Finally I have left Belgrade! I got my bankcard in the post this morning and off I go. I was torturing myself all week thinking that everybody that came down the stairs to the hostel was the postman delivering my amazing little piece of plastic. (what did people do before bankcards!?) Then in an alcohol induced coma today it arrived! I was so excited, yet I couldn’t manage to get out of bed. So I am currently sitting in a tiny little carriage on a shitty eastern E uropean night train, sweltering in the heat. A girl in my carriage is annoyed by a plastic bag flapping in the wind so she has shut the window so it’s now about 40 degrees in here! Won’t be long before I get fed up and open it. By the time I got to the station all of the sleeper carriages were sold out. So damn pissed off that I have to sit in a chair on an overnight train for 8 hours. Blah! I am so tired I was actually looking forward to sleeping in an amazing little bunk, but now I’m wide awake with the heat and being uncomfortable in this stupid chair! Anyway it’s good to be moving on to some new countries! 🙂
So it’s now Tuesday, 6 days from when I arrived and I’m still in Budapest! I was going to get a bus straight from Budapest to Krakow, but when I arrived in Budapest and tried to take out cash I discovered that I had a new pin number and had no idea what it was! Faaaaark!! So after having some strong words with my bank I realised it might not be until after the weekend that my pin would arrive by mail and I could use my card, which meant I couldn’t even buy the bus ticket to Poland! So with half an hour sleep under my belt and only 30 euros to my name I trekked around the city and found a hostel my friend used to work at. Luckily they had a cancellation and let me stay and were going to allow me not to pay until my pin arrived 🙂 It is probably the coolest hostel I’ve been to! It’s in a loft (and called Loft hostel) and has paintings all over the walls and random signs and stuff everywhere. I started to plan my very poor weekend in Budapest which was going to only involve free sight-seeing and cheap food and no alcohol. Then on Friday night I got an email about my mail and I had a pin number! I still decided to stay in Budapest, although I originally wanted to move straight onto Poland. And so glad I did stay, because I ended up going to the amazing Sziget festival on Sunday 🙂
Sziget is a week-long festival is located on ‘Old Buda Island’ in between Buda and Pest. Sziget attracts people from all over the world and its no wonder why with the facilities, stages and acts they have. They even have a wedding chapel where you can get married (obviously the wedding doesn’t stand once you leave the island, but its a cool idea) and a set up where you get sponged down and cleaned by chics in bikinis! COOL!
A group of us went in the afternoon and a few of us didn’t roll in until 10am the next morning. I am now on day 2 of my hangover, which sucks but is definitely worth it! We started off chilling at the world music stage, then went on to see Danko Jones (who sucked…) then moved onto a hungarian trumpet band, which was awesome! I love traditional music and these guys were great! We saw Muse for a while… I’ve seen them before and to be honest, I dont think they are anything special. We saw Die Antwoord, who I had never heard of and they were one of the most amazing bands I’ve ever seen! They are a South African hip hop band with the most amazing stage presence and coolest songs. I saw a few songs from Yeasayer, which is disappointing because I absolutely love them and wished I saw the whole set. The rest of the night involved a lot of dancing at the dance tents, a lot of random moments and some ridiculous photos to prove it!
When all the music had stopped in the early hours of the morning, we stumbled across a group of people who were clearly still in party mode and not interested in going to bed. There were 3 large metal garbage bins all alongside each other, which everybody was using as a bongo, or banging with sticks or bottles or anything they could use to make music. The festival security attempted a few times to stop the racket, but with no luck. A few people got up onto the bins to dance, people were singing and dancing and having such an amazing time… with garbage bins and sticks! I joined in and to be honest it was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had. People using the most simple things to have such a good time. It was all a bit surreal (especially in the state I was in!) After about an hour of that we moved on to different parts of the festival ground and then onto a tram stop in god-knows-where! We sat on the steps for a few hours, whilst Hungarian commuters made their way to work or to walk the dog. I was wrapped in a scarf that I had bought to keep warm and the 2 guys I was with were covered in red paint that some girl had painted on them at some point. Boy, were we a sight! We finally gave in at about 9.30 and I walked across the city of Budapest barefoot, covered in mud and looking a complete mess! Obviously that was the reason behind being stuck in Budapest and I enjoyed every minute of it!!
Now I am finally leaving tomorrow and taking an early bus to Krakow, Poland. I have an insanely busy 10 days before I need to be in Helsinki for my flight. More good times ahead!
