Advertisement
Published: November 7th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Hungary was the next destination on our trip. We were supposed to be rested after a break in Belgrade but those few days ended up being quite physically taxing. The purpose of our trip to Hungary; a 7 day music festival on an island on the Danube which separates the two sides of the city, Buda and Pest. Again arriving on an overnight bus, which this time took only 8 hours, we found ourselves around 6 hours too early to check into the hostel. We killed this time by hanging out in McDonalds. Granted, it was the nicest McDonalds I have ever seen but the 6 hours seemed to drag on for a very long time. We filled it by drinking coffee, reading (we have formed a book club called the GCBC), and scavenging for receipts so that we could use the toilets. Interestingly, Hungary McDonalds has a funny burger called the Certes McFarm which we ate but never figured out what it was. To this day, our nickname for McDonalds is Certes McFarm.
After checking in, several of us set out into the city to take care of errands such as doing laundry, dumping photos etc, only to find that
In McDonalds
Shatters with the collection of reciepts which were needed to use the toilet, as we waited for 6 hours for our room to be ready it is absolutely impossible to get anything at all done in Hungary. We achieved nothing from our hours and hours of walking and came home frustrated, dejected and very irritated. The mood changed somewhat when we found a very nice Indian restaurant near the hostel which we frequented during our weeks stay.
The next day was the first day at Sziget. Steve and Tom had been the previous year so led the expedition to the island. This involved a tram and train, but we soon discovered that taxis were very cheap and we resolved not to use public transport in Hungary ever again. The island itself, which the festival was on, was quite large. It had around 6-7 major stages, similar to Big Day Out, as well as rides, cinemas, places to play video games, small hippy camps, countless beer and food stands, go-karting, chill out areas, and the rest of the room in between was covered in tents for people who were camping the week on the island. By the end we realised that those who camped for a week would become very unclean and smelly as the week wore on.
Each day was quite similar to the last
The line on the first day
We had to wait several hours to get in the first day. Luckily we were able to walk straight in from then on but the acts were different and the shenanigans were never ending. We'd scrape ourselves up out of bed, find out when we needed to be there (usually around 3pm) and stay on the island til 3-4 in the morning.
The acts included: Radiohead, Prodigy, Placebo, Scissor Sisters, Franz Ferdinand, Jovanotti (huge on the Italian charts), Iggy Pop & the Stooges, Layo & Bushwacka, Roger Sanchez, Mylo, Carl Craig, Tief Schwartz, DJ Storm & MC Fats, John B, Guru's Jazzamatazz, A.Skillz and Kraak & Smaak. Generally there bands were on during the day and as night set in then the DJs in the tents kicked off and we stayed as long as the music was good and our legs still carried us.
For most of the time, we hung out with a group of girls from the Netherlands who Tom and Steve had met at the last Sziget. They also brought along a hilarious looking yank who, no joke, looked exactly like Napolean Dynamite.
The highlights for the week included;
-Getting hit on the head with the drumstick the Prodigy drummer through into the crowd and keeping it to this day
-The silent disco where you wore headphones and the music
The threshold
Norm crossing the bridge which takes you from the city to Sziget island was broadcast to the headphones so that everything was silent but at the same time dancing generally in synch (PS some of us had big problems working and/or holding onto these headphones which made for entertaining viewing)
-Shatters obnoxious antics after playing the 'vodka challenge'
-Taking over one of the small bars near to the main stage
-Laughing when Shatters and Norm decided to go play Fifa instead of listening to a number of good acts
To be honest, I'm clutching at straws to remember all that happened in those 7 days. There were countless funny moments, minor incidents, good bands and bad.
Lowlights included;
-Losing everyone and getting lost for a couple hours on the dark and uninhabited side of the islands and having to make my own way home
-Walking around in, at times, several inches of piss that accumulated on the ground
-Waking up everyday in the hostel after 12 hours of hedonism the previous day and getting up and ready to do it again.
Besides the festival itself, we did manage to see some of the city during the days when the good acts didn't begin til later in the day. The parliament building on
the river was very impressive, as was the Victory plaza in the city centre, a castle and some old churches on the far side of the river. We spent almost the whole of the last day bathing in a Turkish bath which is essentially a huge complex of pools (of varying temperatures), spas, saunas, steam rooms, etc which is heated by the thermal energy down in the earth. Definately a highlight to bath away all the dirt that had accumulated on us over the previous week at Sziget.
This was to be the last time all six of us were together again. From here, Luke and I travelled to Greece, Shatters, Norm and Tom went to Tunisia, while Steve bravely ventured on his own to the Ukraine. More to follow soon, stay tuned.
Also, at the moment I don't have a majority of the photos taken in Hungary as they're with Steve so I'll put up what I have now and will update the rest when I can.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 17; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0199s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
steve w again
non-member comment
They had a silent disco at Big Day Out last year, it was awesome fun, 2 stations to flick between so you didn't know what the other people were listening too, even by looking at their dance moves it was difficult. I was on Prodigy they were on Cure but it all seemed the same.