Southbondage rocks on: part two

The second day of Southbondage witnessed more great music, more creatures tap beer and the deterioration of the portaloos. After breakfasting with Joh and Dunc we got ready for a day that promised some awesome gigs including Jose Gonzales and Gotye.

Dave came prepared - sun-protected and sun-creamed up. To avoid sunburn he wore a jumper and defended himself to the many randoms who interrogated his unusual summer attire. After falling in love with a shirt at one of the market stalls I convinced him to wear this cute t-shirt adorned with bicyclettes!

Gonzales was packed out and stifling, so we relocated to the bar and happily sipped beer as we caught ‘Teardrops’ and ‘Blood Stain’. Having lost Joh and Dunc in the fray and festivities, Dave and I wandered, checking out other gigs like Angus and Julia Stone (again) and sampling the ‘recycled themed’ festival art. We bumped into Rhys whenever we could.

Unexpectedly, due to overcrowding and sound/venue issues, some of the random shows offered up the best entertainment. We rocked out to the Go Team! And come evening time, and a few smuggled-in vodkas later, we were all jumping around like crazy to Regurgitator. In fact, Dunc also wore his vintage Holy/Holey Regurgitator shirt for the occasion. It was a touching act of dedication!

The downside was definitely the portaloos. A depressing hodgepodge of faeces, blood (!), shorts and mess, they raise a concern about the personal hygiene of today’s youths! But apart from that, it was an awesome weekend.

Making sure everyone has a good time at Southbound!

Come Sunday morning, all we had left was an easy pack-up and the promise of the inviting water at Bussleton.

We stopped in at Busselton’s beachfront café Goose for a nice cooked breakfast. We then swam and showered, improving the group’s spirits and aroma.

A real corker

Family Dinner - is bolognaise eating Finley?

Today has been a day of recuperation. Last night I got merry, and Dave got absolutely trashed. He adopted a bottle of vodka, combining it with red bull. Keen to take advantage of cheap Spanish alcohol he had dashed down to the supermarket to procure the red bull before close time. Admittedly, I downed some red bulls and vodkas, got merry and danced repeatedly to my own rendition of 'Black Betty.' Dave was a laugh last night though. Particularly amusing were his attempts to help a friendly Spanish neighbour who had come along to repair our broken outside light. He was drunk but tried to tinker with the tools, repeating his extensive Spanish vocabulary of 'si' and 'uno'.

The English family got plotting early on to make Dave a cork hat. Our participation in this scheme required copious consumption of champagne to yield the required corks. Last night, Dave was presented with the grand hat, made from corks attached to his Burberry bucket hat. We both took turns wearing it and posing for pics to be posted soon. We talked for ages as Lisa and Rick amused us with funny tales and ringtones. Dave banned me from going to bed, drank himself silly and then after a few hours, announced he was off to bed and marched away. Actually getting him to bed was a difficult affair but was eventually achieved. In the morning, he asked earnestly if he'd fallen asleep outside.

Sadly, Sam and her kids left us this morning. I got up and gave Sam a huge hug and proceeded to fall back to sleep. Dave got up and kept Sam entertained whilst she had breakfast. He released some of last night's festivities in a breakfast barf. Maisie was uber cute this morning, declaring that Finley has the brain of a monkey, Alix the brain of a doctor and likening her own brain to that of a dragon.

Dave got a ribbing today. He slept most of the day but went fishing with the kids this arvo. Alix caught a crab, and Dave managed a small fish. I read and pottered around. Earlier on Rick, Lisa, Finley and I went to a hardware store which was unfortunately located next to a smelly sewerage area. Lisa and I held our noses and sprinted back to the car. Tonight is both exciting but upsetting as it's our last night in Alicante. Boooo! We are off to a chinese restaurant to have the meal of day. Apparently it is a requirement by law that all restaurants offer a 'Meal of the Day' which is cheap and affordable so everyone could eat out.

Yesterday morning was fab. We went to the Sam Miguel markets aka shoppers heaven. This local Spanish market is located in an old housing area. Fruit, clothes and cute little Senorita dresses can be picked up at market stalls. I may have accidentally acquired shoes, souvenirs and yet another pretty dress. Sam and Lisa also got pairs of pretty flower thongs. Dave bought the kids lasers which produce patterns. Endless entertainment! He is one cool cousin/nephew/boyfriend.

Welcome Back to Athens

When we got back to Athens late on a Wednesday afternoon, we headed to the dodgy red-light, drug-dealing area of Omonia to check up on our streetcorner standing girls. Although we'd tried to get in early to some inexpensive places in nice touristic Plaka we'd had no success. So we returned to this grubby bit of Athens in search of a place to kip. Although more than we'd usually pay, Hotel Parnon was awesome for the price. A functional shower is the most blessed thing for travellers like Dirty Dave and I. Since we were flying out the next morning, we never expected that we'd stay there another night.

We got to the airport at 9.05am, expecting to be two hours early for our 11am flight. When Dave got out the piece of paper to check where to go for the tickets he was taken aback. 'Our plane's leaving right now! We've missed it' he announced defeatedly. We rushed to find the counter in case of a delay, but alas we'd misread the arrival time as the departure. A right fix indeed - the plane had left without us. We went to the airline desk, and for a fee of 40€ each changed our details to exactly the same flight, same time next day. We knew we were in for a ribbing but all that mattered is that we were both O to the K.

We checked out some other sleeping options in Syntagma - ridiculously expensive. We looked around Omonia and discovered seriously skanky rooms, with towels draped over the floor to absorb recent sticky messes. We returned to Parnon hotel to be met by a bewildered reception attendant. He offered as a glass half-full solution, saying at least we had another day to explore Athens. All we explored was alcohol and food, but it was quality stuff.

We found a funky bar called Bretto's which professes to only stock hand-selected specialties. Dave had this rose liquer which tastes like rose turkish delight - sweet and drinkable. His second drink was potent though - a honey liquer (Rakimelo) which didn't go down well. Despite the 'don't like it, we'll get you another' mantra of Bretto's, the guy just kind of balked and said Dave had chosen it himself. I had some nice wines though.

I'll cut this short to share lots about our Spanish adventure. Good news is we got out second flight arriving in Madrid the next day. Bad news is our run in with Greek metro tranport people and the big fines they slapped us with. Ouch!