'LOL'
Once upon a time I was 19. I'd hated my first year of Uni living with ten girls so had moved into the boys house next door after just a few weeks and found myself in a world of Fifa, ping pong and protein shakes. I'm quite a girly girl when I want to be so I should have been right at home with the girls but I just wasn't, they were always being vile to each other and getting over excited about everything and that was not my cup of tea, I was quiet and they thought my accent was really posh. I'd also come from a close group of girls who had never fallen out with each other all through school and college so I couldn't understand how they could hate each other one minute and not the next. I loved how chilled out and loyal the boys were and tried to stay clear of the girls as much as possible.
By the end of that year though I'd made besties with the loudest, most intimidating party girl from my original house when we'd realised we shared a love of our sex and the city boxsets, had been dancers before coming to Uni and both hated going to lectures and seminars.
So that was that. In a matter of weeks I'd pretty much stopped going to any classes and was out partying five days a week even though neither of us ever had any money. We'd simply sweet talk the bouncers at our favourite club into getting us in and drink tap water all night and be there from 9 at night till 4 in the morning. Kirsty had well and truly brought me out of my shell and I like to think I made her a tad classier! The mischief we made was to become legendary in the little town of Chester.
We decided to move in together for our second year despite the fact I'd gone from getting firsts to getting 2:2's and she'd completely failed first year. We also recruited a few of the other girls and some of the boys so we were a big mismatch from the beginning. Kirsty and I had got through an audition to be bar tenders and dancers at our favourite club so we were earning money and saving our tips and decided our hard graft had earnt us the right to go on holiday. I don't know why we decided on Ibiza, I guess it's the big one and we wanted the best.
Two of our friends Vicky and Wayne volunteered to come along which was just as well as they were the complete opposite to us, they did all the organising and researching places and finances and Kirsty and I just nodded in agreement and handed over the money. They found a week in San Antonia just off the main strip for something stupid like £130 including flights and transfers and as soon as we;d booked it I made a massive wall chart and ticked off the days and decorated our tip jars with pictures of Ibiza.
The night before I promised everyone I'd packed so Kirsty and I could go on a pre-Ibiza night out which was followed by furious phone calls when it emerged I hadn't done a single thing. So in the morning we ran like mad things to go change our money in town and throw random things in a case before getting the train to the airport.
Wayne and Vicky were like the sensible parents with everything we needed in a plastic wallet and their cases lined up neatly by the door, I distinctly remember sitting on the stairs flinging things out of my case to get it down to the right weight with five minutes before the taxi came and I made a casual joke to diffuse the tension when Wayne screamed at me 'This is not a talking zone, this is a packing zone!' Hilarious!
'The packing zone'
Sweet and innocent!
And so it begins...
I'm not going to pretend I know everything there is to know about Ibiza because I don't. I was there for one week and it was my first holiday without mum and dad with limited money in my pocket. We weren't a massively wild group either and we had Wayne and Vicky to keep us on the straight and narrow so it was all very innocent, lots of getting with boys and getting drunk and giddy on bright pink drinks. I never once saw drugs, heard about them or got offered them and I didn't see anyone getting naked or having sex in the street but I guess if you're someone who is that way inclined you're going to look for it and notice it more. I've always been massively naive and innocent when it comes to drugs simply because they don't interest me in the slightest so I've never had to sit up and take notice. I guess if there had been any around I wouldn't have noticed them anyway.
Boys were my forte and at 19 I was pretty confident around them, in fact no, I was extremely confident! I remember on the first day we were stood on our balcony taking it all in when we spotted a guy who had all the laddish brovado of a silver backed gorrilla. You couldn't help noticing him, he was swaggering around like he owned the place, constantly dropping his shorts and whistling at the girls. We nicknamed him 'King Chav' and went on about how we'd never go near that. Fast forward to three pink drinks and a silent disco later and guess who I'd ended up with? It became a running joke that all I had to do was point my finger at someone and they'd come over and it wasn't that far from the truth. I knew what I was good at and I certainly wasn't ashamed about it!
It became pretty clear as soon as we stepped off the plane that we didn't look anything like the 'cool' group in Ibiza. Ibiza is very much the 'cool' place to go and everyone was in tiny denim hot pants, converse high tops and vest tops. I'd been wearing converse since I was about 13 so I didn't regard them as in fashion at all, it was just my shoe of choice! Because I'd grown up dancing to R 'n' B my going out style was very simple but short and tight, in fact I'm always being told how I dress is very European and I think I'd have to agree with that. Kirsty had been a dancer too and loved the same kind of music so our dress sense was pretty similar and Vicky and Wayne weren't massively into fashion either, it was all River Island and New Look!
I couldn't (and still don't) understand why everyone would want to look the same. I found the whole fashion part of Ibiza really pretentious although the workers who come and sell you tickets on the beach and get you into the clubs at night always looked amazing. I found it weird when they'd come sit next to you on the beach and pretend like they were really interested because they were obviously a hell of a lot cooler than we were and it was all a bit fake and obvious.
No one wore heels or much make up when they went out and I think in 2009 it was when the Boho trend was having a bit of a moment so we definitely didn't fit in with our little boob tube dresses and sparkly lilac eyeshadow. Kirsty and I had a pair of black shoe boot heels from New Look that we were absolutely in love with and used to them everywhere, I'd be mortified if one of my friends was wearing the same shoes as me now but back then we thought we looked amazing- and when I look back I'm so proud of us being the hot little oddballs we were! The funny thing is I can cringe at the outfits we wore then but when I go on holiday now I still pack exactly the same things, I just wear them differently these days. I remember one of the 'cool' girls asking if I'd do her make up in the toliets at Eden one night and I thought to myself 'girls are all the same!'
I think we'd gone just as Ibiza was getting into the party season so for a few of the days it was pretty overcast and it rained every now and again. We didn't really mind though as I go brown as a nut in seconds and the other three don't tan at all.
We went self-catered and our kitchen consisted of a teeny tiny cooker and a kettle and sink so we ate out pretty much every night apart from once when we made pasta with Philadelphia cheese. I had a fried breakfast every single day and loved them! We also bought a bottle of bright green absinthe which was something like 90% alcohol and I remember walking back to the hotel with it thinking 'I'm carrying my death in this plastic carrier bag.' We attempted to play ring of fire but I'm hopeless at maths and couldn't get hold of it for the life of me so we gave up and played twister instead. I don't know who brought a twister mat with them but I was glad they did.
We didn't go to any of the superclubs because house music isn't my thing and it was a bit of a trek to get to them. I'd been told they were basically drug raves and so busy you can't get a drink all night and if you do it's 10 euros for a bottle of water. Added to the ridiculous price for getting in it didn't sound like my cup of tea but if I was to go back to Ibiza again I'd probably go to one just to see what they're like. If they weren't amazing they wouldn't get the reputation they have so they must be pretty good, personally I don't really like the big clubs even when I'm at home.
We did go to Eden though when HedKandi were playing and I loved the place, just not the music. There were girls dressed up in cages suspended from the ceiling and they looked so glamorous I remember thinking 'How do I get that job?' Being a massive girl I loved all the pink glitter and sequins and feathers and I can imagine it looks amazing for different themed nights.
I thought the carousel was the best thing ever! On nights when there was an event going on it was packed but I actually preferred going when it was just a regular night especially as it was free to get in and there was room to dance. I noticed pretty fast that not many people dance in Ibiza which I found bizarre as to me it was the mecca of dancing! So many times it would just be me and Kirsty on the dance floor and everyone else sat down around the edges which we just didn't get.
We walked past the famous Ibiza Rocks hotel but it wasn't open and no one was playing at the time, I'm making this sound like the worst place ever but I think maybe we'd just picked a bad time to go?
We also went on a 'Booze Cruise' which was pretty underwhelming. The reps came round to our rooms as soon as we got to the hotel and badgered us into paying 200 euros for a package of five events ranging from a silent disco to a rave paint night. Because we were new to it all and Ibiza seemed huge we wanted to do what everyone else was doing and duly handed over our money but in reality all you get for your money are a couple of discos you could get into for free yourself and a few drinks which wouldn't cost you much on a deal anyway. This booze cruise was pretty pants with the usual ritual humiliation of reps and holiday makers acting out sex positions with bananas, that kind of thing. I think we had a couple of glasses of sangria each and then all three of my group threw up. We didn't stop off anywhere as far as I recall and it was pretty cloudy all day but I loved the music and how rocky the water was just added to the beat as far as I was concerned. I love anything on water so I was happy as larry.
My favourite night was probably the silent disco where everyone gets a headset, I think we were the last ones to leave!
All in all I have massively fond memories of my time in Ibiza but I think it was mostly down to the fact it was my first holiday away and I was with my best friends. The company you take with you ultimately has an impact on how your holiday goes so think carefully before you take a big group where people don't get on or there's too many characters wanting to be the boss. Luckily for us there were no egos in our group and none of us cared about being seen as 'the fun one' or anything like that. When I look back we seem so young and innocent and found every day an adventure and loved getting all dressed up and dancing till we were exhausted. That's my main memory of this holiday, all the dancing and jumping around. I guess because our jobs weren't 9-5 office jobs we didn't have that need to go out and get drunk because we hadn't come on holiday to get away from stress or a boring job. Our whole week was based on going out and dancing so we just saw the holiday as our usual week but in a different country. We were one of a minority of that mind set though so we tended to stay away from the 'lager louts' at our hotel and sit on the beach.
I would go back to Ibiza one day but I think I'd explore the island more and probably take more money to get into the super clubs and the more luxurious bars. It's the leader of the 18-30 scene and it knows it so if you're four dorks looking for a good disco there probably are better suited places to go to.
Bella
x
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