Sunset at famous bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=814nDSmkMZs

Delighted to have enjoyed a sunset at one of the most famous bars in the world.

It's located on Sunset Strip on the island of Ibiza in Spain's the Balearic Islands. Café Del Mar is one of the most well-known bars in the world. It attracts people from all over the globe. We had the pleasure of speaking with a group of women who had flown over from the Mumbai. I met a woman from Mexico and a man from New Zealand. He had told me he had travelled more than 35 hours to get there. That is some serious travelling.

Café Del Mar, Sunset Strip, Ibiza

There are several bars on Sunset Strip. There’s Space, Café Mambo and Café Del Mar. We stopped off at all three. It’s a colourful affair. In the lighting rigs are purples, pinks, greens, blues and reds. It is absolutely stunning. In front of the clubs, the sun sets against the horizon, in-front of a turquoise Mediterranean Sea. There’s music. Next to us was a female who was playing an electric violin against a bed of chillout music.

Z Records covered the closing party on Sunset Strip in 2012. Check out the track, 'The Other World', sampling sequences from John Barry's work on the Bond film 'Diamonds Are Forever' from 1971. It's a tremendous offering. The album cover was where we were sat. It was like diving into the CD.

Dusk on Ibiza's Sunset Strip, Sant Antoni de Portmany

On my laptop in the office, there’s various folders including tracks from Ibiza over the years. There’s two folders from Del Mar and one from Pacha. Pacha is one of the most famous clubs on the island, located elsewhere on the island. There’s four mixes an hour long, taking the listener across four decades at the club. We never did Pacha. Why? Because Sant Antoni de Portmany was simply the best. It was so good we didn’t want to leave it. I very nearly stayed on the island.

I panicked upon arrival. It was so foolish. I enjoyed a several beers before and during the flight. I didn’t want to make a mistake and so when the plane went ‘Final Call’ I downed my pint and headed to the gate. When I got there, there was a bloody queue wasn’t there, making my thesis on the final call bollocks absolutely spot on.

A queue, despite dispatch categorising the flight 'Final Call'

Aena is a Spanish airport group. They have it spot on. When it’s final call in one of their airports, you’ll have passengers running to and through the gate, after having their boarding passes checked by staff. They then sprint down the gantry to the aircraft’s doors. That is final call, not a bloody fifteen minute queue when you get there.

Ten minutes before this, it went ‘Boarding Gate 9.’ I finished my drink and walked round to check. The queue was ridiculously long. They hadn’t even started letting folk on. So I went back to the bar, which was only a sixty second walk and ordered a beverage. Then it went ‘Final Call.’ I panicked and supped up big time. It was painful. I remember my oesophagus actually hurting from all the fizz being knocked back. To find there was still a queue was a massive annoyance. Better than missing the flight, mind.

Another thing that pissed me off was one of the flight attendant’s attitude on board. I never have any problem travelling, never have never will. I am one of the happiest people alive, and never ever would I jeopardise safety.

I had purchased a bottle of Bailey’s Piña Colada from the Duty Free. I began filling up the glass. On the way to the toilet after about three cups full, passengers to the left, three ladies, began talking to me. I was talking back, and we got on well, when this brute comes past and snatches the drink from my hand.

I, said: “ohh, no, what do you think you’re doing?!” She walks off, and I carry on talking to the passengers. She clearly didn’t like us getting on. She approaches me and asks for a chat in the gally. I complied.

She says she wanted my passport so she can do a report for failing to comply. I gave her the passport and she fills in a form and tells me “it’ll go nowhere.” Well, why fill it in in the first place?! To test compliance, I suspect. I wasn’t filling up my drink to spite anyone. I was on my jollies. She said she would give me back my bottle at the end of the flight.

Aviation rules state that intervention of this kind must only take place if the “safety of the aircraft is compromised.” It clearly wasn’t. Ladies and I were talking. I accept it may be more difficult to regulate, than sales from the bar, but nevertheless, a passenger which is fully coherent and getting on a treat with other passengers must be awarded, not reprimanded.

Anyway…

When I arrived at the airport it was well past midnight and I panicked. I just wanted to go back to the UK. Staff there were diamonds. They assured me that Ibiza was via the front exit, not via departure gates. They told me to chill until sunrise. That, I did. I had a couple of cigarettes outside the front of the terminal and chilled on the seats in arrivals. The sun rose and I boarded the number 9 bus, taking me to San Antoni.

Early evening, Space on Sunset Strip, San Antoni, Ibiza

Thank you to the staff at the airport and to my bravery. It was an irrational panic. When I arrived there, I was in tears of joy. It was absolutely beautiful. I very quickly bumped into a friend from Milton Keynes. He was like a brother. The conversation we shared on the wall overlooking the bay was one of the nicest most moving conversations I think I have ever had in my life.

We hugged each other, and it was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life. It was like looking at each other, and we were the same. The same outlook, the same views, the same light. We fell in love, albeit, without the romantic and without the attraction. It was higher than that. We were stuck like glue for the rest of the trip. I love you, Benjie.

Benjie and Brad at the marina in San Antonio

We did everything together. We went on walks, drank in bars, chilled on the beach and camped under the stars in the Ibiza mountains. It was extraordinarily good.

There was an advertisement, ‘staff wanted,’ in one of the clubs. I very nearly stayed. It would have been Mallorca 2013, Alicante 2012 all over again. I didn’t. I weighed the argument up, profusely. I came to the conclusion that at the end of the season, I would return to England and my life would have been rinsed. My house would have gone and my property would have ended up in a garage. All work would have stalled, despite having one of the best summers of my life. I would have had a lot of work to pick up.

Café Del Mar, Sunset Strip, San Antoni, Ibiza

We came to the conclusion to return to England, to work like a madman and return to Ibiza, this time, without the cameras and spend a good 2-3,000 in the bars, clubs and restaurants on a proper jolly.

I fell in love with the island.

There’s a song from the Roger’s and Hammerstein musical ‘South Pacific,’ “ ‘Bai Ha’i’ may call you any night, any day, in your heart you’ll hear it call you come away, come away… Here am I, your special island come to me, come to me.” This is Ibiza. It’s a sacred place.

I was expecting Monaco money and Magaluf vibes, and it was anything but. It was sophisticated, it was special, there was no pretence. It was beautiful.

Sunset over San Antoni bay

There’s another record, although this is really about Thailand’s islands. It’s from the movie ‘The Beach,’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio, ‘Pure Shores,’ by girl group All Saints: “I’m moving, I’m coming. Can you hear what I hear? It’s calling you, my dear, out of reach, take me to my beach…” It speaks of an island that’s alive. It has it’s own spirit, it’s own consciousness, and it talks directly to its guest, its visitor. This was us.

Benjie, my confidant, said, “the island wants you. It will only orchestrate a stay for those it likes.”

I would have loved to have stayed, but I am returning and when I do, my beloved, Ibiza, I shall bring you the fruits of my labour to spend in the places which make your island so very special. See you in August.