Day 1 - 14/09/17
It's been sixteen years since my first trip to Ibiza, but the excitement when the plane approaches to land is still as great as it was in the early years - like a friend of mine said, it's like Christmas only without the family and kids
This time I was careful to take a direct flight which got in around 14:00 to avoid any risk of getting stranded in Barcelona (as I almost did in 2016 due to the air traffic control strike in France). Great view of the island as we flew in which I filmed on my iPhone! And then the best three words in the English language: "Welcome to Ibiza"!
By 15:00 my taxi (woman driver, increasingly common this year) had dropped me off at the Hotel Migjorn on Playa d'en Bossa - our home away from home. The Migjorn is such a great hotel, and when you stay at the same place for a few years and the staff recognise you and welcome you back it's such a fantastic feeling. Marcelo, the cheerful barman who also mixes his own excellent playlists for the poolside soundsystem was there as always. It was only a matter of minutes before we were by the pool, enjoying a few cold ones in the sunshine and letting that Ibiza feeling soak in!
I dragged my mates along to Destino for the sunset as they had a free party on, but although the view was great it was still pretty empty and the beers are extortionate, so after a couple we headed back to stock up the fridges with vodka/red bull and greet the last of our party of five. Our Ibiza ritual always starts with an early evening balcony session, with a view of the sea from our top floor terrace, as we get in the mood before a late dinner. On Thursday we went to Beachhouse for dinner, arriving at 22:45, and were the only customers there! The food was good, we mostly had the tagliata, but it was a shame that it was so dead - I guess due to noise restrictions and the loss of Rumors to Destino this place has basically become a daytime beachclub/restaurant.
For after dinner we had all agreed to try out Hi Ibiza for In the Dark - we were all curious to check out the successor to Space, which for many of us symbolised clubbing in Ibiza, and I'm a big fan of Kölsch and was eager to see Joris Voorn for the first time. The night didn't disappoint! The club is amazing, much more intimate than Space, very cutting edge visuals and lights in the Theatre, and beautiful chillout outdoor areas. The place really got going from around 01:30 when Joris Voorn came on, and he blew me away! As usual Shazam didn't really manage to ID most of the tracks I like, but the undoubted highlight was when he played his own, so far unreleased remix of Paul Simon's "Homeless". A real feelgood tune! He was followed in the Theatre by Kölsch who as ever did not disappoint. It's the third time I've seen him and I love his mixture of dark, melodic and harder techno sounds. But by 5:30 I was starting to fade so headed home, feeling euphoric and happy with my first day in Ibiza.
It's been sixteen years since my first trip to Ibiza, but the excitement when the plane approaches to land is still as great as it was in the early years - like a friend of mine said, it's like Christmas only without the family and kids
This time I was careful to take a direct flight which got in around 14:00 to avoid any risk of getting stranded in Barcelona (as I almost did in 2016 due to the air traffic control strike in France). Great view of the island as we flew in which I filmed on my iPhone! And then the best three words in the English language: "Welcome to Ibiza"!By 15:00 my taxi (woman driver, increasingly common this year) had dropped me off at the Hotel Migjorn on Playa d'en Bossa - our home away from home. The Migjorn is such a great hotel, and when you stay at the same place for a few years and the staff recognise you and welcome you back it's such a fantastic feeling. Marcelo, the cheerful barman who also mixes his own excellent playlists for the poolside soundsystem was there as always. It was only a matter of minutes before we were by the pool, enjoying a few cold ones in the sunshine and letting that Ibiza feeling soak in!
I dragged my mates along to Destino for the sunset as they had a free party on, but although the view was great it was still pretty empty and the beers are extortionate, so after a couple we headed back to stock up the fridges with vodka/red bull and greet the last of our party of five. Our Ibiza ritual always starts with an early evening balcony session, with a view of the sea from our top floor terrace, as we get in the mood before a late dinner. On Thursday we went to Beachhouse for dinner, arriving at 22:45, and were the only customers there! The food was good, we mostly had the tagliata, but it was a shame that it was so dead - I guess due to noise restrictions and the loss of Rumors to Destino this place has basically become a daytime beachclub/restaurant.
For after dinner we had all agreed to try out Hi Ibiza for In the Dark - we were all curious to check out the successor to Space, which for many of us symbolised clubbing in Ibiza, and I'm a big fan of Kölsch and was eager to see Joris Voorn for the first time. The night didn't disappoint! The club is amazing, much more intimate than Space, very cutting edge visuals and lights in the Theatre, and beautiful chillout outdoor areas. The place really got going from around 01:30 when Joris Voorn came on, and he blew me away! As usual Shazam didn't really manage to ID most of the tracks I like, but the undoubted highlight was when he played his own, so far unreleased remix of Paul Simon's "Homeless". A real feelgood tune! He was followed in the Theatre by Kölsch who as ever did not disappoint. It's the third time I've seen him and I love his mixture of dark, melodic and harder techno sounds. But by 5:30 I was starting to fade so headed home, feeling euphoric and happy with my first day in Ibiza.