blog d'europe: ibiza

summertime in europe, cue a two week holiday to the smallest spanish balearic island with the biggest personality: iiiiibiza!

together with my au pair family, we flew out of stormy paris (after a 3 hour flight delay, ta easyjet) and landed in hot, hot, hot ibiza. we found our way to our gorgeous villa in jesús (so much fun to say...heyzus!), about a 5 minute drive from ibiza town. despite arriving at midnight, no-one could resist the lit-up, turquoise pool....so before we knew it, the 10 of us had all jumped in (even noah, in his little floaties)...bienvenido a ibiza!

but first, to explain why i was there. i'm still au pairing for my gorgeous family in paris, and given it's summertime, they decided to jetset across europe to their country of choice (as you do when you're a european) - to take advantage of the hot sun, golden beaches & crystal clear mediterranean waters. how unfortunate that i was dragged away from paris for two weeks, on a free holiday to a spanish island...what can i say, it's a hard life.

the deal was to get the kids up in the morning, and look after them every other night while the parents of both families (we were two families in our villa) hit the town and pretended that they were a decade & a half younger. in return i had the days free to lounge around on ibiza's stunning beaches, explore ibiza town, visit the island's markets...etc. the cherry on top of all this was that the other family brought their own babysitter/au pair - a gorgeous lil' parisian named sarah. we're the same age, and got along like a house on fire. so there you go, hope you're a little less confused now..!

we decided between us that everyday we would visit a different beach, so that we could see more of the island. from las salinas, the stunning strip of beach next to the salt farms; to platja d'en bossa, a beach lined with bars & clubs open day & night that blast techno no matter what time of day (...or night); to playa san miguel, where you can quench your thirst with beer of the same name in between snorkel sessions to see the colourful fish; to cala xarraca, where you can swim 200m out to sea, climb a rock and jump 5-8m down into the turquoise waters below....plus so many others, each one different to the next.

the temperature hovered between 30º-35º for the two weeks, such incredible weather that i actually managed to get a tan. yesss!

the guilty pleasure of our time in ibiza was the seemingly endless supply of sangria that was everywhere we went - especially at the villa. sarah & i would grill up some veggies mediterranean-style, pour ourselves a sangria (or three), then kick back by the pool. our favourite spot in the villa was up on the flat, white roof - where we could see out to ibiza town & watch the lights in the old city twinkle in the night. every other night there were fireworks leaping around in the sky, and up on the roof was where we got the best view. picture perfect.

adiós,