High Town - Ibiza [Day Two]

I woke to rays of golden sunshine streaming through the window. I was actually a little worried earlier in the week as the forecast was for rain, but there were certainly no signs of it today. Not a cloud in the sky.

Unfortunately the beautiful sunshine did not help my hangover. I wasn't tooooo bad, but if my track record was anything to go by, in a few hours time I'd be feeling like shite. Time to get up and make the most of it.

We grabbed a quick breakfast then went exploring in the Old Town. The Spanish name for this area is Dalt Vila, which actually means 'High Town'. Trust me, it lives up to the name - its on a steep hill. Not hangover friendly. It is quite a traditional European Old Town - think thin cobbled streets, colourful buildings, overhanging balconies filled with drying sheets. Most of the Old Town is located inside a massive fort which covers most of the hill, and has been essential to the islands defences for hundreds of years. The top of the hill provides spectacular views over the bay and harbour, where you can see deep blue seas, beautiful beaches and countless super-yauchts. The hill also contains the cathedral of Santa Maria d'Eivissa from the 14th century, a beautiful white building with a breathtaking interior.


We walked down to check out the port area, and to see where we could get a ferry to Formanterra. I had been told that visiting the small island just south of Ibiza was unmissable. We found a couple of companies running, each around €40 return - pretty expensive for a 45 minute journey I thought. No need to book, though, so we decided to just show up whenever we felt up to it and the weather was good.

With nothing planned for the rest of the afternoon, we decided to spend it lazing on the beach. We wandered along the foreshore looking for a nice spot and stumbled upon a sign advertising trips to Formanterra - for €20 return! It said we could buy tickets from 6pm onward, so we went down and relaxed on the sand until then. There is only so much I can tell you about relaxing on a tropical beach in the Mediterranean, and I'm sure you get the picture by now. 6pm came and went; no one showed up to sell us tickets. We even saw the boat come in at about 6:30pm, and still no one came. We decided to just show up early the next day - surely they wont have sold out. We stayed on the beach enjoying the sun until it finally disappeared over the horizon.

That evening we went out to a tapa's restaurant right on the beach. We ordered four or five different tapa's between us (so good) and a few beers - perfect. We actually had free tickets to Space (as long as we got in before midnight), but the clubs don't get 'good' until at least 1am, and here it was at 10pm and I was falling asleep on the table. It just wasn't gonna happen. But the photographer in me could not let such a beautiful night go to waste - I propped my eyes open with matchsticks and we went out wandering around the spectacular moonlit bay for about an hour.
 

Day two - what more can I say other than another day in paradise? It is not just a party island, it has culture, beautiful scenery, amazing food and some of the best beaches I have ever seen.

Next Post - 'Finding Heaven'