Is this place for real?

Day 4 in Ibiza and I am falling in love with the place.

Crazy boulder at Playa Ses Salines

Where we see our Queen mixing with the commoners

Two days ago, our Queen was granted a royal headache, shortly followed by a sore throat, and then a majestic fever of 101F. It appears the Queen is not immune to Vueling-sponsored viruses. After one day of earnestly trying to will the bug away, the Queen had to surrender to the fact she was sick.

It was time to go to the nearest village and seek help.

The "Centre de Salut de San Josep de sa Talaia" is the place where locals seek free medical help, but not free for the Queen.

It is also the place where it became evident the Queen does not speak Spanish.

Google Translate proved to be helpful only for the first sentence, but then to maintain a swift conversation, more expertise was required.

"Tengo fiebre, me duele la cabeza y la garganta" with a beautiful French accent and a US passport only managed to make the nice doctor answer with a benevolent smile : "French or English?".

"Ok, French" said the offended Queen, well intent of suing Duo Lingo as soon as possible.

120 Euros later, I was prescribed 10 days of antibióticos.

Where the Queen meets hippie Ibiza

I have not told you yet about my delightful AirBnB host, Anne. Well, she is delightful.

Today Anne very generously proposed to take me to the Mercadillo San Jordi.

Queen Colette and Queen Anne at the market

This weekly market is one of the most exciting places I have visited lately. Basically it is a second-hand market where people sell everything from clothes and jewelry to lampshades and trinkets of all kinds. Most things cost a couple of Euros.

The sales activity is primarily a pretext to gather in a vast hippodrome, wearing all types of creative outfits. Dreadlocks are almost a must. Somewhere, a DJ plays electronic music, and around him a group of people dance in trance.

People meet, hug and laugh. I hugged people I did not know, because why not?

The energy is real and unbelievable.

The merchandise is quite interesting, and I made a couple of purchases. The whole atmosphere is positive and friendly.

I am starting to realize that Ibiza is nothing like I expected. There is a real community here of people that know each other, meet and have fun, while living modestly, and working hard. They all love this island, and they believe it is a special place with special powers and vibrations. If I stay one more week, I will also start believing it. Far from the party place for rich people I had imagined. Although I am pretty sure rich people are hiding somewhere in the hills.

Where the Queen finds history

I spent the whole day with Anne, and she clearly knows and loves this island. After a delightful lunch, we went to the town of Ibiza, or Eivissa, as they spell it here, in their local dialect.

Another beef I have with Duo Lingo: While learning Spanish in preparation for this stay, I realize the Castilian Spanish I learned is not the main language here, it is Catalán, a different version of Spanish with a lot of X's that are pronounced "Tch". And when you think it is all , you also realize that Ibiza also has its own local dialect, Ibicenco.

That throws a new light on my visit to the medical centre.

Eivissa/Ibiza is absolutely gorgeous.

A 16th century fortress town designed to protect the island from pirates and such.

"And such" is my personal placeholder for more accurate historical details that I trust the curious reader to fill in.

Very reminiscent of Carcassonne and Albi in France, it has the additional benefit of overlooking the mediterranean and offering breathtaking views of the surrounding sea.

I took dozens of pictures because every stone, every arch, every wall looked photogenic to me. All you get is this gate picture, and more on that below (Hint: PolarSteps).

Noteworthy : In 1999, Eivissa was added to the UNESCO World Heritage collection, so I am not making this up.

Where the Queen gets salty

Lucky for me, Anne was tireless and motivated.

She also took me to Playa Ses Salines, named after the salt lakes in the south of Ibiza. Because Ibiza makes salt, Sal De Ibiza, another peculiar detail I did not know. Beautiful beach, white sand, the whole package.

Lucky for me again, we are off-season, as emphasized by my sepia filter on the picture.

The picture at the top of this blog post, the crazy boulder, was taken at this beach. It is endless, wild and energizing. During the tourist season, it is also the site of parties, and much more crowded. I guess Ibiza's reputation has to come from somewhere.

Some parting words

That was a long post, but I am not done.

I am documenting my trip on PolarSteps, a really cool app that allows to track your travel and attach pictures and comments to each step. Perfect for me.

If you want to follow me on PolarSteps too, just click here, and you will become my personal stalker. There I post most of the pictures I take.

I mentioned Anne, my AirBnB host extraordinaire. This is her place. If you want a very nice and affordable studio, ideally located on the west side of the island, search no more.