After a relaxing few weeks exploring Granada, we hopped on a plane and visited Ibiza for a weekend! It's such a beautiful island and there's always something to see. Ibiza is well known for its party atmosphere with more clubs than anywhere else. Lucky for us, we missed the main party scene by a few weeks so there weren't too many people on the island. We spent the afternoon visiting Ibiza's old town, Dalt Villa. It's a massive labyrinth of cobblestone streets built into old battlements. There is an amazing cathedral and some really great look out points. There was a lot to see and so many places to explore.
We spent the evening watching the sunset on the beach. It was so pretty and definitely worth the hike to find the best view. On the way home, Nathan ended up getting distracted by a cat and ran into a cactus! His hand and forearm were covered in little cactus prickles. He was less than impressed and we spent the rest of our evening picking out pieces of cactus from his arm. And when I say we, I mean Nathan, because I told him he brought it on himself by paying attention to a cat.
The next morning we got up and took a bus to the other side of the island, a little town called Sant Antoni de Portmany. We walked all along the beaches and explored through the trees that were everywhere on this side of the island. We ran into a lot of wildlife and these birds were especially cool. It was really fun to watch them play in the water.
The other reason I had wanted to visit this town is because of an egg. There is a monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus, because Spain has a mad crush on this guy, and it's a giant egg with his ship in the middle of it. It goes along with this story about how after discovering the Americas, many noblemen said it wasn't hard to do and Columbus proves them wrong with an egg. The statue is also there as a claim that Columbus "could" have been born in Ibiza. Even though it's pretty much one hundred percent true that he didn't. Either way, I was excited to see such a random statue. Turns out, it's in the middle of town, built on a median of a busy traffic circle. I tried to find a break in the cars and run across to take a picture with it, but Nathan wouldn't let me. So we just have a lame picture of a lame statue. I was really expecting more.
We went back to Ibiza town for the afternoon and continued exploring the city. There's always something to see! We met up with Nathan's cactus friend and he was still pretty distraught over it. We started hiking along the coastline and found some really great views. It took some bush whacking and a few pokes from so plants but it was really fun. Definitely worth the views.
We took a break from nature to take a walk around the town. We got a snack of churros and chocolate (my favourite Spanish food) and saw some more of the sites. There was a cute market, some hand crafted jewelry shops, and it was fun to look around.
Our last stop on our Ibiza adventure was the Necropolis del Puig. It's two floors of history and artifacts from Ibiza, which was really interesting to learn about. They've found pieces that date inhabitants of Ibiza from seventh century B.C. I really enjoyed learning about the history of such a small, but important, place. Outside of the museum section is the actual necropolis. It was used by different religions and throughout time so there are actually different types of burials scattered around the grounds. There are still actual skeletons in the tombs and it was really interesting to see. I was enjoying myself until we had to go down into the actual tomb sites..
My inner Joni really came out and my claustrophobia got its moment to shine. What you can't see in the pictures (probably because I was too busying having a panic attack to photograph) is that branching off from the main, and still tiny, area are a few little sections where I could hardly fit. They were all separate burial tombs where they had placed bodies or urns. Nathan made me walk through the whole thing while I was having a melt down about being stuck in this awful cave. You can see how low Nathan had to crouch. This place was small. The actual skeletons didn't ease my feelings of stress either. Looking back on the Necropolis, it was very interesting and amazing to see. But I don't think I need to go back any time soon.
We had a lot of fun in Ibiza. We ending up getting there a few weeks before tourist season really kicked off so there weren't a ton of people and it was fun to feel like you had a lot of the island to yourself. I had to really remember to relax, which has been different than most of our weekend trips. It was nice to just enjoy the views and have a chill weekend of fun. Definitely worth it.
