!Yo Diggity!

The Sziget Festival (pronounced ‘Sea-get’, meaning Island) is a HUGE, week long music festival here in Budapest. Lots of popular and no-so-popular European bands are there and it draws a very diverse crowd from all over Europe. I remember that I was here in Budapest last year when the festival was in town but for some reason I didn’t get to go. Maybe I was busy figuring out more simple things like… what is the word for ‘ham’… or … where can I buy a transformer. Well this year, my friend Bill and I decided to check it out. Radiohead would be playing on Saturday night so we thought that would be a good day to go. The tickets for one day were about the eqivalent of 30 US Dollars so it was really quite a nice price. We weren’t quite sure what to expect but I’ll tell you right now that we got much more than we bargined for…

This sign is not so relavant to the Sziget festival itself, but more so to explain how much Hungarians like cucumbers. I’m not sure they really like them so much as maybe they just naturally use them as a staple on everything. Maybe it’s more like we use lettuce in the US… you know, we usually have lettuce on most sandwiches, ham, chicken, burgers, etc. Well here, they do the same with cucumbers. Even on the ‘American Hot Dogs’! hmmmmm

After waiting in what looked like a huge line but was relatively fast moving, we pasted a few venders and made our way across the very international bridge.

We could tell two things by this: the festival is very much geared towards multiple nations and that the festival does indeed take place on an island.

One of my favorite things about music and music festivals is that it brings so many interesting people together. And this crowd was no different at all. Every kind of different person was there. All happy, enjoying the festivities. Check this guy out. I want to know how he sleeps on that. I guess on his side, right? Or… does he take it ‘down’ everynight and ‘re-does’ it in the morning?? I really may never know the answer to questions like this, dang it!!

I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that there was much, much, much more than music at the festival. For example, there was a whole, ‘Turo Rudi” themed park! Full of games with huge, blown-up Turo Rudi’s everywhere. It was quite funny. Turo Rudi, for those who don’t know is one of the Hungarian’s favorite treats. It’s like a candy bar….. chocolate on the outside but with a type of cottage cheese on the inside. You might that that is crazy… cottage cheese inside of chocolate?!? I know… that’s what I thought too when I first heard of it. But it’s not that bad. Think about it - lots of people eat cottage cheese with fruit… like pineapple or peaches. Well - same thing here: sweet with cottage cheese. They actually use cottage cheese in lots of their desserts so it sorta makes sense here. Anyway - I did get a photo op with the life-sized guys. Not sure any of my US friends will ever get to say that!! haha

Also at the festival were all kinds of art displays, craft tents and other miscellaneous-type organization or ‘cause’ tents. For example this tent below. Now, I know that ‘ter’ in Hungarian means ’square’. But I’m not sure what ‘Leszbikus’ means…. hmmm… what do you think??

The festival was definately not short of activities, events, arts-n-crafts, displays and even history. Well…. maybe I’m not sure this is representing history…. because all I know that W.C. stands for is ‘water-closet’… and I can’t really make out what is actually happening in this scene. At least Bill’s havin’ a good time!

So the music festival was not just for the rockers… the types of music ranged from dead-head type stoners to metalheads to hypies to folk music lovers and even the club kids. Check out the scene below… you can’t tell it much from the picture but this was like an all-out club scene with live DJ and all - only it was open air and practically in the middle of the afternoon. But they were just dancin’ and havin’ a good time. Kinda a cool scene!!

Then there were other interesting ‘acts’. Like this band for example. More like a ‘jam-band’. So that’s a band that is mostly instrumental and will just rock-out… as in play and play and play not necesarily the same song every time they play. Just going with the ‘flow’ and playing whatever the crowd seems into.

Lots of times the crowd at the jams bands are almost as interesting as the bands themselves. This crowd had some good jugglers and batton-ball-thing-swingers. heehee

Again I must say that one of the best things was the people-watching…. here I didn’t get such a good shot but these two girls where totally decked out in fairy-gear. I have no idea why, where they were going or what they would be doing when they got there but it sure looked cool.

One amazing thing was that once you got into the festival, all the activities was free. I couldn’t believe it. Bungie jumping, for example, was free!! Now don’t get me wrong, you couldn’t PAY me to do it but the idea of something for free is always nice.

So. Now we get to the ‘adventure’ of the event. Radiohead. This is who Bill and I really wanted to see. We got to the stage early to try to get a decent spot. And we did. We were quite close really and not too crowded so it was nice. I had carried into the festival quite a large bag as I knew we would want to purchase a few things. And glad I did because we did purchase some items so the bag was good for storage. However, as any girl knows that along with a big bag comes big back problems. So Bill was so kind to suggest that he carry the bag for awhile. I let him because I have also been having some trouble with my ankle. I’ve been doing perhaps a little too much running to fast on an ankle that was not ready so that has been quite sore. All the walking we were doing wasn’t exactly helping it either. So anyway, as we were standing leasurely in our sweet spot ready for Radiohead to come on, Bill says, “I’m thirsty, I’m going to get a drink. You want anything?” I said ’sure’. He said, “Well… do you think I’ll be able to find you again? Well… you’re right here in front of the screen… I think I’ll find you.” Yeah… I agreed - it wasn’t that crowded and the food/drink tents where right there behind us. So he walked off. About two seconds after he walked off, I thought, gosh, I should have gotten my phone from my bag just in case he can’t find me. Hmmm, ok. Well… as the minutes passed so did the people. They kept coming and coming and soon I was smashed in like a sardine. Oh yeah… no way would Bill find me. Great. To show you how packed it was, I tried to take a photo and the dude in front of me just turned his head….

After the show - I had to figure out what was next. By the grace of God I was standing by a totally cool crew of UK folks. We chatted a bit during the show and I told them I got separated from my friend. They were SO KIND to take me under their wing and hang with me in the little bit of a ’situation’ I had gotten myself into. We had to clear where we were standing so we went and got a drink. Once the crowd cleared we went back to the spot we were previously. Didn’t we always hear when we were kids that if we got lost we should just stay put until someone found us? That’s what I remembered so that’s what I did. My new friends, Kenga, Sophie and Scooby were asking me to describe Bill… he’s just under 6 foot, wearin’ khaki shorts and a blue shirt… short brown haired, white guy. He sounds a little like just about half the people at the festival. Ok. hmmm… now what? Well… I figured that Bill was either headed home or running around looking for me so I’d wait a bit ’til he got home. I was a little worried about Bill honestly ‘cause I didn’t know if he was really paying too much attention to how we got out there. So the four of us made our way around the park. One thing we came across was a silent disco. If you haven’t heard of this (and I hadn’t) it’s a dance club where everyone is wearing headphones and not necessarily listening to the same kind of music. Hmm. It actually looked like everyone was having a good time but as Sophie said, “I think it seems a bit anti-social”. I would have to agree…. could you really dance with someone if they were not dancing to the same beat??

Next we ducked into a tent that was playing gypsy music. This was pretty incredible. This dude was playing some kind of string instrument that he was hitting with sticks. It was REAL lively and everyone in the tent was jivin’ around. Not one to bow out of a good time and despite my throbbing ankle, I blended right in. Then all of a sudden this dude comes out of no where and starts swingin’ me around. I felt like it was a mix between swing moves and…. eeee… I don’t know, 50’s jig that we were doin’ but my new UK pals said like I looked like a pro - haha - right. It was certainly a good time though it would have been 110% better if I didn’t think my ankle would snap at any second. Eeks. It did hurt.

Once the Gypsy band finished up I thought it would be safe to say that Bill would be home by now. So time to say farewell to my UK friends. This was truly a sad goodbye ‘cause I gotta tell ya this was a cool group. Who else would chill with a lost, broke, bewildered American?!? Not only did they let me use their mobile phone to call my phone (the only number in Budapest that I have memorized - alas was not answered by Bill) but they bought me drinks AND gave me money for the bus home!! True Saints, I tell ya! Seriously - how lucky was I to be standing next to such a good group??? We exchanged information, I snapped a shot with them… and took off. Someday, we’ll meet again, my friends!!

From left: Kenga, Sophie, Me, Scooby

About 30 seconds after I left my new friends, it started to rain. Great. Perfect. So I hussled as much as was possible with the crowd, the rain, and my uncertainty of where I was going. I got out of the park in pretty good time. It was just about 1:30 at this point probably. Right at the exit I saw a big yellow bus and a crowd of people. My Hungarian lessons paid off ‘cause I could read the sign that told me where the bus was going, when it was going and how much it cost. Perfect. It would drop my off three blocks from my flat and I had just enough money for it. I must say here again that I am SO thankful for my new found friends because I really never in my life thought I might have to actually beg for money… but this night I came very very close. Shew!!

At this point is was raining quite hard and I got two bus doors slammed in my face. The buses were running every 10 minutes supposedly so I just had to find shelter for a few minutes. I tried to get a tiny square of dry spot from a crowd of French people. But I started to feel bad as I was one of about 10 people trying to get under one umbrella and I was the only one not speaking French. Darn. I spotted two youngsters chillin’ with two huge black umbrellas just down the way so I headed for shelter with them. I think I about scared the crap out of the kid I popped under the umbrella with… he didn’t speak English at all but luckily his friend did. They were kind enought to cover me up for the more than 20 minute wait we had. Time didn’t move any faster when we got on that yellow bus… the traffic was SO BAD right there with all the taxi’s and vehicles trying to leave the grounds. What a nightmare. At this point… my back hurts, my ankles hurts, I’m half wet, tired…. I want to be home. after dozing off a couple of times we arrived at my stop. It’s still raining so I speedily walked home….

I found a note on my door…. ah good… Bill is at his place (which is basically two doors down from mine)! I’d just have to ring his door bell!! Whhhhoooo hoooo! Almost home free!

And then at his door…. oh no.

The note says that he’s gone back out to look for me!?!?! Ugh. Great. But wait… just try the bell just in case….. YES!! He’s there!!!! Oh thank the good Lord I’m home free. I did feel quite bad… Bill seemed a bit stressed about the whole thing… which… it was a bit stressful. I mean, I was fine… but seriously the story could have had a very bad ending. If I would have had to walk home…. oh my. Or worse… eeee… gosh, who knows!!