Liver Beating in Benicassim

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We arrived in Benicassim slightly worse for wear, still feeling the affects of our massive night with the gang in Pamplona. Upon arrival at the Benicassim Festival campsite we were greeted by the most useless staff you could ever imagine. Trying to get directions to where the campervan section was, was like pulling teeth. Even the “information” booth had no idea. After many failed attempts at finding where we were to set up camp, we came across a security guard who finally knew what was going on. He pointed across the dry, baron, hot, dusty land to a wide open field and advised us that this is the campervan site. We had never seen a more desolate piece of land in our lives. Plant a few cactus and imagine tumbleweeds spinning over the ground and the picture would have been complete. Feeling hot, hungover and dry as anything reminents of my pre-camping princess self roared to the surface. I stamped my feet and demanded that we would not and could not stay in such conditions and that we were to find a new campsite immediately and simply cut our losses (80 euros mind you we paid for the desert site!!). Looking into the fire in my eyes Vince didn’t argue and we were soon back on the road and found our paradise site, which was completely covered by beautiful shady trees and complete with a glorious pool. Ahhh now for some much needed sleep.

The next few days we chilled out and tried to recover from our little flu’s we picked up in Pamplona. On Wednesday we randomly ran into our friends we met in Turkey, Angus and Anna (or as we like to refer to them Anga and Annus 😊 ), who had also experienced the horror of FIB camp. They soon realised that we had it made at our campsite and they shipped out and moved in with us. It was then I knew there was no more recovery to be had and the drinking began again. Wednesday night was dance night on the FIB calendar. So the four of us made our way down the beni beach (2 on bikes and 2 walked - about 3km from our site) to watch the boys favourite dance style, yep you guessed it, ballet! We managed to get the best seats on the beach.....on top of a huge tractor! Numerous drinks were consumed as Anna and I tried to watch the lovely ballet whilst trying to drown out the commentary from the boys (which they thought was hilarious). It was then time to head home and being slightly intoxicated and tired everyone wanted to ride the bikes and no one wanted to walk. As we fought over who would ride or walk, a shiny new mode of transport appeared right in front of us. It was a bright, gleaming shopping trolley....problem solved! So off we went, Anna and I in the trolley, while the boys flanked us on the bikes and pulled as along. Yep just picture it now, trolley going full speed, no brakes, on the road, on the bikepath - wherever we could fit! Oh the clever things we think of when we’re drunk. And yes we managed to get home unscathed and in very good time ha ha!

Thursday the real festivities began. After lazing on the beach most of the day it was festival time. Knowing how ridiculous prices were for drinks (7.50 euro for a vodka and redbull) we had to put our thinking caps on to smuggle our own spirits in. After much deliberation we decided that taping 500ml water bottles filled with vodka to the boys inside upper thighs was the best idea. And hey who would know, so what, maybe they were really well endowed or had extra buff thighs! Hahhaha. After taping the boys far too early they may or may not have ended up in a lot of pain from the chaffing and ripping from the tape, oops! Anyway through the security gates we went and bang we had our own spirits, easy as that. Drink prices for us fell from 7.50 to 2.50, woohoo now that’s a saving.

We hurried off to watch Oasis and just made it in time, not that Anna and I could see anything at all as we were so far back! It seemed a few other people couldn’t see very well either as they decided to climb the scaffolding which was covered in signs to direct people around the festival. As it wasn’t fenced off properly it was very easy to get into and climb.........just another example of the unorganised “organisers” from the Spanish FIB. People were hanging off the 20metre high structure, dancing, singing and giving security one hell of a time - quite funny actually! So at the back of the crowd we sang along and enjoyed our first big band of FIB. You’d think being quite a way back it would relieve you of the gross things people do at festivals, but oh no, we were still right in the thick of it. First of all there were beer cups being hurled left right and centre (and yes they were full with beer). It was a festival after all so we just had to grin and bear it. The showering wasn’t so bad - considering one girl next to me got bumped by another guy and her whole pint of beer ended up down by boobs into my dress - mmm nice. But really the beer was nothing compared to what came next. At first we weren’t so sure what the warm fluid was. Maybe it was warm beer people were throwing, but no it wasn’t so innocent, yes you thought right it was dirty boys pee, ewwwwww! The smell alone was enough to decipher the fluid, thankfully we didn’t have to resort to taste tests.

After seeing a few more random bands and busting our moves in the dance tent, around 2am it was home to bed. Early for night 1, but we knew the next few nights would be huge!!

Night 2 and we had the strapping down to a fine art. About 100m before the security gates we hiked the boys pants up and taped them up with their “big balls” - much to the amusement of fellow festival goers - watching us as we taped them. Through once again with more spirits to be consumed - score! It was a cyclonic windy night but we were all hyped for a huge night as Kings of Leon were on and our London buddies arrived for their first proper night too. We met up with the gang and all headed to get an awesome spot in the crowd for KOL. Thankfully we had a good barrier around us with the boys acting as a protective shield in the thick of the crowd. As we settled into our spot we realised that the big screens were missing next to the stage and it was all quite dark, considering it was a festival main stage. As the hour passed the wind grew even stronger and turned more into a gale force, not to mention also that more and more stage equipment was dismantled. The crowd started getting very agitated and tempers started to rise as many silly Spainsh boys tried to push their way further towards the front, and attempting to go through us. One look and loud growl from Corey “put your f**king elbow down NOW!” (who mind you is twice as tall and wide (all muscles of course!) as the Spanish boys) and the little Spaniards soon learnt not to push us.

We all stood patiently waiting for any information, but the great organisers at FIB must have figured it was better to just let us stand there than tell us what was going on. So as you can imagine after drinking far too much alcohol and standing in one spot for a very long time, there were several calls of nature. Two of the boys decided it was too much and they needed to wee (for privacy reasons they cannot be named!!). So after finding a plastic pint on the ground one of the boys weed and placed it neatly back behind him (well it did actually spill, but not too bad). Anyhow the next boy decided that he too would relieve his bladder of the terrible pain, only this time, this guy filled not only 1 plastic pint but 3 and even then he had to cut it short as resources to contain the wee were running low!! Yes thats right 3 pints of wee and this time they weren’t so neatly placed on the ground. This created the flood of all floods and we were soon swimming in his wee. All i can say is the poor girls with their permeable little jelly shoes had rather wet feet for quite a while! So finally after 1.5 hours of standing around the organisers announced “we are getting the stage ready for the NEXT band”. The crowd roared as that meant KOL was not far off now. Another 20 minutes and they announced the name of the next band which was NOT KOL (not that i can even remember who they were). The crowd was livid as were we. So the final verdict, KOL couldn’t play due to the extreme weather conditions, yet this other band could play....go figure. We were all extremely pissed off as KOL was one of the bands we were all really looking forward to.

So we all walked off feeling rather let down to figure out our next plan of attack. As we wandered through the grounds all of sudden there was a total blackout (and no we weren’t surprised, just another example of FIB’s great work). And you know what that meant? Well let me explain, people drinking copious amounts of alcohol and limited toilet facilities for the thousands and thousands in the crowd equals.......... pee on the grass as fast as you can!!! Being a seasoned bush wee girl now i was down in a flash demanding to my friend to get down and wee too (again for privacy reasons i won’t name her!). In the panic of the moment we were both down and weeing. Unfortunately my friend - for the sake of this story let’s call her Jane - may have been wearing difficult bottoms to wee around, not like my little skirt which was perfect for bush weeing. So in the frenzy Jane may or may not have struggled to get the material out of the way and may or may not have ended up with wee on her hands and clothes - oops! I just want to say Jane...if you are reading this.....i’m really sorry, I will never pressure you to bush wee in such a hurry again....or ever for that matter!

So the lights were back on and the mood was officially dead. We all decided it was best to head home get a good night’s sleep and make the next night a really huge one. We said goodbye to our London flatties and headed off with Angus and Anna. Another note on the horrible organisation of this event....to get in you had to walk past the whole festival grounds, across a highway, then down a winding road for miles to finally get to the entrance. So obviously the same goes for getting out. Well this night we had had enough. So we searched for a quick way out. We found a section of fence which was almost perfectly aligned with the street we needed to go down and meant a much shorter route home. Vince was over the barrier like a gazelle (no surprise there), while Angus prodded and pushed at the fence. At this moment the security were on to us, scolding us and telling us to walk back to the exit. Running away madly Anna had managed to find a perfect spot for us girls. So it was onto the back of a car and over we went. Angus wasn’t far behind and neither were the security! We ran like cats on a hot tin roof worried that security would drag us back to the festival grounds and away from freedom. So across the highway we went only to have to manoeuvre the next fence! Lucky for us we are all rather agile and it was not as difficult, with a little support from the group either side we all managed to get over the fence and run homeward bound.

Next day was more beach chilling, sunbaking, watermelon seed spitting competitions and bocce. Its amazing how much fun you can have at the beach with fruit and small multicoloured plastic balls filled with water. We introduced Angus and Anna to the joys of bocce. They were a confident team, but no match for the S Williams/ V Williams combo (you get it? You get it? Venus and Serena?? He he). And hey guys we will have to finish our best of 3 sets game back at your place in Perth when we all get home, with a bit of practise you’ll be up with the bocce pros! Hahah! Come 5pm it was time for more drinking and drinking games back at Jonesy. The boys were absolutely itching with excitement as they were about to crack open their first 5 litre Heineken keg named.........Sanchez (after the lady that sold it to them!). Vince and Angus were building up quite a relationship together with their beer drinking, a beer tower together in Istanbul and now a keg in Benicassim - awww it has to be love! After the excitement of Sanchez we decided to pull out the drinking game “bop it” (which Angus had spotted in the car the day before and thought it was some double ended weird sex toy - nice one Angus!). Basically it is a little hand held device which speaks to you and tells you to bop it (hit the button part), twist it (one of the ends) or pull it (the other end). After you have finished a sequence that bop it is satisfied with it tells you to pass it. It gets faster and faster and eventually if you stuff up - you drink! Unfortunately for Anna she was getting drunk quite quickly, bop it wasn’t her specialty, or was it just cause you were drunk Anna?! Hahah. As for Angus though, he had found his niche. Sadly for Vince, Angus was better than him. No matter how much Vince practised he seemed to get worse and Angus got better. Not something old Numero Uno is used to! Well i guess we will work on our bop it skills and guys you work on your bocce skills!

It was then off to Night 3 at the festival. And yes we were pro’s at the taping now and once again in with not a worry with lots of vodka to keep us going. We met up with the gang and were off to see Lilly Allen, only to be told that she too has cancelled.......apparently she was sick! Typical, 2 gigs we really wanted to see both cancelled - hmmm that Williams luck is really starting to get me worried. It didn’t work out too bad though as Maximo Park were quite good (the band that played when Lilly Allen should’ve been on). After Maximo Park we headed to the silent disco. Seriously this has to be one of the most fun things ever - and if you get the chance to go to one do it!! Kate, Corey, Vince and I donned our headphones and in we went to the silent disco, dancing, singing, head banging and having a bloody awesome time. For those of you who don’t know what a silent disco is here’s the run down. Basically it is a big tent with 2 DJ’s at the front. Everyone gets a set of headphones which has 2 channels - for whichever DJ you like. Headphones on, music blaring and you go for it! Generally everyone is on the same channel singing the same songs. To any outsider it looks hilarious, just a bunch of crazy people singing along to what seems like no actual music, as only the participants can hear the music - one of the highlights of the festival!

From there it was off to Franz Ferdinand. Franz has to be my single highlight of the whole event. He was simply fantastic. We had a pretty good spot close up too and with the boys putting all us girls up on their shoulders we had an even better view. I also discovered that Vince has a hidden talent of carrying me on his shoulders while moshing, jumping, headbanging and dancing to the music. So much fun, thanks honey! After Franz it was off for a toilet break, more drinks and a much needed dinner break. Now i might add that FIB did actually have one thing in its favour............Pad Thai! It would have to be the second best Pad Thai we’ve had in our lives, the Pad Thai in Thailand being the best (obviously!) After maybe one or two helpings of it, we scurried off to get the best spot for 2 Many DJ’s. And boy did we ever get the best spot - right down the front on the barrier. Once again we had a great defense with the boys right behind us, and god did we need it, being right in the front of the mosh pit. 2 Many DJ’s went off, and I’m pretty sure we all danced and sung so much that we sweated out every drop of alcohol we had consumed during the week. By the time their set finished it was close to 4am and off home to bed for us.

The last day arrived and we were all ready to see FIB off with a bang with the Killers. After another helping or two of pad thai, and another boogy at the silent disco we wiggled into the crowd and once again got an awesome spot right down the front. As we again waited patiently for the Killers to start, a group of crazy Spaniard girls came up to us seemingly awestruck by Corey. At first we couldn’t work out what was going on, but then Ria (who can speak Spanish as she lived in Spain for a year) translated their excited antics. In the space of a few minutes Corey the Electrical Engineer who is obsessed with cranes had become Corey the pornstar AKA SuperCock obsessed with sex. Apparently he was the spitting image of a pornstar these people seemed to know. We were in hysterics and couldn’t stop giving him hell for hours afterwards. So for the rest of the night Corey was known as SuperCock (SC) the pornstar! After all the craziness it was onto the show and as predicted the Killers were amazing and sounded brilliant live. Unfortunately for Vince and I by 2.30am when the Killers ended we had to head off as we had an early start the next day to get to our ferry. BUT our little friends Anna and Angus had one hell of night rocking in at 6am screaming down our van and trying to wake us!! Yes we heard you guys, but pretended to still be sleeping heheheh!

So all in all we had an awesome time with Angus, Anna, Kate, Corey, Steve and Ria at FIB. Yes it was a little rough around the edges and possibly the worst organising ever, but we saw some extremely great bands and had a magnificent time with the gang!
Come Monday morning it was off to Barcelona to get our ferry over to Genova, Italy. The signs around the port were absolutely terrible and after several painful communication problems we finally managed to find our ferry and get settled for the 18 hour trip. We took our blow up sleeping mattresses onboard, and found a quiet little corner amongst the seating and set up camp for the night! Who needs to pay for proper cabins and beds when you have your own mattresses hey! We were quite pleased with our set up, so then decided to have some dinner before we turned in for the night......big mistake! We went in to the restaurant and ordered (from the already prepared food - think American cafeteria style) an entree pasta and salad, a plate of mixed seafood and chicken schnitzel and 2 beers. 46.00 euros later and I wouldn’t have even served that food to my dog! Vince’s mixed seafood was like sardines plucked from a tin covered in batter and some mini fish too small to even eat, the schnitizel was more like a rubber chicken toy, and I managed to drown the salad totally in plain oil - not balsamic as i thought... ick!!! So feeling extremely ripped off and rather ill we headed back to our beds - lucky something was going our way. Ooops spoke to soon, after a few hours of blissful sleeping it became evident that one of the air mattresses had a hole in it. No nice comfy bed anymore, hard rock floor for Vincey. My lovely husband slept on the hard floor for most of the evening to save my delicate bones, we did swap at around 4am for the last few hours of sleep, so I did share!

We arrived in Genova at around 9am and headed to Lerici, a little coastal town in the Italian Riviera, not far from the Cinque Terre. So now it is chilling in Lerici and prepping ourselves for the colossal trek which is the Cinque Terre - 12km of hiking through 5 little fishing villages on the northwest coast of Italy. This has been Vince’s dream destination for the last 3 and a half years, so here’s hoping it stands up to his expectations, although from what we’ve heard i’m sure it will.

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Photos

Beautiful clean new shoes
Hmm...wonder how long they will stay that white

Tape time
Anna in action taping the vodka to Angus' leg

Security breach
Revellers swinging from the scaffolding

Broken Plugger
This has to be the poster shot of FIB - lost broken pluggers everywhere

Wee shot number 1
Note the little dark patch where the cup fell over

Wee shot number 2
Note the flooding of the ground and the girls on tippy toes trying to escape. ick ick ick

Sanchez on ice
Playing the rock throwing game while Sanchez chilled

Vince, Angus and Sanchez
The boys decided once they had consumed the 5L of beer, it was only fitting to say a few words to farewell Sanchez

Freakkkkk!
Anyone think he looks like a brunette version of Tim Bailey?? You know the channel 10 presenter that does beach volleyball? Scary!

Comments

[laura]

very tan
my oh my, you are both looking VERY tan!