James Winfield In Ibiza – Chapter 9 – 2011 (part 1???)

They still let me in!  Good job they check my passport thoroughly.

Ibiza – my favourite place in the world.  So much beauty, so much fun to be had, so much ability to heal oneself…but also to destroy oneself.

This might be quite a long blog post, so feel free just to look at the pictures and wonder why I am not a professional photographer, or you could just bookmark and read on Friday when everyone just pretends to do work.

So the four of us (James, Matt, Sam and Paul) flew out to meet 4 others who were already there and a scattering of others on the island at the same time.

Any sensible traveller to Ibiza knows that the outward flight should not be attempted sober, so with the help of airport stores I soon became stocked up with enough vodka for the journey, 1 of many bottles.

I am not especially proud of drinking so much vodka, but when vodka is cheaper than water and there is a recession on…you do the math as they say in USA.  Why pay €9 for a small bottle of vodka in Amnesia when you can pay €8 for a litre of Ruskinov in the Spar?

Ah, the Spar.  Every holiday in Ibiza has a Spar that you can become attached to.  And our hotel was right next to the best Spar.  I blogged about it before I even got there.

Oh yeah, party in the Spar!  Party In The Spar.  Party In The Spar.  Party In The Spar.

Sadly…

Not to worry, Ibiza has other places to party, thankfully.  Besides, the music in the Spar was a bit gash, to say the least.

So on Sunday I embraced the sunshine for a while before finally flaking, though not for long.  And what hot sunshine did we have – clear skies with just a few clouds every day, 33’C to 35’C each day.  Quite ridiculous for September, normally it is somewhere between 24’C and 28’C.

I spent an hour down the pool, my only hour – they only had the pool area open 11am until 6pm – what kind of time is that?  Apart from that, I could not knock the apartments we were staying in, they were well-run, professional, clean, friendly to all sorts, in quite a good location, and of course… Party In The Spar!  And inexpensive.  I recommend.

As everyone in Ibiza seems to look ridiculously attractive or rich, I decided that I needed to step up to the plate, and purchased a designer beach towel, a bright pink D&B towel.

Oh yeah, hello Italiano – Dolce & Banana, I am so cool.

As can often be the case, the days did tend to blur into one, so I shall try and pick out the highlights from now, and they may not be in order.

Cocoon.   Ever since I first decided to go to Cocoon in 2004 in Ibiza, a trip to Ibiza without Cocoon is not a trip to Ibiza.

The line-up was exceptional, Sven, of course, with Nina Kraviz warming up for him.  She really did an excellent job, a few mixes were a little off forgiveness really has to be given as she is relatively new to the international DJ circuit and I imagine this is probably one of, if not, her most important set, and she duly delivered – I was suitably impressed, built it really well for Sven but kept her sound intact and the dancefloor moving.

Sven, was of course, his usual imperious self.  I shouldn’t really need to write about him.  Everything was just excellent.  He played quite a wide variety of house and techno, including one of the tunes of the holiday, Maceo Plex – Falling, and one tumultuous thundering techno track later on which just devastated the place, and then he left it on a mellow edge to finish off.

We left at about 730am, spent ages trying to choose how to get home, but it didn’t have that kind of “whoa what the heck happened there…my life has changed” kind of feeling to it that used to happen, but that is probably because I have been quite a lot of times now.  We did have one Cocoon virgin in the group and I do believe that he was rather blown away.

Tuesday we all carried on for as long as we could, and from then on I think the excitement of the start started to slide.

We went to Underground on Wednesday.  Very nice place, sadly only 50 people in there but with a few hundred I could see how that could be a really good place to go, good music, relaxed atmosphere, no dickheads.

That was after an interesting attempt at DJing by Matt and Paul at Bay Bar in San Antonio.  A relaxed atmosphere, and rather relaxed service standards, but not relaxed in their attitudes to what their DJs are doing – ‘turn it up’, ‘turn it down’, ‘no not this type of house music’, ‘something more chilled’, ‘something more upbeat’, ‘calm it down’ – different instructions every two minutes.

A proper highlight though was going to Tapas Bar in San Antonio, slightly off the beaten track, the food was delicious.

Oh and we had a boat trip on the last day.

I really really could write so much more and should write so much more but I have rambled on for long enough.  I might do a part 2!

I rate the holiday 9 out of 10.  A superb holiday.

I will be back next year.

Oh, if you go to the Party In The Spar before I do, ask the manager (I think his name is Juan) what he called his baby – I suggested the name ‘James’ – he wanted an English name.