Monday, August 29, 2005
Fest & Pest
[tags: _travel]
After Juliette and her Licks rocked Sziget, we had dinner and listened to the Mali band Tinariwen from the comfort of our tents. Then we headed off to the main stage again, to listen to the Main Event, Franz Ferdinand. The sea of people became impassable about a hundred yards from the stage. They immediately launched into their ultramegahyperglobo hits with frightening competency.
Zoom x10: Franz Ferdinand, and fog machine.
The rest of the night went by in a fatigued blur. We (finally) met up with Cydne and her friend Sally, went back for seconds to the muddy dance tent, and tramped round sampling the late night delights of the festival - more absinthe, more music, more everything. Met up with some gregarious Hungarians. Went to the Superstar DJ tent, took some late night espresso shots to prop us up for another hour, and finally wandered home to the tents at about 4pm.
I said goodbye to Van and her friends, and headed off for the Hotel Gellert and its mineral baths, where I would have a long, long soak in the 40 plus degree water and the menthol steam showers; do a few laps in the shared pool; and generally relax my sore aching muscles. After another quick coffee it was time to say goodbye to the city and head back to reality.
peace
After Juliette and her Licks rocked Sziget, we had dinner and listened to the Mali band Tinariwen from the comfort of our tents. Then we headed off to the main stage again, to listen to the Main Event, Franz Ferdinand. The sea of people became impassable about a hundred yards from the stage. They immediately launched into their ultramegahyperglobo hits with frightening competency.
Zoom x10: Franz Ferdinand, and fog machine.The rest of the night went by in a fatigued blur. We (finally) met up with Cydne and her friend Sally, went back for seconds to the muddy dance tent, and tramped round sampling the late night delights of the festival - more absinthe, more music, more everything. Met up with some gregarious Hungarians. Went to the Superstar DJ tent, took some late night espresso shots to prop us up for another hour, and finally wandered home to the tents at about 4pm.
* * *
The next morning we awoke just as the Festival Police were rounding up yesterday's day ticket holders. We trudged out happy but bitin, me trying to stay upright with the weight of the tents. Van had to fly out at 2pm, so we trammed our way to Kalvin ter and found lunch at a rather upmarket cafe who were nice enough not to notice our festival rags and rather muddy sneakers. Perfectly good coffee, though the food, as we were beginning to realize here in Budapest, was again on the salty side.I said goodbye to Van and her friends, and headed off for the Hotel Gellert and its mineral baths, where I would have a long, long soak in the 40 plus degree water and the menthol steam showers; do a few laps in the shared pool; and generally relax my sore aching muscles. After another quick coffee it was time to say goodbye to the city and head back to reality.
* * *
It's been almost two weeks now since our taste of Budapest; it feels like a world away. So much has happened since which I probably won't have time to talk about - our relentless hunt for a new place to live, plus Van's new job, and - just this bank holiday - my second stab at the MG Regency Run (London to Brighton via every nice country road in Surrey), and our glorious afternoon on the Brighton seafront where there was hardly a cloud in the sky. But I still look back fondly at Budapest, a riot of sights and sounds and tastes we'd love to come back to, some time next year.peace
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