arexniba
Active Member
I sit here listening to such Podcasts as: We Love Ibiza, Defected in the House, Cream Radio, and A State of Trance. I can't help but remember my 1st time to Ibiza last summer in the final weeks of September.
I never sat down to actually write down my time there because my life was busy when I returned home.
Nevertheless, memories of my time there makes me reminisce and want to go back! As well as my friends who are heading out to Europe and ending it with Ibiza, too, for the 1st time this September.
--1st planning 2011--
I was originally going to head out to Ibiza in the summer of 2011. I had planned to re-visit Italy, then head out to France and ending the vacation with Ibiza. I encountered Ibiza-Spotlight's forum and met many great people that were answering my questions.
However, this friend I had, turned out to be a psychotic chick. Long story short, she was under the assumption I was paying for some of her trip...when we were never dating. So, I cancelled the trip, even though she ended up going herself.
--2nd planning 2012--
My cousin arrived from his home in Miami to live permanently here in the SF Bay Area. We talked about heading out to Ibiza for the summer as we were both House fans. He had finally found a job and I had made plenty savings from work. We were trying to round out friends of ours to go, but every single one flaked.
Nevertheless, our plan to Ibiza continued.
We decided to go to Ibiza's closing parties during the ending of September. As the time came closer, I started to look again at this great forum to ask for tips and advices again.
I met a great friend (to this day) from Australia, Daveus, who decided to split costs with us on a pad. The 3 of us decided to all room at a condo, and we got an amazing deal.
Yet, unfortunate circumstances followed as my cousin's mother died. Everyone in my family, including myself, told my cousin maybe it was best to go out there and experience life. To be able to get his mind loose from tragedy. So, he agreed, and started our trip.
--The Amazing Air Travel--
My cousin and I don't come from wealthy families and we don't have amazing jobs with great salaries. Luckily, my cousin's father works for the airlines and was able to hook me up with a discounted round-trip ticket. As for my cousin, he basically gets to travel for free anywhere in the world.
The downfall to all this = we were ALWAYS on standby...
We made our first leg of our trip from the San Francisco airport to Houston, Texas in 7 hours. Then, we had half an hour to rush to our next flight to Madrid in one of the biggest & busiest airports in the US.
Sweating, panting, but extremely excited, we made it on! We started drinking liquor from the airplane, watching movies, and falling asleep to kill time.
--Madrid--
We reached Madrid. I had the brilliant idea before our air travel to not convert nor take any cash on the flight--for fear that we could lose the money. And I had asked my bank in the states for information on partner banks in Spain so that I could attain money from my account. They said they did & gave me a list of branches that they were "partnered" with.
We had 5 hours to kill till our next flight to Ibiza. Yet, my cousin already had the 1st issue--his standby ticket somehow had an error and he had to call his father to get it fixed. I waited for him, and after 2 hours, I basically had to purchase him a ticket brand new (only 150 euros) which wasn't bad.
Now, we were down to 3 hours...
I searched my iPad for the locations of the supposed branches of my bank. The closest one was about 2 miles away. I thought we were going to spend very little on the taxi fare, but boy was I wrong...
We ran outside to the nearest taxi driver. The driver was talking to me extremely fast in Spanish...I speak Spanish myself, but their accents are extremely different. I.e. like the English hearing Americans speak or vice versa. My cousin laughed at me because he was somehow able to grasp everything the guy said.
The supposed 5min drive turned into a 20min ride...I kept looking at the price meter in the cab ticking up. The more it ticked, the more I began to sweat as I had absolutely no money to pay the man, and I didn't want him to strand us from the airport. He found the address, but there was no bank in site! So he drove for another 10min, and luckily he found the bank that had changed address.
I ran out of the taxi & walked in and asked, "Hello. Are you partners with Bank of America? I need to take cash out and have it converted."
Bank teller: "I am sorry, but what is the bank you speak of? I never heard of it.."
Me: "How's that possible? Look (I show her the copy my bank gave me), this says you're associated with my bank?!"
Teller: (She went to her supervisor and asked her too)
Supervisor: " I am sorry sir, but we have never heard of that bank...I apologize but you would have to open an account here. But you need to be a resident."
Me: "...****!"
I walked out nervous as fuk and literally sweating as I didn't care anymore about paying the cab driver. Now, I had no access to any cash. So, I thought to myself...okay, at least I have my credit cards.
I looked at my cousin, saw ATMs outside the bank and told him just for sh!ts & giggles, "Let me try my ATM card and see if this works."
BOOM! I was able to take out 500 euros. I ran bank inside bank and both the teller and supervisor were as astonished as I was. They told me the problem was that I could only get 500 euros daily. And YES we do have locations on Ibiza too!
Relieved with the good news, I ran back to the taxi driver and when we got back to the airport the total ride cost us 90 euros! At that point, I realized I should have taken SOME cash on the trip beforehand!
We both got our bags onto the final flight (with about an hour to spare) and headed to Ibiza. We brought tons of liquor, for our condo, from the free-tax Duty store, and cracked open a bottle of Grey Goose. Party mode was in full effect!
--Landing in Ibiza and meeting some of our Ibiza-Spotlight crew--
TO BE CONTINUED...
I never sat down to actually write down my time there because my life was busy when I returned home.
Nevertheless, memories of my time there makes me reminisce and want to go back! As well as my friends who are heading out to Europe and ending it with Ibiza, too, for the 1st time this September.
--1st planning 2011--
I was originally going to head out to Ibiza in the summer of 2011. I had planned to re-visit Italy, then head out to France and ending the vacation with Ibiza. I encountered Ibiza-Spotlight's forum and met many great people that were answering my questions.
However, this friend I had, turned out to be a psychotic chick. Long story short, she was under the assumption I was paying for some of her trip...when we were never dating. So, I cancelled the trip, even though she ended up going herself.
--2nd planning 2012--
My cousin arrived from his home in Miami to live permanently here in the SF Bay Area. We talked about heading out to Ibiza for the summer as we were both House fans. He had finally found a job and I had made plenty savings from work. We were trying to round out friends of ours to go, but every single one flaked.
Nevertheless, our plan to Ibiza continued.
We decided to go to Ibiza's closing parties during the ending of September. As the time came closer, I started to look again at this great forum to ask for tips and advices again.
I met a great friend (to this day) from Australia, Daveus, who decided to split costs with us on a pad. The 3 of us decided to all room at a condo, and we got an amazing deal.
Yet, unfortunate circumstances followed as my cousin's mother died. Everyone in my family, including myself, told my cousin maybe it was best to go out there and experience life. To be able to get his mind loose from tragedy. So, he agreed, and started our trip.
--The Amazing Air Travel--
My cousin and I don't come from wealthy families and we don't have amazing jobs with great salaries. Luckily, my cousin's father works for the airlines and was able to hook me up with a discounted round-trip ticket. As for my cousin, he basically gets to travel for free anywhere in the world.
The downfall to all this = we were ALWAYS on standby...
We made our first leg of our trip from the San Francisco airport to Houston, Texas in 7 hours. Then, we had half an hour to rush to our next flight to Madrid in one of the biggest & busiest airports in the US.
Sweating, panting, but extremely excited, we made it on! We started drinking liquor from the airplane, watching movies, and falling asleep to kill time.
--Madrid--
We reached Madrid. I had the brilliant idea before our air travel to not convert nor take any cash on the flight--for fear that we could lose the money. And I had asked my bank in the states for information on partner banks in Spain so that I could attain money from my account. They said they did & gave me a list of branches that they were "partnered" with.
We had 5 hours to kill till our next flight to Ibiza. Yet, my cousin already had the 1st issue--his standby ticket somehow had an error and he had to call his father to get it fixed. I waited for him, and after 2 hours, I basically had to purchase him a ticket brand new (only 150 euros) which wasn't bad.
Now, we were down to 3 hours...
I searched my iPad for the locations of the supposed branches of my bank. The closest one was about 2 miles away. I thought we were going to spend very little on the taxi fare, but boy was I wrong...
We ran outside to the nearest taxi driver. The driver was talking to me extremely fast in Spanish...I speak Spanish myself, but their accents are extremely different. I.e. like the English hearing Americans speak or vice versa. My cousin laughed at me because he was somehow able to grasp everything the guy said.
The supposed 5min drive turned into a 20min ride...I kept looking at the price meter in the cab ticking up. The more it ticked, the more I began to sweat as I had absolutely no money to pay the man, and I didn't want him to strand us from the airport. He found the address, but there was no bank in site! So he drove for another 10min, and luckily he found the bank that had changed address.
I ran out of the taxi & walked in and asked, "Hello. Are you partners with Bank of America? I need to take cash out and have it converted."
Bank teller: "I am sorry, but what is the bank you speak of? I never heard of it.."
Me: "How's that possible? Look (I show her the copy my bank gave me), this says you're associated with my bank?!"
Teller: (She went to her supervisor and asked her too)
Supervisor: " I am sorry sir, but we have never heard of that bank...I apologize but you would have to open an account here. But you need to be a resident."
Me: "...****!"
I walked out nervous as fuk and literally sweating as I didn't care anymore about paying the cab driver. Now, I had no access to any cash. So, I thought to myself...okay, at least I have my credit cards.
I looked at my cousin, saw ATMs outside the bank and told him just for sh!ts & giggles, "Let me try my ATM card and see if this works."
BOOM! I was able to take out 500 euros. I ran bank inside bank and both the teller and supervisor were as astonished as I was. They told me the problem was that I could only get 500 euros daily. And YES we do have locations on Ibiza too!
Relieved with the good news, I ran back to the taxi driver and when we got back to the airport the total ride cost us 90 euros! At that point, I realized I should have taken SOME cash on the trip beforehand!
We both got our bags onto the final flight (with about an hour to spare) and headed to Ibiza. We brought tons of liquor, for our condo, from the free-tax Duty store, and cracked open a bottle of Grey Goose. Party mode was in full effect!
--Landing in Ibiza and meeting some of our Ibiza-Spotlight crew--
TO BE CONTINUED...
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