Holiday!

I know....I didn't blog for a while...

But I had a good reason, I was on holiday :)
So here's a short account of my adventures in Formentera, a beautiful island near Ibiza. First of all, it's a very quiet island, there are no high buildings, and if you want to go to places after it's dark that's fine but you have to bring a flashlight because it's really dark then. My uncles, who invited me, know the island very well, they have been going on holiday there for some 15 years now, so they were excellent tourguides and made sure I got a good impression of the different sides of the island. My adventure started on Saturday May 27 when I set out to Schiphol airport to explore their holiday dream island. I was pretty tired so I slept most of the flight, which made me miss the food, but I had plenty with me anyway. I had to wait for about two hours at Mallorca airport for my flight to Ibiza, so plenty of time to change from my jeans into something more summer-y. It turned out I even had more time because my (20 minute) flight to Ibiza was delayed for about an hour, and an hour is a long time to wait at the bus-stop like airport that Mallorca airport truly is. There is just nothing there, just a lot of people waiting for their flight. Anyway, around half five I arrived at Ibiza, retrieved my luggage and took a cab to the harbour, where I could just catch the 6 o'clock boat to Formentera, yay!!!
The boat was great, it was a rather small one so you could really feel it catching waves (mostly created by other boats ;) ). My uncles were waiting for me in the harbour, they had already been there for a week and they were very tanned already. I hoped to get a tan like that too, but alas, I did get a slight tan, and a lot of red, despite my factor 20 sunscreen...

Anyway, after my first little adventure on a rented bike over one of the official "cycle paths" on Formentera (in the Netherlands they would close such a road because of the holes and bumps), I dumped my stuff in the little apartment and we were off to dinner in a little restaurant on the beach. On day 2 we had a long walk (with swimming breaks) to see the best parts of the island in the best way possible. The island provides some gorgeous scenes. It has lovely bounty-island beaches, wild rocks and even cliffs, a lot of flowers, picturesque houses and water sources, and it's so quiet, most of the time you only hear the sea and some birds and crickets. There is also a lot of rosemary growing on the island, which gives a strong and typical smell, that will probably always remind me of Formentera from now on.

On Monday it was extremely hot so we went to the beach. This particular beach (Playa Illetas) is a long strip of sand (and the occasional rock) that stretches out into the sea. It has little bays on both sides and if there are waves (and with waves jellyfish often come) on the one side, then the other side is calm and vice versa. The colour of the Mediterranean is so amazingly deep blue that you just have to to there and see it for yourself to believe it (just don't all go to Formentera, one of the great things about the island is that it isn't crowded!). I took a lot of pictures but in reality the colour is much more magnificent.

On Tuesday morning I cycled to Cap de Barbaria with my uncle Leo. The last kilometer or so looks like a moon landscape: there are no trees anymore, just rocks and low bushes. After a 7 km climb or so (not very steep, but still, it's different from cycling in my own flat country) you're rewarded with a fast descent towards the lighthouse and the cave. Going back was only a little climb in the beginning, and further more or less a descent all the way to San Francesc. There Peter joined us and we lunched and I bought some souvenirs, I even go a lucky bracelet from the guy I bought two necklaces off :)

Coincidentally my supervisor at Tilburg University had also booked a holiday in the same week on the very same (not so well-known) island, so in the afternoon we had drinks with him, his wife and his two kids, and in the evening we had dinner at the little restaurant on the beach where I had been on Saturday.

On Wednesday the weather didn't look too good, so I put on my jumper and we decided to go for a little walk down from El Pilar. There is an old Roman road on that side of the island which used to be the only way up. We took a bus in San Ferran, and got off just before El Pilar to start our descent. Luckily it just stopped raining when we got off the bus. The road is made of really big rocks, and you really have to be careful where to put your feet, just imagine that this was the only way to get up, thus taking your carriage and horse, mule, whatever with you! When we got down it started to rain again, so we had lunch at a lovely fish restaurant with great views on the sea called Rafalet. They have some great paella, although not my uncle Peter's favourite dessert (pineapple with cointreau) but I guess you can't have it all.


After the not so beach-like weather of Wednesday I was a bit scared that it would be too cold to go to the beach on my last day. But fortunately it was hot (but not too hot) so we got on our bikes and went to Playa Illetas again :) At the end of the day the jellyfish on the wave side of the beach were gone too so I had a little swim there too, it's a bit surreal to swim in a sea without waves all the time, and the waves really made me feel the strength of the sea again for a bit. In the evening we returned out bikes to the bike rental and had dinner at Chez Fred, they have great pizzas but also good fish, and t-shirts :)


On Friday we took an early boat to Ibiza, after saying goodbye to our little casa. I dumped my stuff at Leo and Peter's hotel (the lucky b*st*rds were staying another week in Ibiza) and explored Ibiza town. I was actually surprised that it's such a nice old town. Many extremely nice little alleys, great views, a lovely cathedral, and also beautiful beaches. But it lacked the calm and laid-back atmosphere of Formentera (although that is probably different in the countryside). Around 16:30 it was time to say goodbye to my uncles at Ibiza airport. The airport was very quiet so I could look around in the (few) shops, and I found a magazine of Formentera, obviously one big advert, but with nice pics and a few stories. After a short stop at Mallorca I was on my way to the cold Netherlands again. Although it is getting warmer, maybe my lucky bracelet made the sun come :)

By the way, you can find more Formentera photos on my Flickr.com page.