¿Donde está la fiesta?

Right before leaving for Switzerland, I figured out that I had a four day weekend the following weekend (after Halloween) for no particular reason. In Spain, they apparently have random weeks where Thursday is a random day off work, so most people take off Friday and make it a long weekend. They call it 'puente,' which means bridge, because it's like a bridge from Thursday to the weekend. But the point it, I wanted to take advantage of the long weekend by going somewhere fun and not too far away, even if it meant trying to plan it all out in three days. I ended up finding out Wednesday night that there were really inexpensive ferry trips and hotels to Ibiza this time of year, and the next evening I found myself on a ferry headed toward the Balearic Islands.

Ibiza is famous for its club scene and hedonistic party atmosphere during the summer, but as you might expect, it's a little bit different in November. Not bad at all, just different. It's an island that thrives off British tourists flying in for drunken holidays during July and August, but most of the bars, restaurants, clubs, and moto rental places shut down during the rest of the year. But, that means that the island is free to explore in peace and without being lumped into the group with the obnoxiuos tourists who leave beers cans everywhere and refuse to speak any Spanish.

The ferry arrived at the main town in the morning, and we (Patrick and myself) had a little time to kill before the bus came to take us to the other side where our hotel was, in San Antonio. We wandered around and found a pretty little park and some very loud graffiti.

Approaching the island at sunrise:







Street Art:



After arriving in San Antonio and taking a much-needed, extended siesta (sleeping on a ferry isn't easy), we made our way to the water and ate dinner while watching the sunset over the Mediterranean. Not too shabby.
















The next day was absolutely beautiful.



We walked up and down the beach and I took way too many pictures. Here's a few:




























One of the clubs that was closed for the colder months:


























And some pictures near the port:















That night, we walked the streets to check out the few local restaurants that were open, and we found one that we pretty much had all to ourselves.




Finally, on Suday, we borrowed the free bikes from the hostel and road along the coast, finding private little beaches along the way.






We made our way inland a little bit



and then headed back towards the aquarium to find an underwater cave that a local man told us about. One of the bigger differences between this trip and the one to Geneva was the ability to communicate with the people who lived there. There were a lot of things we wouldn't have been able to do if we hadn't been able to talk to the people at the hostel and the man on the beach who was brave enough to swim in the cold water.

Here's the aquarium:



You have to walk along the cliff down this little path to get to it, and it was closed when we got down there. I love the hand-painted sign. Looks a little different than the one in Baltimore. I think here they're in the process of catching fish for next year's exhibit.

This is the cave that the local man directed us to. We ditched the bikes for a bit and climbed down into it.



























The ferry (which you can see if you look closely below) left in the evening, so that gave us a chance to see the sunset over the city from high up.





























On the way back we discovered that it had a pool, hot tub, sauna, dance room, movie theatre, etc, but I ended up standing at the back of the ship until I couldn't see the city lights anymore, then passing out in a chair in the movie room. The ferry got in to Barcelona at 7 am Monday morning, and I went immediately to teach at class at 8. Yesterday, I found out from a British girl living in Ibiza that there are cheap flights there that take half an hour. Good to know for when I go back in the early summer. Can't wait!