blog d'europe: dalt vila

the dalt vila is the name given to the old city of ibiza. from what i've noticed while being over here, it seems to be a bit of a thing for european cities & towns to have a "modern city" sitting side by side to a relatively untouched, preserved section of an "old city". i loove this concept, because it means you get all the perks of a modern town (which, in ibiza, still means mediterranean white, orange & blue block buildings and paved streets) - bars, shops, cafés, etc....but then you can escape into the old city - a totally different experience that can take you back to another era...

together with sarah, we'd wandered through ibiza town several times - poking around in the cute, but ridiculously over-priced boutiques (spain may be cheap, but ibiza is the polar opposite), rummaging through little street markets, getting touristy in the little shops selling bracelets, anklets, t-shirts, beach towels, shotglasses, etc....and relaxing in the shade with gelati, overlooking the med...

but then we realised we hadn't actually wandered up to the dalt vila yet. so we dragged ourselves away from our comfortable shady spot and (without a map) made our way over. the old city is up on a hill, so despite the winding streets everywhere, we found our way by climbing any steps that we found.

we came across a large stone ramp (that was incidently very slippery and therefore impossible to walk up in sandles...) that led up to a huge stone wall & gate that reminded me of something out of troy or gladiator... we took this to be the entrance to the dalt vila. so beautiful. our eyes were met with rough cobbled streets, lined by old crumbling white houses covered in vines with bright, fuscia flowers.

i had to restrain myself from exclaiming about its beauty every two seconds, but look...it was gorgeous - something like that just doesn't exist anywhere back home. being siesta-time (and therefore peaking at the hottest time of day, 40º in the sun. we're so clever to go exploring at this time!), we had the entire city to ourselves. this seemed to accentuate the feeling that the streets were part of a ghost city - kind of lost in time.

we wandered past old spanish women hanging washing out on home-made washing lines strung up between houses, window shutters creaking softly in the summer breeze, little cats peaking out at us from their shady oasis'.....aaaah it was all too much! without really caring where we ended up, we continued on up (the hill kept climbing) through narrow streets that seemed to have been placed haphazardly, with sudden turns that made us feel like we were doing u-turns (we probably were), and there was an endless number of forks in the road.

sarah fell head over heels in love with the many brightly colour doors & doorways. there were blues, yellows, reds, burnt oranges, greens & purples, as well as combinations of these. they seemed to sit so peacefully together, despite their blatant clashing of colours. reminded me a bit of burano, the venetian island.

we finished up the day having walked right to the top of the dalt vila hill, where we were rewarded with a stunning 360º view of ibiza town below us, and the mediterranean sea stretching out in front of us, as far as the eye could see.

i could continue on and write an essay's worth of things we happened upon during our wanderings - but they say a picture's worth a thousand words...

ya me despido, me la pasé bien ♥