Anyone who comes to Europe is totally missing out if they do
not visit Budapest. But before I get into that, let me recap.
After Spain we took the overnight train to Zurich. The train
ride was awesome – we had a private room for the first time in a week or so,
and also had a 3 course meal and drinks included! Twas pretty sweet. Oh, and
the vanity kit we were given in our cabin had bloody everything! It seemed like
they’d somehow fit half a Priceline store in those little bags!
Anyhoo, we arrived in Zurich, which we saw all of 30mins of at the station
before boarding a connecting train to Vienna. I guess the whole reason we
decided to stay in Vienna at all was simply to break up the long journey to
Budapest from Barcelona. But I’m glad we did. Vienna is a beautiful city, and
well worth taking at least two days to explore. So many old styles of
architecture from renaissance to gothic, and an incredible open to the public
Palace and gardens called Schonnbrunn (a must see). The Viennese also have
provided a fantastic free public bike system (much like Melbourne but much more
user friendly) which we gladly utilised to see the city. I would definitely
suggest anyone visiting Vienna to do the same – just watch you don’t go over an
hour per ride, it costs after that.
The hostel in Vienna was pretty awesome too – full breakfast included, really
clean and safe, oh, and also had pretty funky bar in the basement with drinks
at backpacker prices (big win).
Lastly on Vienna – BEST STRUDEL EVER. That is all.
Another relatively short train ride later and we were in
Budapest, home of the almighty Sziget Music Festival (the whole reason we came
to Budapest). Now the really good thing about Sziget, especially for
international visitors, is that the whole festival is structured so that
nothing really starts happening before 3pm or so each day (5 days festival).
This gives visitors a great chance to see the rest of the city, and also
enables you to stay in town rather than at the festival site, which is what
Ingrid and I opted to do. We found ourselves a super nice hostel online and as
it turns out we ended up with more of a self-contained apartment which was
awesome.
Each day would involve a nice and lazy 9.30 get up, a bit of brekky then out
for a coffee at a café. By this time it would be about 11, so we’d go and
explore another part of the city each day, from its towering Museum quarter
located on a small mountain on the banks of the Danube and overlooking the rest
of the city, to the numerous roman and Turkish baths. We’d find somewhere to
get some fantastic local food for lunch then slowly make our way into the
festival.
Now on the subject of the Sziget Music festival where do I begin... About 20
stages: Rock, Metal, Pop, Dance, Hungarian, European, Theatrical, Radio and
even a Circus stage! Amazing food and cheap beer, and also a wicked shot called
a Feny (carbonated straight vodka with fruit syrup). Oh, and bars everywhere!
Sponsored bars like Jack Daniels and Axe Cologne, Themed bars like Chuck Norris
Bar (Catch phrase being ‘Shut the F*ck up and Drink’) and the Titty Twister Bar
(wet-tshirt bar). There was also countless street performers and theatre going
on; little folk bands playing for people eating their dinner, Mimes and even
what they call ‘Giant Street Theatre’ which involved a group of German actors
putting on a show with the aid of one of Europe’s biggest Pyrotechnic companies
– needless to say it was EPIC! I could seriously go on for ages about it however,
you should definitely Google it and consider coming. Put it this way; a five
day world class festival for $200 each! About the price of a one day festival
back home. Plus food and drinks at the festival are about half the price as
well. But yeah, google it, because it was easily the best festival both Ingrid and
I have ever been to.
The added benefit of staying in a hostel while going to a
festival is the people you meet and then inevitably party at the festival with.
We partied it up with some awesome Croats and also a Welsh girl who was wicked
fun and helped Ingrid in dealing with my very drunken antics one night :P. (Shouts
go out to Ana, Kreso, Vjera and Elli) The Croats were even awesome enough to
give us a lift into Croatia with them after the festival which was much
appreciated. You should have seen the border security dudes raise their
eyebrows when they got handed Croatian and Australian passports from the same
car… Yeah, we were there for a while…
