made them pay half the cab fare, lost them in the queue and didn't see them again. We'd suspected they were after a free ride. Laters!

We haven't been to a Trance night in a long time, but used to really enjoy them so we thought it was going to be a good one. Wrong. Markus Schulz was on when we got there, we bought a drink each and headed up to the dance floor below the DJ booth. We just couldn't get into it, to many 'soft female vocal' tracks in a row, and regular 'hands in the air' moments when the atmosphere really hadn't been built for it. It just felt so flat in there, not like I remembered it. We waited for Armin van Buuren to come on, and nothing changed. The dancers with the ice guns looked cool, but that dragged on for ages, then the cage being dropped from the ceiling took forever and took up loads of the dance floor, it all just seemed completely pointless and dull, so we gave up and left at about 4am. I was really disappointed, and wondered if it was the night that was rubbish, or our tastes had changed. I'll go for the former, I still like Trance and would loved for Cream Closing to be a week later, and altough he's got a bit of a different style, I rated Eric Prydz's set really highly the following night, but I'll come to that later. I was pleased to be going home early, sober and not on anything, to ready myself for the last 3 nights and the arrival of the other girls from home.
 
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I was really disappointed, and wondered if it was the night that was rubbish, or our tastes had changed. I'll go for the former, I still like Trance and would loved for Cream Closing to be a week later, and altough he's got a bit of a different style, I rated Eric Prydz's set really highly the following night, but I'll come to that later.

It's probably a little bit of both, mate. By that I mean, ASOT was and is very representative of what trance is at the moment. Trance has changed a lot even in the space of 1 or 2 years. If your taste has changed a fair bit and you've not been to a trance gig in a while, what is being played might seem slightly alien.

Having said that, Armin and Markus Schulz normally play quite differing styles. Markus normally plays a lot darker and harder. Eric Prydz, as highly as I rate him, is completely different altogether.
 
Tues 25th Sept - Together Closing @ Amnesia

Having been in at a reasonable time after Privilege, sober, and having not slept for near on 48 hours, I knew I'd have no problem sleeping. I woke up at 10am, feeling absolutely fine. Multivitamin tablet washed down with a Berrocca, and out onto the balcony to find that it's an absolutely beautiful day. TS was still asleep, so I sat out on the balcony in the sun, thinking about what the day would bring. We were both looking forward to the night ahead, and we had planned to get the bus to San An again, pick up some supplies, then meet the girls from home at Mambo for a sunset then the Together pre-party, as Eric Prydz was DJing from 9pm. I just knew it was going to be a very good day, and was glad to be feeling in a great mood as I knew the girls would likely be up for a big night, being their first day in Ibiza.

I popped my head over the wall to see if our neighbours were up, and to talk about the previous night. They had some bad news however. Only one of the three girls, 'Z', was at the apartment. One of others had booked a flight home, for reasons I won't go into, and 'K' had gone with her to the airport to see her onto the flight. It had looked at one point that 'K' was going to go back home with her, but they hadn't been able to book 2 seats on a flight home so she stayed. It was sad to see one of the girls leave so soon when it wasn't planned, but in a way it made us all even more determined to make the most of the rest of the holiday, and myself and TS were keen to make sure we did what we could to help 'Z' and 'K' enjoy themselves. We still didn't know them too well at this point, having only been out to Space with them for a few hours on Sunday night. 'K' returned from the airport, and they both headed out fairly early as they'd booked their Amnesia tickets in advance which included the Pukka Up boat party from PDB. So off they went to that, and myself and TS decided to make the most of the good weather and chilled around the pool for the afternoon, after walking down towards Figueretas to grab some lunch. We ate at Prince, the first bar in Figueretas as you walk from the Jabeque. We both had salmon, prawn and garlic tagliatelle and a pint. It was ok for the money, €25 between us, but the salmon was far too salty. When the sun went behind the hotel, we went up to the apartment to shower and get ready for the night. We left a note for the neighbours with our plan for the night and my phone number, and set off towards Eivissa to catch the bus to San An. As we walked back past Prince, TS overheard a familiar voice, which belonged to 'Z'. We stopped to see what the girls' plan was, before arranging to pick them up some goods as well and to meet them in Amnesia later. They had been annoyed to find that they had to be in by 11pm with the tickets they'd bought, and we had no intention of being in that early. An easier walk to the bus stop than last time due to it being cooler out, and we were in San An by about 6.30pm.

We met our contact, got some supplies, a bag of alcohol, and headed down to Mambo well in time for the sunset. We grabbed a seat on the wooden steps at the Mambo end of the Cafe Del Mar terrace, chilled and watched the sun go down.





We got a text from the girls from home saying they'd probably miss the sunset as they'd sat in the sun too long and weren't feeling great, so we moved back to our favourite Sunset Strip spot at the back of Mambo, started working through the alcohol we'd bought, and listened to whoever was warming up for Eric Prydz. For me, this really is what an evening in Ibiza should be like. I was in such a good mood. Good chilled out music, brilliant views, a bag full of cold Rekorderlig, and good company. The girls finally arrived a good 2 hours after sunset, so we sat and talked and caught up on what's been going on with our lives, as we hadn't seen much of each other over the last couple of years.



It started to get cold down at Mambo, and we ran out of drink, so we headed back to The Boozer to drink and kill the time before the free bus from Mambo at 1.30am. TS got a bit carried away and kept on going to the bar and returning with Jagerbombs, shots, more Jagerbombs. This would prove to be a mistake. I should mention at this point that TS doesn't do drugs at all. He's got the stamina to stay all night, unless he overdoes it on the alcohol, which he probably does every other night out. Tonight was going to be one of those nights. We walked back to get the bus to Amnesia, I dropped one of the yellow Smilies I'd purchased earlier in the day, and we were in at about 2am. I'd had a couple of texts from the neighbours saying to hurry up and get in as they were a bit drunk and needed a pick-me-up, so we battled our way to the back of the main room, to the far end of the bar there, and agreed with everyone that this was the spot to find everyone if people go missing. Annie Mac was still playing at this point. I'm not a massive fan but the place was busy and the little bit of the set we saw was reasonable. You've probably noticed by now, but myself and TS have got a wide variety of taste when it comes to music. We were both keen to see Knife Party and Chase and Status in the Terrace, as were a couple of the girls, so everyone took what they wanted to take and we made a move out of the Main Room. Knife Party were on at the far end of the Terrace as you come in the entrance, so we made a move up one side of the room towards the front. We agreed the meeting point again, then myself and TS left the girls there and made our move into the mixer. It's not everyone's cup of tea but we were loving it in there, not quite as mental an atmosphere as I was expecting though. Having seen Chase & Status at a few festivals, I thought it would be more like that. Borderline violent. In hindsight, probably good that it wasn't. Knife Party finished a very enjoyable set and Chase and Status came on, which we were well up for. WHAT a disappointment. They were clearly having problems with the equipment, but playing through anyway. You could hear MC Rage but barely any of the music, you could pretty much have a conversation without raising your voice, and they didn't seem to be doing anything to sort it out. We gave it 10 minutes or so but the atmosphere had died and it didn't look like they were going to fix it, so we headed back to our spot at the back-left side of the main room. Eric Prydz was on when we got there, and I was happy with the decision to head back in there. I'd dropped a second smiley, and I was loving life. 2 or more of the x factor pills made me very f*cked, but these were different. Not as strong, no gurning, but they were very 'happy' pills. I had a massive smile on my face for the rest of the night which some of the others found amusing. The girls took some good photos, but I'm not going to share those. It was nice to have the 7 of us all in one place, enjoying ourselves, with plenty of room to move and a bar close by.

2 of the girls from home, 'KL' and 'KB', had gone out for some air, got a stamp and were told they'd be fine to get back in, but got completely seen off by the door staff. They went to go back in to find he'd put a thumbs down stamp on their arms, meaning they couldn't get back in. We noticed after a while that they'd been gone ages, and I mentioned it to the 3rd of their group, 'AT', who found that she had loads of missed calls and a message to meet them outside. Big shame that their night got cut short, but we agreed to meet up with them in PDB the following day as they'd bought tickets for Space. TS had clearly overdone it on the alcohol and overexerted himself when Knife Party were on, and his legs had gone so he got a cab back to the apartment, leaving me and the neighbours in the main room to enjoy the end of Prydz's set. It was brilliant. Some would say cheesy but I really liked it and the whole room was bouncing. Jeremy Olander was on next, we watched about the first half hour or 40 minutes of that before calling it a night and getting a taxi back. The girls had put a brilliant shift in - boat party during the day then in Amnesia from 11pm till gone 6am. Fair play to them, and they had been saying that at 32 and 34, they felt old in Ibiza. Nonsense! So there ended Tuesday, 2 more nights to go, and 2 more nights like that and I'd be a happy man...
 
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It's probably a little bit of both, mate. By that I mean, ASOT was and is very representative of what trance is at the moment. Trance has changed a lot even in the space of 1 or 2 years. If your taste has changed a fair bit and you've not been to a trance gig in a while, what is being played might seem slightly alien.

Having said that, Armin and Markus Schulz normally play quite differing styles. Markus normally plays a lot darker and harder. Eric Prydz, as highly as I rate him, is completely different altogether.

You're probably right. I was really disappointed, I expected a lot more from Markus Schulz. I think the last Trance night we did was at Gatecrasher Birmingham at the end of 2010, and it was brilliant. Markus Schulz, Marco V, then Ferry Corsten. Markus and Marco played pretty deep and fast paced sets, got everyone going and we were loving it, then Ferry came on and blew us away. Hands in the air moments, loads of classics, and the atmosphere was amazing. I was expecting similar so was gutted to have only been in there 2 hours before giving up. And for €50, you expect more.
 
I just can't stop writing this. I was going to have a break, unpack and get sorted for work tomorrow, but for me it's like reading a good book when you can't put it down. It's putting a smile on my face as I try to recall and relive the experiences.


Weds 26th Sept - Bugged Out @ Sankeys

We hadn't pre-booked anything for Wednesday or Thursday nights, as we knew we'd have just gone through four parties in 72 hours and may be a little fragile by the time we got to Wednesday morning. This was indeed the case, and I woke up at midday feeling a little rough. TS was still asleep, as usual, so I made my way to the balcony to try to wake myself up and chat to 'Z' and 'K' about the night before and the day ahead. It wasn't that hot but the sun was out, and we agreed to head down to the pool to make the most of it, once TS had been woken up. A couple of coffees, then cocktails, then a swim in the pool and some more cocktails, and we were all feeling fine which was a result. The sun disappeared behind the clouds about 5pm so we packed up, 'Z' went over for a massage, TS went back to the room and myself and 'K' walked down to the supermarket to grab some alcohol for the apartment pre-party. The plan was for the girls to get a bus over to our apartment for about 10pm, have a few drinks there, then head down to PDB for a few before deciding on what night to do. That gave us a few hours to kill and we arranged to go out to dinner with our neighbours. I said to them that there were some nice looking restaurants in Figueretas so we decided to head in that direction and find something decent to eat. A bloke who was walking his dog on the beach stopped us and told us about his Tapas restaurant just up from the beach. We agreed to go up and look at the menu, it looked and smelled good and the girls had said that they liked Tapas so we went in and got a table. It was a small family run place called 'Home Loos', not the most appealing name but it was reasonably busy and a nice place to be. We ordered some drinks and looked through the menu, ordered about 15 dishes between the four of us (far too much) and a big jug of Sangria to share. It all came out fairly quickly and was really good. Stuffed peppers were brilliant, as were the prawn and bacon skewers and the spicy potatoes. We ate and talked, and worked our way through the Sangria which was really strong but nice. It was a really nice evening and we had a bit of a laugh about how civilised we were being compared with the rest of the holiday. Cocktails, sangria and tapas versus cider, ecstasy and Burger King :D. We finished up and were pleased to see that the bill was only €80. It was only after paying that we realised we hadn't been charged for the jug of sangria. Bonus! A slow walk back to the apartment and we all went to get showered and changed ready for the night ahead.

As I said before, the girls from home had pre-booked Space for Mark Knight and Funkagenda. The girls next door were keen to go to Sankeys, and myself and TS were leaning in that direction too, as Sankeys would be a new one for us and I was pretty sure that Bugged Out! would be good fun. The girls arrived on time which was a surprise, so we put the music up loud and sat on balcony and drank and chatted. The time flew by and we soon had the security guy flashing his torch up to our balcony, and told us to turn the music off as it was gone midnight. Fair enough, we thought, and it was about time we walked down to d'en Bossa to start our night out anyway. We walked down towards Top 21 bar, where the PR there cleared us a table and we went in to sit down. Or that's what I thought was going to happen. 'AT' had had a bit of a bad turn and was feeling rough after a bit of MD, so the 3 girls and TS stayed outside and got her some water to try to sort her out. The rest of us ordered 2-for-1 drinks and wisely ignored the free shots they brought us, we'd drunk a fair bit already. 'AT' wasn't getting any better so TS walked the 3 girls back to the Jabeque and let them into our room, and told them to chill out there and get a cab to Space later when she was feeling better.

It was at least 2.30am by the time he got back to the bar, and we were itching to go and dance, and 'Z' was pretty drunk though she wouldn't admit it. We paid the €100 for our four tickets to Sankeys, necked our drinks and set off. I had high hopes for the night ahead, despite us only having 1 smiley left which I halved with 'K' on the way to keep us going, and us basically pushing a very pissed 'Z' in the general direction of the club and praying she'd get in. Luckily, we had no drama there, apart from 'Z' going missing as soon as we went in. We nipped upstairs for a cig and some fresh air, then back down to find TS and 'K'. I had very high expectations of Sankeys. I love Sankeys in Manchester and I was expecting something similar - a Basement style club with a banging sound system. I was delighted to find exactly that, it was brilliant. Basement Jaxx were on and dropped Red Alert pretty much as soon as we'd found a decent spot on the dance floor, about 3 quarters of the way back and just far enough in from that bar on the right side of the room that we didn't have a pillar blocking our view. That was exactly where I spent the rest of the night, I had to pinch this from Sankeys Ibiza's Facebook, as I spotted myself and TS at the bottom right of the shot:



I managed to buy a couple of X factors from someone in there, so halved that with one of the girls and that was me happy as a pig in the brown stuff for the rest of the night. Basement Jaxx played a really cool set, lots of instrumental stuff with trumpets and bongos which had everyone going. Myself, TS and 'K' were having a top time but I think 'Z' was still hammered and flagging a bit. Boddika up next and another great set. I hadn't seen Boddika before but was impressed. Loud and steady and although it got more empty from about 5.30am, it was still fairly busy. The girls' legs had given up so set off home, and myself and TS tried to stay till the very end. We moved across into the centre of the dance floor when we could, and it what a great spot. It was deafening. We then found if we moved back a few feet, we were right below an air conditioning vent. Perfect! The music stopped and lights came up at about 6.30am and we thought that was that. Wrong! Again and again they stopped playing, applauded the crowd, and dropped another tune. My legs were completely shot by about 6.45am so we left. Shame to miss the very end but I was exhausted. A long walk home and straight into bed by about 7.15. WHAT A NIGHT!! I noticed a text on my phone from the other girls saying they'd gone to Space in the end which was good to hear, at least they didn't waste a precious Ibiza night.
 
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Ah yes Mr Loos! Great guy , the dogs are a great selling feature for that place. The stuffed peppers are my favourite dish there! Its great for a cheap restaurant and def better than some of the other restaurants that are on that promenade
 
Ah yes Mr Loos! Great guy , the dogs are a great selling feature for that place. The stuffed peppers are my favourite dish there! Its great for a cheap restaurant and def better than some of the other restaurants that are on that promenade

He's a decent bloke. Had us cracked up with his Welsh impressions, boyo! Definitely somewhere I'll go back to.
 
Thurs 27th Sept - Paradise Closing @ DC10

The last night - and last installment of my first Ibiza review. :(

I woke up feeling pretty hideous on our last full day of Ibiza 2012. The night before, we had all agreed to get up early and make the most of the day, so I was a bit disappointed that it was already 1pm. I went through the usual routine of cleaning my teeth and chucking water on my face, grabbing a 1.5l bottle of water out of the fridge, and heading out onto the balcony for some fresh air. It was cooler and windy but the sun was shining, despite quite a lot of cloud in the sky. The girls next door were already up, but hadn't really got moving yet. Well, 'K' was still up because she hadn't managed to sleep. They said they were planning on walking along to PDB to go round the shops, check out the hippy market and that sort of thing. I said I'd tag along if that was ok, and TS was up for it as well so we showered and made a move. We cut through onto the beach before Bora Bora, and the weather had picked up a bit so we got down to the seafront and walked along the beach where the sand was firmer. We hadn't planned to, but we walked nearly the length of Playa d'en Bossa beach, it was a nice walk through the shallow water and we were in no rush, so no reason to stop I guess. We got down near Nassau Beach Club, and realised that we were pretty thirsty, so decided to stop and have a drink despite knowing it was going to cost us. Sod it, it was our last day in Ibiza and it looked nice, and it's not like we'd run out of money...yet. We looked at the menu, panicked a bit, focused ourselves, and looked again. On the face of it, you could comfortably splash €5000 in an afternoon. If you look a bit harder, it's not actually bad value. Cocktails were €12.5, not much more than a bottle of cider in Bora Bora, and they were VERY alcoholic. I got a very nice Mojito, TS got a Long Island Ice Tea, I think 'K' got a Sex on the Beach, and 'Z' got herself some other fruit based cocktail. Very nicely presented and very alcoholic. The DJ in the bar was playing a decent Deep House set, we had a good spot at a table on the beach, we had a great view of the beach and sea, the sun was out, and we were in good company. Myself and TS also ordered a Thai sirloin steak, ****ake mushroom, melon, cashew and rice noodle salad each for €18 a pop, which was absolutely outstanding. The girls weren't feeling up to eating much so just ordered a basket of bread and olives with alioli, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All very pretentious for us, and we didn't really fit in with the crowd there, but we couldn't have cared less. 'Z' has got all the good photos of this, and I haven't seen them yet, so I may add a few later. We stayed as long as we still had drinks in our glasses, which was a while but not so long as to take the p*ss, then paid our €100+ bill and set off back down the beach:



We walked back towards Bora Bora and cut through to the main road, had a look round the music and sh*t t-shirt shop opposite Tantra, and then along to the Hippy market which had already packed up. Back to the apartments for a sleep as we all had a big night ahead and were feeling it from the night before. 'Z' and 'K' had prepaid tickets for FMIF @ Pacha, TS, myself, and the other girls were all going to DC10 for the closing of Jamie Jones' night, Paradise. We were all really looking forward to DC10 as none of us had managed to get there before, and the lineup was huge.

We woke up at about 8pm and started getting ready and drinking. The girls were getting the bus over from San An for drinks at our apartment again, and the girls next door came round for a few too. Usual thing - music on, getting p*ssed, and we took a load of photos of the various groups and some of us all together, as it would be our last chance. 'K' and 'Z' left for Pacha at about midnight as they had to be in by 1am, and said they might head to DC10 later if Pacha was no good. The rest of us carried on drinking then went out to get taxis down to Salinas at about 2am. It was absolutely heaving when we got there. We couldn't get in at all using the entrance under the wooden arch, so tried the other room. We got in but it was unbearable. The girls needed the toilet which took about half an hour, then we headed back out for some air. It was even more busy outside and there was no chance of us getting back in the building. Jamie Jones was on and I guessed that would be the sort of time the place would be at it's busiest. I went to use the outside toilets which was a mistake, it took about half an hour, and I saw several fights kick off where people were trying to jump the queue. I got back to find the others, we tried to go inside again and failed again. We were half tempted to give up and have a party back at the apartment, but we thought we'd stick it out for a bit longer. I thought it'd start to empty by 4ish, judging by how f*cked up the majority of people were there. It was grim, I saw some really horrific gurn faces, and several people who couldn't walk at all without a couple of people's help. I'm all for dabbling, but it was minging how wrecked some people were. We finally headed back in for a while, I'd been really feeling the two Smileys I'd done earlier and needed to dance. We managed to get a good spot close to the VIP by the bar at the back of the room on the left as you look at the building from outside, if you know what I'm on about. It was hot but there was enough room to dance, and we stayed there for a good hour. 'Z' and 'K' text to say that Pacha was sh*t, as expected, and was it worth heading to DC10. It was late and still rammed so I said it would be too much of a gamble, especially as they were getting picked up at 7.45am to go straight back to the airport :eek:. We agreed to meet them back at the apartment for a couple of drinks before they left so we could say our goodbyes etc.

Back to DC10, and the night was about to take an unexpected turn. Where we were dancing, I'd noticed that 'AT' had kept looking at the floor, as had a bloke close to her. I spotted what she was looking at, and put my foot by it, and moved it to where I had some space to move. It had looked to me like a big bag of wraps, so I dropped my bottle of water and picked it up. Yep, I know, really sly! I pocketed it and left it there, and kept an eye out to see if anyone was keeping eyes on me. I was fairly sure I was safe, and the girls wanted some air again so we left. I think it was about 5.30am by this point, and we couldn't really be arsed with the crowd and sweat again. The girls jumped in a cab back to San An, and myself and TS got in one with the intention of going through d'en Bossa to get dropped at Burger King before walking back to see the girls. The driver, however, obviously didn't want to take such a small fare after queuing at DC10 for that long, so he tried to take us the long way up the dual carriageway. TS questioned this and said it had better not be more than the €10 it's meant to be, and the driver pulled to the side of the main road, screamed at us in Spanish, and ordered us out. We tried to explain but he got straight on the radio to the Policia. Obviously, with the package I'd acquired in DC10, I didn't want to hang around. We ran across the dual carriageway and up the bank the other side, and out of view of the road. We stopped to look at what was in the bag, and it turned out to be 8 grams of cocaine. Bloody hell! TS put it in his sock and we walked back towards the roundabout in the shadows, keeping an eye out for the cops, and took the left down that dark road back towards Space. No problems on the way back but my heart was racing all the way, partly from the two smileys, and partly because of this crazy sequence of events. We nipped into BK then jogged back along the beach to the Jabeque and in to see the girls, who were still drinking whilst packing. We sat and told the stories of our nights, drank the remaining alcohol in our apartments, including a final Jagerbomb at 7.45am:




Taking a knee for drinking Jager is an old tradition of ours, before you ask. We all swapped details, then walked the girls up the road to catch their transfers and say our goodbyes. Really top girls, I'm glad that they moved in next door and I'm sure we'll see them again sometime. We had to be out of our apartment by 11am so there was no point getting any sleep by this point. We packed our bags, checked out, and got the bus to San An as the other girls had their hotel room until 6pm when their transfer was due. I don't know if I mentioned earlier that the girls were on our flight home to Bournemouth, which made things easier. We couldn't get hold of the girls when we got to San An, so TS had a breakfast that made me feel seriously ill. We finally got a call from the girls an hour later, and went to their hotel for a kip and to pass the time. We phoned a few people and tried to sell that gear, but ran out of time which was a shame. A taxi to the airport and a miserable flight home, and Ibiza 2012 was over, but what a week! I don't really know how to summerise this trip, but I hope the next one is as good. There are things I would have done differently, but not many. I think you can plan as much as you want but if it's the people you meet that really make a good holiday, and we couldn't have asked for more in that department.

Dates you were there: 21-28/09/12

Where you stayed (resort/hotel): Jabeque Apartments

Club nights visited: We love, FBS @ Ushuaia, Armin, Together, Bugged Out!, Paradise

Best night: We Love or Bugged Out!

Worst night: Armin @ Privilege

Best bar: Mambo

Best place to eat: Home Loos Tapas, Figueretas

Money spent: Dunno, £1300-£1500ish

Biggest regret: Not going to Formentera, didn't have the weather for it

Going back?: Unless the world ends

Top tip: Don't hold back! Deal with it when you get home!
 
You still haven't told us what happened to the eight grams? :) Top review! I thought I would struggle reading it after you mentioning that 4-1 Southampton win last week but it was a good read.

I agree with not holding back. There is little point in going to Ibiza on a budget. It's like taking suntan lotion on a skiing holiday...
 
^ ^ There's plenty reasons to do Ibiza on a budget,for myself it means I can do up to 6 weeks in the season.... which I would rather do than a week of full on nonsense!
 
You still haven't told us what happened to the eight grams? :) Top review! I thought I would struggle reading it after you mentioning that 4-1 Southampton win last week but it was a good read.

I agree with not holding back. There is little point in going to Ibiza on a budget. It's like taking suntan lotion on a skiing holiday...

Unfortunately, it all went in the bin. Had we found it a few days earlier we may have put it to good use. That said, I don't really see the point of cocaine and don't use it at home. I like doing a few pills every now and again but I really limit it to Ibiza and festivals, so we would've just sold it if we could.


^ ^ There's plenty reasons to do Ibiza on a budget,for myself it means I can do up to 6 weeks in the season.... which I would rather do than a week of full on nonsense!


I wish I had enough spare time to do that, but my busy life doesn't allow that sort of thing! This week is the only trip abroad for me this year so I wanted to hit it hard, but I can understand why people would want to take longer breaks and keep it chilled. We talked to 2 lads on the plane out who were doing 3 weeks on about £1000 each :eek:. I wonder if they've eaten yet...
 
Did you say 8 , I was looking for that bag all night ! Can I have it back please ! :)
Enjoyed your read dude !
 
Just out of interest, how did you know it was 8 grams? Was that an estimated guess?

Great review btw!
 
You're probably right. I was really disappointed, I expected a lot more from Markus Schulz. I think the last Trance night we did was at Gatecrasher Birmingham at the end of 2010, and it was brilliant. Markus Schulz, Marco V, then Ferry Corsten. Markus and Marco played pretty deep and fast paced sets, got everyone going and we were loving it, then Ferry came on and blew us away. Hands in the air moments, loads of classics, and the atmosphere was amazing. I was expecting similar so was gutted to have only been in there 2 hours before giving up. And for €50, you expect more.

Funny you should mention Ferry Corsten actually. I've seen him many times and have very much enjoyed his sets in the past. He was a heavyweight of the genre for going on a decade. Of late his sets and his productions are really lacking something. He more than anyone has been guilty of being sucked into that 'soft', bland, inoffensive realm of trance that would bore the arse of anyone at a trance gig.

Armin and Markus on the other hand are still well worth seeing though. Still at the top of their game. So I'm surprised ASOT wasn't up to the mark. Last time I saw Markus he was clearly a bit drunk and train-wrecking things a bit, but his sets rarely lack power and drive. Maybe Markus was in his 'promote the new album' mode and his was playing too many of the more commercial vocal tracks from Scream.
 
Or it could have lead to a few years in Spanish jail being scared to pick up the soap.

There is the danger of that happening for a big percentage of people who chose to go to Ibiza and get involved in buying/selling drugs. I know it doesn't completely eliminate the risk, but you've just gotta be sensible, hence us binning it instead of walking round town trying to sell it on the streets.
 
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