Chapter 10: First Stop: Ibiza

I realize I haven’t written a blog post in a while so I figured I would crank one out while I am waiting to board my plane in the Ibiza airport.  Not much has happened since my last blog post.  I did travel to Granada and Cordoba which was extremely fascinating as they both serve important historical roles in Spain along for the Catholic Church and Islamic community.  School finished up on Wednesday and I have to say that although it was a short program, I have learned so much about Spanish grammar, culture, language, and art.  I also realized how lucky I am to have had such a great Spanish host mother.  She was so dedicated to bettering our Spanish while approaching us with patience and humor.  One of my favorite experiences in Sevilla was cooking her dinner.  My roommate and I cooked quesadillas for her, our French student, and her Swiss friend.  We were at the dinner table for about 3 or more hours talking, laughing, and sharing stories.   We had split about 3 bottles of wine among the four of us so it was a great bonding time to say the least.  Other than that, since the last blog post I have continued to explore the city and learn more about the Spanish culture and history.

Currently it is 4:50 am and I am sitting in the Ibiza airport waiting to fly to Barcelona.  Our senora really wanted my roommate and I to accompany her on a trip to Ibiza to visit her son who lives and works on the Island located off the coast of Spain.  After finally being talked into it (not that it was hard to be convinced to travel to one of the world’s most infamous party islands), we decided we would fly out to the island for a few days after exams.  Unfortunately our Senora could no longer go with us as her mother was suffering from an illness in Argentina.  Therefore her daughter had to fly to Buenos Aires to stay with her for a month to take care of her.  Doris (our senora) had to stay and take care of the three salons her and her daughter own.  We left Friday afternoon and arrived to Ibiza around 7:00pm to meet Doris’ son and our French student who traveled from Madrid as that is where she is now studying.  Unfortunately I have to leave at 5:00am on Sunday morning to meet up with my friends in Barcelona to start our European trip.  I would have liked to have stayed longer but I am glad I can now say that I have been to Ibiza.

Boats in the Ibiza Port

View from the top of the castle in Ibiza

Ibiza is a beautiful island off the coast of Spain and is situated in the Mediterranean Sea.  Ibiza is known for its great beaches, luxury living, and great night life (the world’s largest night club just opened).  Luckily we had a place to stay for free with Doris’ son, Ariel.  We sort of knew Ariel before traveling to Ibiza since he would regularly call the house to talk to us and ask us questions.  He enjoyed talking with us on the phone in order to practice our Spanish.  He is a chef in Ibiza and makes really good pizzas.  Friday night he made various types of pizzas and we all sat around talking to each other before heading out for the night.  He is really easy to talk to and very knowledgeable.  He has a great lifestyle.  He works for six months out of the year and then travels the other 6 months.  His apartment is very nice and spacious and lives really close to the port where large yachts can be found and by various beaches with blue water.  The first night he took us out to local bars and night clubs that were still a lot of fun even though they were part of the major night clubs promoted all over the town.  It was good for us since most night clubs have a 40 Euro (60 USD) entrance fee.  The nightclubs are one of the major tourist attractions here.  As soon as you step of the plane, people are trying to get you to buy tickets for the event going on at their respective clubs for the night.  Many night clubs also have their own smaller bars and night clubs and merchandise stores throughout the city.  It is definitely why a lot of people come here, and as much as I wish I would have gone to experience it, I am glad I got to see another side of the city.   

Sunset in San Antonio

On Saturday night we went across the island to San Antonio to watch the sunset.  It is a great location to watch the sunset.  There are really nice restaurants on the cost, and everyone gathers on the rocks to watch the sunset.  Before the sunset the bars, restaurants, and clubs play very calm music and as soon as the sun sets, everyone claps and begins to dance while places switch to upbeat music.  

In the end, Ibiza was a great experience but I have never slept for such a short amount of time in my life.  I definitely could not image staying a couple more days because it drained me.  Next I am off to Barcelona for a day and a half.  I’ll update you guys later. 

Chapter 9: Shane, Beaches, & Burgers

Sorry it has taken so long to update everyone on my trip to Lagos.  This week went by really fast as I had two exams and a lot of other work to do.  We didn't have class on Monday for la festividad de San Fernando who is the Patron Saint of Sevilla.  He conquered the city in 1248 and every year they put his body on display since he was so well preserved.  So for our long weekend we decided to hop the boarder and spend a couple of days on the beaches of Lagos, Portugal.  Lagos is about a 2 hour drive from Sevilla, except to save money we took a 5 hour bus ride.  Lagos, Portugal was just what we needed- tons of different beaches, and a town full of English speakers.  Strangely, everyone that worked there was from Australia or Canada - it must be a big travel destination for them.  It was nice to take a break from a foreign language and just be able to communicate with ease.  Everyone in Lagos was extremely nice and helpful, and unlike any other EU country, it was pretty cheap.

Our view from the top of our hostel. 

 We stayed in a hostel with all of our friends, but we didn't have enough people to fill up 3 rooms (4 per room), so I was in the room that would have a random roommate - the joys of staying in a hostel.  Our fourth roommate was quite the man.  You really do meet a lot of interesting people in your lifetime and no matter how absurd he or she is, you actually do learn something from each and every one of them.  As we walked to the front desk we heard this loud, unending snoring coming from one of the rooms. Little did we know that was our roommate and newest friend, Shane.  Shane was a great guy, with a lot of heart, and no control when it came to alcohol.  He was a 40 year old living the life of a 20 year old (as he put it).  He was pretty infamous around the hostel.  He usually has his own room because he snores so loud, and management makes him wear Breathe Right strips.  Fortunately for us, all the other rooms were full so we were stuck with him.  He was from Australia and had just quite his job in Greece.  I asked him how long he had been in Lagos for and he responded with "enough to be in the hospital for two weeks."  I assumed he was just going from place to place on his travels.

Shane passed out at 7:00pm

 When we were unpacking he appeared to be opening his fourth bottle of wine that day.  He told us about how he would head out to the supermarket to pick something up but never return with anything because he would be easily swindled into drinking at the bars.  Many times he said he would wake up on the beach and not know how he got there.  From what we learned he had a very troubling childhood, but he had a great sense of humor, and was extremely nice.  It kinda hits you after the fact how coming across people like that impacts your life in strange, yet meaningful ways.

On another note, the beaches and people of Lagos were great.  The beaches are known for being rocky with pretty clear blue water.  There are so many different beaches tucked away in clusters of rocks, thus we were able to go a different beach each day.

Because it is kind of a touristy town, lots of young travelers who were traveling the world had multiple jobs there to support themselves before heading to their next destination.  So we would meet a waitress one morning at breakfast, and then see her working at a bar at night, giving the effect that we knew people there.  We quickly felt like locals as the people were very helpful, friendly, and care free.  We found this great breakfast place called Cafe Odeon which saved us every morning.  We could finally get a cheap and authentic American breakfast.  During the days we stayed at the beach and around 5:00 or 6:00 we would head back towards the hostel to have something light to eat.  Later we would eat dinner, then head out for the night.  One night we ate at Nah Nah Bah's burger place which boasts one of the top 50 burgers in the world.  It was indeed delicious.

At night, it was easy to find something to do as bar promoters were in the streets (and would be fired that night if they don't bring in a certain number of people).  Since it wasn't high season there were a lot of great deals, and we got to know a lot of great people from Lagos.  It was a great, relaxing trip with a great group of people. Our next stop is Cordoba and Granada which I will give a short overview of later this week.  Things are starting to get busy with school, so I am finding myself with less free time every day.  Hope things are well back home.  Below are some more pictures of the beaches at Lagos.