Jun 2007

Well this is the first of hopefully many blogs coming from the white isle of sunny Ibiza. Having being here just on a month now and what an up and down month it’s being. The stress of finding a job and a apartment while trying to keep the money low and then the excitement of the opening parties, mates arriving and the fact that it’s not just going to last for weeks, but for months!!

Jetted into Ibiza from London with a banging handover and just couldn’t be bothered doing a backpacker thing and jumping on a bus so opted for the taxi and was whisked away to Sant Antonio to my hotel where I had booked a weeks accommodation so I could settle in and find my feet, a job and an apartment....all in that week. Well I might have being a bit naive thinking that I could just cruise on in and have it all sorted within a week, sure didn’t work out that way though.

I tried not to come to Sant Antonio with any pre conceptions as it does have the reputation of being a little Britain and overrun with English chavs, slapper girls and more Irish pubs than you can poke a stick at. Although being advised to steer clear of the area I had too give it a fair go and go check it out for myself before deciding which side of the island to stay on. Well it wasn’t far off from what people had told me with the centre being packed full of English, Irish, Scottish Bars and the lonesome Aussie bar. Having arrived so early before the party season had started there where just Brit workers but even they seemed to chav it up and having witnessed a fights, vomit and random people passed out; quickly decided this was definitely not the side of the island for me; I put up with all this shit at bars back in London, don’t really need to haul myself through it again. In all fairness though the Sunset Strip along where Café Mambo and Café Del Mar are is quite nice and watching the sunset over the ocean, marking the beginning of another crazy night is a sight to behold!

So having decided not to spend my summer in Sant Antonio, I didn’t really need to look for a job there so spent the rest of the week exploring the island and just generally baking in the sun before moving over to the other side of the island and to Playa Den Bossa where I was staying in another hotel to continue the job search.
This side of the island, for me, is wicked as there aren’t too many English; mostly Spanish, Italians and Germans, most of the clubs are here and it has the longest beach on the island as well having the main town of Evissia (Ibiza Town) which you can practically get a bus to anywhere on the island from.

After a couple of days of dropping my resume off and talking to the bar managers, I managed to get a trial an Italian Bar called Bar Minimal.
I did come over looking for bar work but most of the bar jobs are either given to workers that have worked past seasons or Spanish speakers and most of the jobs on the island are for PRing, which is basically handing out flyers and trying to get people into your bar. Looking at it now I would rather do PRing than bar work as the hours are alot better as you finish around 1am and can party on down afterwards, but god it’s hard work......well for me anyways as I’m not the greatest communicator around and would have to be the worst job for me as that’s what I gotta do all night.
Well I only worked at Bar Minimal for about a week or so, it was so quite as the season still was a bit off from starting and still alot of families and oldies around, and only brought in one table all week!!! Well thinking that I was just absolute shite and how the hell can I survive with a job that for me is really hard, I geared up the job search again and found another job in Playa Den Bossa at a bar called FunKafe doing the same thing.
I’m still working there and have survived the 2 week trail, so must be doing something right and am bringing in tables even though it is still slow. It’s quite a cool bar [edited by request of FunKafe], so think I will probably stick it out there for a while, plus I get worker passes to every club so I can get in for free!!! How wicked is that!

Well in the 2 weeks of job searching I absolutely forgot about the fucking apartment search and with the original idea of me just being Mr Independent and finding my own place with some other randoms being scrapped for the much better idea of staying with my mates from London how were due to arrive in one week I had to find a place for all four of us. Jesus fucking christ, this was so stressful I think at one point I was ready to leave the island, hell Ibiza ain´t meant to be like this and here I am stressing like a mofo and still not being paid from my job and spending money on basic stuff and still costing me a fortune! Well after an endless number of phone calls, false viewings and non English speaking agents I managed to find a place right in the heart of Evissa that could fit all four of us and 8 others.
So here we are now all living in a ex lounge room on the first floor of an apartment block with our very own terrace off our room, TV, fridge, sofa and everything else a group of workers could need. The rest of the flat is quite cool, another four bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen all with mostly Spanish and Italian people which is quite cool and all secured one day before Tilly and Jayne were to arrive, fuck they definitely owe me a beer or three!

Now was the time I could start too chill out, my mates had arrived, had a job of sorts and a place to sleep it was time to see what this island really had too offer.
Having finished work, we all went out and got pissed at a Brit pub (Ironic?) on €10 jugs of vodka Red Bull before moving onto an Irish pub (Even more Ironic??) and taking a dip into a hotel swimming pool and the ocean before watching the sunrise for another day over the Playa Den Bossa. I did manage to break my camera and with there being no camera repair shops on the island have had to do an old super glue jobby, so if some pictures look way too zoomed out or vise versa, that will explain it
So much crazy shit happens over hear and it ain´t even kicked off yet, god I don’t know what’s going to happen in a couple of weeks when it’s peak time...eek!!

For those of you who are clueless to the inner workings of Ibiza I’ll give you a quick run down....
Basically people come here to get absolutely ratted for normally a week of hardcore partying at the various clubs across the island which are Space, Pacha, El Divino, DC 10, Amnesia, Privilege, Eden & Es Paradis. Privilege is the biggest club in the world and Space is open every morning and night except for Mondays and the rest are just massive.
The ´season is´ from the middle of June through till the end of September / start of October and then all the clubs except for Pacha shut for the winter, with the peak being July & August where apparently the islands population triples.

I’ve only manages to check out a few places so far as most have only just opened and some open in a couple of weeks and am trying so hard at the moment to keep my €€s down. Managed to check out Pacha on Friday night for Pete Tong´s opening party and Space´s opening party on the Sunday which was just out of this world and is pretty much the ´official´ opening of Ibiza, it only goes up from here. Imagine a 22 hour party starting at 8am Sunday morning and finishing at 6am Monday, countless rooms inside and a massive outside terrace!! You really can’t describe it, it is just madness.

So nothing too crazy as yet, although I am starting to see what I am in for and it looks fucking fantastic. I’m really glad I got here quite early as I have had a chance to check out the island before the hoards of people arrive and before I am too exhausted; it is actually quite a beautiful island and with my mates now been here and the parties about to begin this summer is going to be an unforgettable experience.

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/2966657