Friday, May 31, 2013

May Phone Dump

The majority of pictures on my phone during the month of May were from our trip to Portugal and Spain.  (Like, a thousand.  Who takes that many pictures in 10 days!?)  Anyways - here is a glimpse at the rest of the month of May...

  • Mother's Day brunch at Pegah's.  Hunter wanted no part of the photo shoot afterwards, but we did manage to get one decent one. 


  • Random Hunter pics.  There are alot of them.  I have to share at least some! 
Air-Hunter.  The kids love to hang on stuff.

Helping Daddy with the mowing.
  • My dogs.  They were still lazy during the month of May.  Shocking.

  • Grilling out and enjoing the nice Spring weather.
How many guys does it take to determine if the chicken is cooked?

 
  • "10 Beer Dinner" at Beer Kitchen, one of our favorite restaurants in Westport.  The guys only brought me along for a DD and 10 extra beers.  I got a free meal out of it, so I won't complain.




  • New running shoes ordered.  The marathon training continues.


Monday, May 27, 2013

Day 11: Madrid --> Dublin --> Chicago --> Kansas City

Well it was a rough night, but some time after 2am I finally fell asleep.  I woke up every hour until the alarm went off at 6am.  I was tired, but so happy that I felt better (and hadn't been in the bathroom for awhile) that I didnt' care about the lack of sleep.  Decided to hop through the shower again since I had sweat a lot last night, and it was my last chance before the 15 hours of traveling we had ahead of us.

Packed up again and we were out the door by 7am.  My stomach was still rumbling but I felt 8,000 times better than I did last night.  Had the front desk call a cab for us.  Yea, with all the drama last night, we forgot to look in to the subway or bus schedule too much.  Plus with me still not feeling well, we decided  cab would just be easiest.  Another 30 minutes and 40 Euros.  Ouch.

In the elevator at Posada del Dragon.  Sad to be leaving.

So we got to the airport, and looked at the board to figure out where we needed to go to check in.  All of the check in counters have numbers for each flight.  So we looked and looked...and then found it.  Our flight wasn't at 9:30 like we thought.  It was at 10:30!  Ugh.  No idea how we screwed that one up.  I didn't even look at my itinerary I had printed out.  I thought Matt had looked on his phone last night and told me 9:30 and we did the math backwards to get to the 6am alarm.  I don't know.  Who knows.  Either way, we were at the airport at 7-freaking-30 for a 10:30 flight.  The check in counter wasn't even open yet.  So we sat on the ground in front of the counter.  And waited...



Matt was NOT happy about being there so early and missing another hour of sleep.
The workers finally came to check people in after 8:30.  That was alot of sitting around time, and me fighting the urge to go to the bathroom.  My stomach wasn't happy, but I was scared to go, haha. 

Anyways, I made it, and we got checked in.  Except the guy working was obviously new / training and on top of that, he barely spoke any English.  So frustrating.  We asked him about where our seats were - if they were together.  They were for the first 2.5 hour flight to Dublin, but that's as far as we got with him.  We asked about or bags that we were checking in - if we needed to pick them up in Dublin or in Chicago?  He eventually said we needed to pick them up in Dublin, which we thought was really weird.  But then as he put Matt's bag on the thing to send it off, he put a bright orange "TRANSFER IN DUBLIN" sticker on it.  What the heck?  My bag had already gone through without one of those.  So now we were thoroughly confused and decided to just go to baggage claim in Dublin no matter what to figure out if our bags were transferred on or not...

Made it through security and found something to eat for breakfast.  I was scared of how my stomach was going to react, but some yogurt and a croissant from Starbucks really hit the spot.  We had so much time to kill still that I just laid down on the bench there (at Starbucks) and sleep for almost an hour before we boarded the plane.

Pretty easy 2.5 hour flight from Madrid in to cloudy and cold Dublin.  I slept for most of it.  We had originally thought about maybe leaving the airport to go see Dublin since we had over 3 hours, but with the whole bag thing, we had to go through the immigration stuff and customs, and then wait in line to re-check in and go through security again. 

Our bags were NOT on the carousel after the flight.  They had both been checked through after all, just like we thought.  We asked an Aer Lingus guy at the customer service desk by the baggage about it, and he said we wouldn't have to pick them up until Kansas City. They were checked all the way through!  But we had to go re-check in for the flight now since the guy in Madrid didn't give us boarding passes.  It was all a mess, but we waited in the long line out front.  When we got called, we just happened to get the most non-helpful girl ever.  She was rude and had no interest in helping us at all.  We asked her if our seats were together twice, and she pretty much ignored us.  We got stuck in the middle section again, but at least we weren't the middle of the middle.  We had an aisle seat this time. Oh, and then she said we did have to pick up our bags in Chicago and re-check them.  What the heck, people.  Which is it!?

So we got all re-checked in, went through security again, and then went to find our gate and see if someone there would be more helpful with moving our seats.  No such luck.  Full flight and no other two seats together.  I guess that's what we get for not checking in ahead of time.

Found some food back out in lobby area.  Bananas and a pizza.  My stomach still wasn't right but at least I had kept everything down / in so far.  Bought some coconut juice which we thought was supposed to re-hydrate you - but it tasted awful.  Neither of us had had it before, so we weren't sure what it was supposed to taste like, but we both thought it tasted old/spoiled, so we tossed it after one sip. 

Walked around and tried to kill some time.  Bought snacks and waters for the 8 hour flight from Dublin to Chicago.  Our seats really weren't that bad after all, and the plane was pretty spacious.  We had plenty of room and had tvs at our seats to watch some movies on.  I slept for the first couple of hours, then watched Broken City... and then the last Twilight movie (which I thought was awful).  Slept a little more, ate some airplane food, and then landed at 6pm in Chicago.

Went through the immigration line, grabbed our bags from baggage claim - they were actually there this time, and then decided to just keep them with us rather than re-check them in to save some time in KC. 

We actually didn't have that much time until our next flight, so we grabbed some healthy-ish food and waited at our gate. 

Chicken and quinoa / vegetables and brown rice

The flight from Chicago to KC was freezing cold.  Seriously.  I put Matt's coat completely over my head and body and curled up in a little ball.  And it was super bumpy from the storms, too.  I just wanted to be home!  And to top it off, our ride was about 20 minutes late coming to get us.  Sitting outside the airport was not what I wanted to do after traveling for so long.

Looking pretty rough, I know.

I'm not going to lie, I was pretty pumped when I got home.  I washed my face, changed out of my dirty clothes, and immediately crawled in to my big comfy bed. Matt, on the other hand, went home and watched the entire Spurs basketball game.  And since they won, he also watched all the post-game stuff (they made it to the NBA finals).  Crazy, I tell you.   

It really was an awesome trip, despite the last night in Madrid.  There isn't anything better than traveling and exploring foreign cities with my favorite person. :)

We were talking on the drive home about all the stuff we did and had already forgot about!  That's why I take so many pictures and try to write when I can.  When you cram so much in to a short amount of time, it's hard to remember everything! (My posts/picture taking seemed to get progressively worse as the trip went on...)

Big winners for the trip are Barcelona and Portugal.  Barcelona might be my new favorite city, and Portugal is cheap and awesome.  I don't know why more people don't go there!  Oh, and Vegas.  Biggest dissapoinent from the trip was definitely the clubs in Ibiza.  Vegas for the win.  It is so much bigger, better, cleaner, safer...and cheaper. :)

Next big adventure for me is India in August with my friend, Angie.  

Already thinking about Chile and Argentina for 2014 or 2015...

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Day 10: Ibiza to Madrid

For some reason I could NOT sleep last night.  I was ready to party apparently ;)  Matt was fighting to keep his eyes open and I was running around the room organizing and cleaning and and re-packing.  Even when I did get in bed, sleep didn't happen.  So when the alarm went off at 6:30am, I wasn't pumped.  I quickly rinsed off in the shower (did I mention the entire shower curtain bar came down yesterday when I threw my towel over it?) and ate my breakfast.  We got yogurt and juice at the grocery store yesterday for this morning.  Out the door by 7:15am to gas up the rental car and head to the airport.


It took DIESEL fuel!

We've got our party of Ibiza figure out now, and the airport was a lot closer than I remembered, so we were there plenty early.  Returned the car with no problems.  Yay for no accidents this time around - of course, since I paid extra for insurance at the last minute. 

There were two large tour buses of old people unloading as we were walking in, and I was not happy about probably having to wait behind all of them.  We found our gate to check in on Vueling...and a giant line of people.  But our line was completely empty!  The airports here have separate lines for separate flights, not like the US where there is one United or Southwest check in desk for all flights.  So we totally lucked out again.  The lady at the desk tried to talk us in to checking our bags, saying it was a completely full flight, but I really don't like waiting at baggage claim, and we had packed to carry on, so I told her no. :)


Tour bus line (counter 8) vs our line (counter9)

Made it through the self-service security again, and had to throw my oj away!  I was going to try and sneak it on, but they caught it. Dang it!  We found a little cafe to have some juice and croissants, and I passed out on the table.  Just exhausted.  Matt woke me up once they announced our gate, so we headed that way and waited in line. 

Once we boarded the plane, I was out again.  But one of the workers came by and pulled Matts suitcase down and said it was too big!  His is bigger than mine and doesn't fit the "proper" way apparently.  You have to put it in the bin long ways to get the door to close.  So he took it and said we would have to get it at baggage claim in Madrid since the flight was full.  Ridiculous.  All the bins weren't even full!  I would have argued with him if I would have been more awake, but, again, exhaustion had set in.  I went to sleep and didn't wake up until the plane hit the runway in Madrid.

Another big and nice airport.  Found the bathrooms and waited at baggage claim.  My least favorite thing to do, haha.  We didn't research the bus and/or subway systems here so we had to take a cab to our hotel.  No line at all, and our cab driver seemed to know where we wanted to go (I had the address printed out).  30 minutes and almost 40 Euros later, we pulled up in front of Posada del Dragon down a little one-way street.  Most expensive cab ride ever.  I think we will be investigating how to get back to the airport a little cheaper tomorrow morning!

The entrance to Posada del Dragon

Our room was super cute - and we got to pick it!  It's all turquoise, of course.  (The purple one wasn't clean yet or I might of chose that one.) Turquoise floor, desk, chair, phone, wall, etc.  Flat screen tv, super comfortable bed, normal towels.    Awesome shower and normal bathroom.  Free wifi in the room.  LOVE it. I could stay there for awhile...




The hotel has three floors and 27 rooms in all.  They all open up to a courtyard kind of area and there is a bar / restaurant below. So cool!


Looking up from the enrance (right) and Matt sitting down below in the red shirt (left)

We dropped our bags and set off to find the Sunday flea market, El Rastro.  Nice day, but clouds looming and a chance of rain in the forecast.  Walked by lots of cute shops with cool shoes I wanted to look at, but they're all closed on Sundays! Stopped in a grocery store around the corner to get water and some snacks. 



I love grocery stores in foreign countries.  They're always so interesting to figure out!
 
Had data turned on on the phone to find the market, but somehow walked several blocks down hill past our turn for it.  Wasn't fun to turn around and walk back up.  We were close to the area according to the map on the phone, but still couldn't find the actual market, so we went in a mall and asked a lady - who spoke very little English.  But she managed to communicate that the actual market was across the street behind the building we were in.

Talk about a disappointment when we saw it.  It was literally a flea market.  I mean, I know that's what it said it was, but I thought it would be more like a hand-made stuff kind of market.  No, it was all second-hand used junk.  Literally.  Used car parts, trading cards, old books.  Just junk - and lots of it! 

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why so many people were there...

We walked around a little and down several streets, but decided to leave and head to Plaza Mayor to meet up with the 2pm Sandemans free walking tour (like the one we did with Ricky Lee in Barcelona).

Took our time walking there and looked in some shops, bought a hand painted tile from a guy painting on the street and saw some street performers. 

Bought a painted tile from this guy - he paints with his finger!


Threw some change in this guys bucket and he opened his eyes and looked right at me. 
How in the world he stayed like that for so long is beyond me!

Got to the plaza just in time for the rain to start and we didn't have our umbrella or jackets or anything.  Luckily it didn't last long at all, and we set off on our tour of Madrid.  Our tour guide, Angel, was not near as good as Ricky Lee.  We actually didn't care for him at all, and he stopped twice within the first 5 minutes to act scenes out from history.  I mean he had props and everything.  He chained a guy up and made him lay on the ground.  It was all just too weird.  So in the middle of one of the acts - which we couldn't even hear him anyways - we decided we would just sneak off.  I got about two steps in and he saw me and I jetted back to line behind Matt, haha.  Not so sneaky I guess!  We stayed a couple of minutes longer, but when the group moved to another sight, we snuck in to a tourist shop and died laughing about it all. 

Plaza Mayor in Madrid


Signing up for the free walking tour...in the rain
Decided to head it back to the room to get our Spain Lonely Planet book and do some research on our own.  Grabbed some lunch at our hotel.  "Broken eggs" as appetizer - fried egg, potatoes, and Iberian shaved ham, and then the most delicious ribs with pineapple chutney.



Changed in to some running clothes for a jog later and set off to see the cathedral, palace, and whatever else along the way.  (I didn't bring my phone on this part, so I'll have to get the pics from Matt's phone and upload them later.)

I had my eyes on a great park about a mile away, but after our walk to the palace, we were much closer to ..., the largest urban park in Spain.  It looked giant on the map, and I couldn't quite tell about running trails, but we decided to go for it.  We started on a nice paved trail along the water outside the park, but when that ended, we ran back to an entrance to the actual park.  It was big and dry, and the little dirt paths seemed to just randomly end.  Not the best park for running, and I wished I would have went to the other big green one we drove by on our way to the hotel (and that I had already found running paths along).  Oh well.  We got 4 miles in (Matt took a little break), and we were both just dying of dehydration.  It was dry there and pollen was blowing around in the park so much that we both had yellow stuff stuck to our arms and our mouths felt like they hadn't seen water in days.  Not cool.

We grabbed a water at the first place we saw (we only had 2 Euros with us) and chugged it as we walked back to our hotel.  Found an awesome little market along the way - which was very close to our hotel - and decided to maybe check it out for appetizer before dinner that night. 

We had both been so excited for this night in Madrid.  We had heard so much about the awesome food.  Did some research and looked up reviews of restaurants nearby, and were ready for our first glass of sangria.

I hopped in the steaming hot shower after eating a few pieces of licorice while Matt chatted with his brother and roommate.  And that was the end of my night...

I started not feeling well towards the end of the shower.  Got out, and it was all just coming on so quickly.  I didn't even get dressed.  I just crawled in bed.  And 10 minutes later, I was on the toilet.  Every few minutes.  Diarrhea, which turned in to vomiting, cold chills, fever...the works.  I was trying not to be too dramatic, but I made Matt google American hospitals in Madrid.  I knew my body was shutting down and I was already dehydrated from not drinking enough water on this trip.  With all the fluids exiting my body now, I was worried for what was ahead.

I did eventually manage to get some clothes on, but stayed in the fetal position on the wet bathroom floor (the shower leaked) for several hours.  Matt was the sweetest thing ever and went out twice to get me medicine, bread, Gatorade...anything I asked for.  And he didn't complain once about not getting our fancy dinner that night.  I eventually made him go down and grab some food from the restaurant at our hotel, but that was it. 

At least he waited until I had clothes on to snap the picture of my night

At some point during the night (after 2am), I fell asleep.  I took three anti-diarrhea pills (two didn't do the trick), two ibuprofen for the fever, and chugged as much of some re-hydration packet thing mixed with water as I could.  And choked down a piece of bread that he went out and got for me.

The way my stomach was rumbling, I thought maybe I had some sort of stomach bug, but I ate and drank the exact same things Matt did the whole trip.  I honestly think it was some sort of combination of lack of sleep / lack of water / lack of healthy food.  Maybe after the run - which I was already dehydrated before - then the licorice and the super hot shower...my body just shut down.

NOT how I wanted to spend my last night of vacation...and my only night in Madrid. :(

Heading home tomorrow...

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Day 9: Ibiza

Well, we didn't wake up until 10:45 this morning. And even then, I could of slept a lot longer. 4am bed times are not cool. Didn't really get moving too quickly and finally made it out the door about 12:15 in search of food and more beaches. 

Drove in to town just a couple of blocks further and found a little pastry shop on the corner. Orange juice, water, yogurt, and two croissants for breakfast. Ate in the car on the side of the road because there wasn't anyplace to sit in there - it was just a store. Oh, has to buy a giant package of napkins too because he didn't have any!



We set off for a beach called Calle d'Hort - the nice girl at the rental check in desk at the airport said it was her favorite. With a giant map full of beaches around every turn, we needed her help. 

Took some time to get there - maybe 30 minutes or so. It was in the southwest corner of the island. Drove through the country and eventually down a dirt road again and pulled up to this:


Just a gorgeous beach with rock cliffs around it. Loved it. Spent an hour or so there laying out and relaxing. Just what we needed. Some chick came and laid next to us and took her top off as we were getting ready to leave. 


Then when we were leaving, we walked by the more popular beach down the way and everyone had their tops off! I think I was more intrigued than Matt, haha!

Drove around more and checked out another beach. Cruising around the gorgeous island was actually one of the highlights of the island for me!

Decided we needed a nap out of the sun, so headed through Sant Josep and then on to Ibiza. Have NOT figured out how the stupid roundabouts work here. Not like they do in the US, that's for sure. So messed up, and they're literally everywhere. 

Wanted food so after driving around some, ended up at the same place we did yesterday. Gusto gusto. More pasta and fruit smoothies. So good! And discovered they have clean bathrooms and free wifi!

Gusto Gusto

On the walk back, I happened to notice a diffuser in a salon window. I've been looking for a good new one for awhile now, and it was exactly what I e been looking for. And only 10 euros! So I bought it. Now to find a place in my bag for it...


After we ate, we decked to try and find the nightclub we were going to later called Ushuaia. We had a hard time just finding the address, and then Matt's ridiculous phone literally sent us through a neighborhood and then a dirt path to get to it. No joke. And it didn't even take us to the right place - we had to stop and ask for better directions and then found it on our way.  Actually really close to our hotel. 

Back to the room for naps. We slept from 5:45 to 7:30 and neither of us really wanted to get up even then! But the nightclub we paid 80 Euros per ticket for had already opened at 1pm! We thought it ended a midnight so we wanted to at least get some partying in!

After the drive by we knew we didn't have to be too dressed up. I wore my sequin "Vegas" skirt and black sandals instead of heels. Quick drive over to that crazy part of town, and there were cars and people everywhere. Eventually found a parking spot down a dirt road and walked up to the madness. Lucky for us, being a female helps out in Ibiza just like in Vegas. There was a giant line of people waiting to get in, but a guy grabbed me and pushed me another direction. No line at all. The group of six dudes beside me had to wait in the line. 

Turned out they weren't missing much in our opinion. The same music as the night before. It's just like a never ending carousel. The music never goes up or down. Everyone just stands there doing their little European shuffle. Couldn't believe it. I mean the stage was cool, there were performers and lights and all that. But there were also several thousand young people who were either so drunk they could barely walk, or drugged out. Just not my scene at all! Hate to say it, because we were both SO pumped for this, but we were both very disappointed. It was just too much for us and we actually left after 2.5 hours. We didn't even get there until 8:45 and we left around 11:15. And about 30 minutes of that time was spent waiting in line for a bathroom.  We did manage to push - literally - ourselves out closer to the stage so we could see what was going on, and the Italian girl we started talking to - you're literally touching - said we needed to "go get a little drug" to enjoy the show.  ??

Anyways, it was a cool experience I guess, but too much drugs (made us a little uncomfortable) and not a fan of the European style of music I guess. Very different sound than what I love in Vegas. I mean, just DROP THE BEAT!  It's like they never do.  It's just continuous...  Plus way more expensive to come here then Vegas, haha. 

     As close as we could get to the stage

So we went looking for food. Walked up and down the busy road by Ushaia but nothing looked good - and I was freezing cold. Got back in the car and ended up at a little pizza place close to our hotel. Had a quick pizza and came back to the room for bed. Probably for the better that we didn't stay out all night. We only have one day in Madrid tomorrow and I would prefer to be awake to see some of it. :)

Friday, May 24, 2013

Day 8: Barcelona to Ibiza

We were awoke at 7:40am by Matt's phone - his good friend just loves to drunk dial him, haha. Alarm was set for 8am anyways. Got up, through some clothes on (well, Matt showered first - I'm over that thing), packed up, and were out the door by 8:40. 

The location of our hostel really couldn't be better. We walked half a block to las Ramblas, then one block to the corner of plaza Catalunya, and there was a row of airport taxis right there. 

Stuff must not get started around here until late. No shops were open yet. Probably because they party all night here! They have to sleep in!

Anyways, got right in a nice taxi - electric car - and started trying to make our way through the bad traffic. Took quite awhile, and I didn't think we were ever going to make it through the roundabout in from of the art museum. Got to terminal 2 - good thing our taxi driver new which one - right at 9:30 and right in front of Ryanair. Oh, the sign in the window of the taxi said approx. 27 Euros to the airport. The price ended up being 26.90. 



Found our check in desk and waited in the short line to drop off our bags. This was the airline with the strict one bag policy and we had already paid in advance for the checked bag (even join it would of fit - we have backpacks too).  Once we got to the front, the lady said we had to go to another desk and wait in another line for "passport check." All they did at that first desk was take your bags. So over to another line - where there were two young Canadian girls freaking out and screaming about missing their flight (they almost got kicked out of the airport) - got our passports checked and went back to the other line to drop off our suitcases. Weird process. 

On Ryanair, you MUST print out your boarding passes ahead of time. I guess one of the ways they keep it so low cost is by not really having an administrative desk. Just drop your bags and go through - unless your a non EU member. They charge SEVENTY EUROS to print off a piece of paper. That's almost more than be flight. No joke. That's what the girls were yelling about. (Although it is plastered all over their website and they send you numerous email reminders stating that.)

Got through security with no problem. I really like that they aren't quite as strict in that department over here. We haven't had to take our shoes off once. 

Quick bathroom break and then found some food. Fruit juice, Greek yogurt, and a croissant. We've had more carbs on this trip... All we've been eating is bread it seems like!



The gates are weird here. You have to watch the board and it eventually tells you which gate to go to. We waited in front of the board along with everyone else to figure out where we should go. Once it finally flashed up and we went - it was very close - there was already a long line! They must of known ahead of time somehow! 



So we waited in the long line for 35 minutes because there aren't assigned seats on Ryanair and we wanted to sit together.  But as a lady came around to check our boarding passes and passports, she said we had a reserved seat and moved us way up to a much shorter line. I forgot I paid extra last week when I checked us in and printed the boarding pass! Yay! Shorter line and in row 3! And they let me on with my backpack - which is over the size and weight limit. I hid it pretty well behind me whenever they came around. It fit just find under the seat though!

45 minute full flight in to sunny Ibiza! We were both in awe as we flew around the island. There were little coves and beaches everywhere with crystal clear turquoise water. Unbelievable. 


-------------------------------------------


That's as far as I got yesterday, haha. Needless to say, we hit the ground running once we set foot on the island. 

Short version again:

Took forever to get the rental car, but lady at desk was so helpful and gave us lots of maps and told us about her favorite beaches. Paid extra 5 Euros per day for automatic (it's both actually, but I don't have to shift) and added insurance this time after Azores incident. Super nice car - kind of SUV - that is so weird. It's a hybrid and shuts off when you stop at a stop sign or anywhere. 


Directions I had printed got us to the hotel lux mar right on the beach. Nice enough. Much bigger than any room we've had - two small beds, little kitchen area , tv that doesn't work, balcony you can see the water from. Not very nice, but great location. No free wifi in the rooms, which totally sucks. And free wifi in the lobby wasn't working either. 




Our balcony

Changed clothes in to swimsuits and hit the road to find the hidden beach from the pages of my travel & leisure magazine I ripped out. But food first. Walked along the Main Street trying to find food. Ended up at a little pasta shop and had smoothies too. Good food. Stopped in souvenir store for a towel (beach) and found a new Ibiza bag and a picture frame too. We were going to go to the pharmacy for some face wash (we're running low) but everything clothes from around 2-4 for siesta. No joke. They all close up shop and take naps. Amazing. 

We're going to that tomorrow!


 Nice drive to other side of island. Roads are nice and well marked - easy to navigate. Shopped a few times along the way for awesome views. 

That's me standing on far left. 


Stopped in the village of Portinatx for some sunscreen. Found the beach down a little dirt road without any problem really. I couldn't see the road very well - not much of a road. Saw a little path to the right I though and asked Matt if that was my turn. "Ummm, no. That's. cliff." Haha - whoops!


Beach was beautiful. Clear water surrounded by cliffs. Jelly fish everywhere though! Little sandy beach area. Maybe 10 people there. Laid down kind of on each other ( learned a new way in Barcelona) since we only had one towel and took a little nap to the sounds of the waves. 



From there, drove back across the island to Sant Antoni to check out a hippy market. Town was cool, market sucked. Headed back to Ibizia town and started getting ready for Pacha nightclub. 

Sant Antoni 


Dinner reservations for 9:30. First ones there in empty restaurant. Rookie American mistake according to our waiter. No one eats before 11pm here.

Dinner was awesome. Two sushi rolls to start, then suckling pig and rack of lamb for entree. Some sake and Matt had three gin and tonic drinks - giant ones. We thought we had to spend a set amount each to get in to nightclub. Turned out our waiter was just a pro at selling. We didn't have to - but we did end up spending a lot of money. 


Went to cat around 12:30 to take a 20 minute nap, then back in to the club. A couple of different rooms with different djs. No one really dancing. Just kind of stand there and bounce around. Music was louder the Vegas. So loud it hurt my ears. But djs sucked. All night. Couldn't believe it. Hoping Pacha is just not that cool of a club and tomorrow will be better. (It was still really cool, just not up to Vegas standards. Club was old and not as nice, and people were in jeans and hoodies and flip flops - whatever. I was way over dressed in my little black dress!)


Stayed until 3:30 and came back to hotel. Matt's phone wasn't working so we had to figure out how to get back on our own - which wasn't too bad because I'm generally pretty good with directions! Bed around 4am. 

Round two tomorrow at the big Ushuaia opening DAY party - 1pm to midnight. 

(Scratch that - just found out the opening party goes all night long...probaly until the sun comes up.  Yikes!)