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Es Vedrá y Es Vedranell (Ibiza)

Link: http://www.eivissaweb.com/fotos-de-ibiza/sant-josep/espacios-naturales/es-vedra

Carmen Molina Povea

Holidays, beaches, fun … all these words are related to summer but not everywhere and not for everybody. As far as I am concerned as former inhabitant of an island, which has always welcome lots of people in summer, I assure you that summer for us meant work. I worked every single summer of my life in the island. My parents had a shop and I, as all my friends did, had to work during this season. Consequently, we did not have summer holidays but that does not mean we did not enjoy it. Of course, every weekend we went to the beaches but not to the crowded ones. Surprisingly, even though the island is very little you need any means of transportation if you want to go to special places. First were the bikes, which allowed us to go to the nearest isolated beaches. Later came the motorbikes, useful as well in winter if you lived in the countryside and at last… the cars. I still remember the day when a friend of us bought his first second-hand car, we were all as happy as if the car were ours… but there was a little problem, we were more than five and in those times no one was left aside, we all went together to anywhere… but that is another story.

When you live in so little space and you experience the temporary arrival of lots of people you try to avoid all what is connected to tourism and look for a suitable living environment. Instead of going to the crowded after hours, nowadays forbidden, we went to the old fashioned bars hidden in the little villages. At weekends we went to remote places, far from the boiling points, surrounded by pines and near the sea. We used to fish and eat our catch, even though it was not much. From time to time a ship broke our peaceful routine at our unspoilt place.

Summer also meant Archaeology. During the summer my parents gave me some days off which I kept as a treasure. I used to rush to any archaeological excavation in the island. There I had to work a lot too, the hot weather and the humidity made the task worse but you cannot imagine how astonishing places were chosen to raise temples in ancient times.

These were my summers when I was fourteen, fifteen, sixteen… Time of work, discovery and fun, obviously it also was time of sorrows, but I am not in the mood.

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