Before Portugal however there was the small matter of driving from Northern Spain, a task not to be taken lightly except of course if your name Chris who elected to spend most of the 18 hour drive asleep in the back of the cab! Needless to say Iain and Nathan manned up and bore the brunt of this epic journey, passing the time with some rather good tunes on the radio and feeling the need to have a personal life soundtrack adviser to ensure that this happened more often.
It was not all fun and games though as we had our first mechanical malfunction of the trip, it seems the seemingly endless and large hills of Spain had taken its toll on our old girl, with her temperature shooting up to the danger zone and forcing us to pull over to the sight of steam coming out of the bonnet. Letting her cool down a bit Iain and Nathan experienced one of those strange moments of male bonding, not with each other but with a gent who spoke no English, but nevertheless was able to understand our plight and sympathise.
However like most women when they get a bit hot under the collar all she needed was a little time and a few drinks and Harriet was as right as rain again and we set off. After a short stretch drivers were changed and we eventually arrived on the beach at Nazare in Portugal. This was especially confusing for Nathan and Iain as when they woke up they were in the car on their own, the surfboard was missing and the other two were no where to be seen!
Regrouping we set off for Pinal Novo a town to the south of Lisbon to meet Maura a friend Chris had met in Bratislva who had agreed to put us up for as he put it a year if needs be! This was to be one of the best moves made on the trip as we experienced not only unbelievable hospitality but an amazing few days of partying that are probably to blame for our haze over the events that followed.The first night we were treated to an amazing meal of bbq fish and various other forms of meat with Helder another new friend we had made.
After the meal Chris retired to sleep, and Maura took us to a local "bar" where they had music booze and girls most of which were experiencing wardrobe malfunctions. We were later told that this was called a strip bar, a phrase that none of us have ever heard before...
Bendigo and Nathan were soon fleeced into buying a couple of rather expensive drinks for aforementioned ladies but at least Nathan redeemed himself by getting her phone number while Bendigo complained so much he was flooded with apologetic kisses. Iain on the other hand sat on his wallet and discussed tattoos and world politics with a couple of guys (this is of course 100% the truth) In addition to this we all discovered that James Blunt is much improved when accompanied by hot naked ladies something which we would recommend to all!
The following day Maura went off to work feeling slightly worse for ware, while we lounged around and played Playstation, enjoying the fact we were in a house for the first time since we left home.
That evening we were promised exotic meats, and this is what we got in spades! We were taken to a restaurant that speciality was unusual cuts of meat, from camel to zebra, which is exactly what we had. After a great feed we went off to the local bar where we met a host of new pals, watched football and imbibed many calories before going back to our new pad. The other guy in the picture is Nien Pinal Novo's friendly neighbourhood tattoist, another regular features of our adventures 
there.Reading it back this seems like a quiet night however it did end up with the worst bodybuilding competion of all time
On the third day in Pinal Novo we decided to have a beach day where the excess of the previous night caused
us all to fall into a deep sleep the moment our heads hit sand. Re
freshed and revitalised Maura took us out to a town nearby (cant remember the name sorry but it began with M!) where a local festival was on celebrating the mighty bull. As it turned out Bendigo showed it was not so mighty after all, sending out a message to bulls everywhere, your all pussies so bring it on, bold words indeed! He did however require some assistance so I think he may have bitten off more than he can chew
The town was bustling with revellers out for a good time some of whom we recruited for our photos, some who didn't mind and others who for some reason were scared by Iain's semi naked body. It was all agreed that we should head home and have an early n
ight so that we could do the bull run in the morning, however we all seemed to gravitate towards the other option of drinking as much as possible, saying that the bull run would be easy and that we would get up for it. The reality of this approach can probably best be demonstrated with this picture;We would not run with the bulls after all, which was
disappointing but it was Nathan's birthday so a promising night was in store. As it happened it was also Helders birthday on the same day so we knew it was going to be a big one. We proceeded to race Maura's impreza with Harriot, to a seaside town and miraculously overtook him, to his amazement and shock.Upon arrival a feast of sorts, was quickly devoured by all and then it was onto what we do best, a tour of the local bars and many shots. Apart from Bendigo, the designated driver, who was still suffering fom guilt after his run in with a tyre and a smart car (that is all that can be said on that matter).
Iain filled in for a stoned barman and showed off his skills as a bar tender while the m
anager was busy throwing out a one armed drunk and Nathan enjoyed the eye candy of the many Brasilian beauties that roamed the streets. Chris however was up to his old tricks of slipping away and crashing where ever he could, this time in the back of Harriot.The pace of the Portugeese was testing for some.
So, with four days of debourtury under our belts, it was time to bid farewell to our new friends and head for cheaper shores. Morocco was calling...............
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