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Day 14
Saturday 15 Aug
1344 (18Aug)
I'm sitting down an alley in Vienna, this place is so beautiful and the coffees fantastic the buildings are high and there's people everywhere.
Saturday morning we rose early and set off. I skipped a run that morning, my legs were still pretty sore from the previous two days worth. The bus trip was fairly eneventful and we arrived at Budapest in the Early arvo. First we went to a massive supermarket to try and get some bulgarian funny moneys. This place was huge and the boys grabbed a few beers. I set off to try and find a stubby holder. Translating stubby holder to a Hungaria was near impossible and after trying with 3 sttore man, all of whom just took me to the beer isle, I gave up. I wnet and spoke to Letty to get her to help me. “oh a cooler” she said, yeah yeah I replied with much enthusiasm. The then went on to shatter me to explain that she has only ever seen the australians using them on the trips and that you cant get them in Europe. I couldn't believe it. I guess the beers hardly ever cold here to start with anyway.
I helped Letty help Kay do the shopping for a while and after 20 minutes of standing in a line to try and get some roast chicken I had to leave to go ad get on the bus. While in the line I was talking to the guy behind me trying to find out where is a good place to goo out in Hungary. He said he wasn't a local but went onto expain that he was there for Sziget; Europe's biggest music festival. He said a few hundred thousand people go and started listing off some of the bands, fatboy slim, prodigy, offspring and heaps of others. I really wanted to go although I didn't think anyone else on the bus would want to come with me. This was soon proven wrong as once I got on the bus the Girls were bombarding me with questions about using my computer to check the line up. Jack and his girls were all pretty keen, as was steph and Kate.
Once we'de finished setting up the campsite and checked the line up I was feeling like getting the legs ticking over so steph and I went for a run. We turned aboud after the 3 ks and headed back. We got to what I thought was the turn off to our campsite and I left steph to run the last 300m to camp while I ran on for a bit. 300 m I went past the actual turn off to the camp and realised i'd sent Steph in the wrong direction. I realised I was too late to do anything and figured whe was smart enough to work it out without too much hassle, I was wrong. I kept running but started to feel really sick, I walked/ran back to the camp and struggled to get over to the toilet. It was definitely a close one. It wasn't for another 15 minutes befor I saw steph finally getting back.
After dinner we went out in Budapest. It was Brents day off the following day so he came with us. It was not organised at all. We just caught the train to the end of the line and then walked around for a bit with no-one showing any initiative. Myself Lauren, Jack and Heidi decided to hail a cab and go to a place called rio. It had been recommended to us 2nd to a place that we couldn't remember the name of. Every one else decided to grab cabs and follow also. On the way our cab went past a club called Zorb Parade, which was the place that we'de been first recommended. We got the cabbie to stop and just messaged George to let him know what we were doing. Turns out he didn't have his phone so it was pointless anyway and we didn't see them for the rest of the night.
Day 15
Sunday 16 Aug
0656 (18Aug)
Sunday was awesome. I had so much fun and the day went really well. As soon as we'de eaten and made our lunches we went into town. Sunday was Brents day off so we'de been given metro tickets to get ourselves into the city. I wasn't planning on doing much touristy and wanted to get a phone before that night. I left everyone at the main station. After a bum steer from one information person and a 30 minute walk through Budapest I ended up at a shopping mall. It seemed as good a place as any to try and get a phone.
There was one guy on the second level who was pretty helpful. Except he was selling a heap of 'second' hand phones. Despite this he explained that through him I could get a sim card for 8000 funny moneys yet through t mobile I could get it much cheaper but I needed my passport. So he was an honest dodgy bloke I guess.
I went upto T mobile and found what I wanted and set about the round trip back to the camp. The whole trip took about an hour just to get back to the camp. I grabbed my passport had a chat to Kay and Brent, who was feeling pretty sorry for himself. On the wayn back into town I realised I could get off the train one stop earlier. This cut my walking time in half and dropped about 15 minutes walk from the journey. I got back to the shop grabbed my phone and then had to go and wait in line for another 20 minutes to get the card activated. The guy hardly spoke English and it took about 10 minutes to get throough to him what I wanted. He activated the card and I walked off playing with my new phone. The only problem was that it was in Hungarian and I couldn't do a thing about it. Set on persisting. 5 minutes later i'd had enough, so I walked back into the shop pushed in front of the line and said English. He got the point and swapped it over for me.
On the way back from the phone shop I was talking to a bloke named shmergan, I think. He was wearing a Sziget T-shirt so I was picking his brain about it. I ended up walking with him to see where we could buy the tickets. I ended up buying a ticket and going in for a look. The place was huge. It took me 20 minutes to walk to the main stage. On the way I stopped in for a beer at a bar. I had my flag on and a German Guy approached me talking about hiss friends who lived in Neww Zealand. I explained that my flag was Australian and chatted to him for about 10 minutes. He and a bunch of there mates had ridden there from Munich 1300 km's away.
After watching the main stage for a bit I started headingg back to the camp. I bumped back into a bunch of aussies at one point. Between them they had a massive flag pole with an Aussie fllag on the top of it. We could see this flag the whole night even in the middle of the offspring mosh pit. These guys were a crack up so I spoke to them for a bit. Once back at the camp I set about hurrying up the girls. They were ready about 2 hours later. A pitty coz I was pretty set on seeing a band that was on at 6, I cant remember it's name so maybe I guess I didn't want to see it that badly.
We got to the Festival at about 1920, offspring were playing at 1945 so we set about getting a decent vantage point at the main stage. It soon filled up, very very quicckly. The offspring came out and the crowd went nuts. Turns out we were a lot closer to the front then we thought and were well inside the mosh pit. Most of the girls disappeared pretty quickly and I looked around and it was just myself and southafrican Lauren left. She was looking pretty distressed and was getting knocked around a bit. I took her a bit further back out of the trouble and then went back looking for the others.
I couldn't find them and ended up about 5m back from the front of the main stage. It was wild in there, too much so and after 10 minutes I'd had enough and started heading back out. I then bumped into Jack and Lauren, who were looking very acquainted again. We stayed out the set and I put Lauren on my shoulders for a bit to to take some photos. Despite the lead singer weighing a good 20 kg more then I remembe It was awesome, Self esteem was definitely a high light.
I ran back to the flag to try and make it by 930. I met the others and they were pretty keen to go and see faith no more so we headed back to the stage. They were a good typical rock band. Except the lead singer was in a bright red suit and had a cane. We left there not too long into it and went to grab some drinks. Myself and a few of the girls were starving, But the fearless leader wasn't ready to eat yet so they all changed there mind. I was starving so I just didtched them and organised to meet them later.
This festival had so many food courts. The were everywhere. I was looking around not really knowing which was which. There was so much cool food, it was alll local stuff and I didn't know what to start. A local couple approached me again asking about my flag. I was talking to themm for a bit and I ended up asking them to point me in the right direction for some food. They ended up buying me this local kind of donut thing. They way they make it is buy wrapping a long 'string' of dough around like a rolling pin. And flattening it into a cylinder. The then bake it and put different toppings on it. We had a nut one. Not much of a dinner I went and grabbed some sausage thing.
From there I met Jack and the Girls at the Burn party area, an electro house tent. I was absolutely loving itt. The girls weren't so we walked most the girls to the front gate while only taylor and Lauren stayed. The 4 of us went to a different stage to watch a local band. One of the songs they played was 'oh yeah' which i've heard the grates play, but i'm not sure if they wrote it. We watched that for a bit and then stood outside.
The girls wanted to leave so Jack and I let them and walked back towards the Dance floor. We went past a food stand and dropped in to grab a drink. There was a Girl there with a tiny guitar so I picked that up to have a try while jack grabbed drinks. The guitar was great, trying to play along with the music when I had the guitar pressed to my ear so I could hear it wasn't quite working.
The night lasted until the next day I got back to the Camp as everyone was packing up. There's no rest for the wicked!!
Day 16
Monday 17 Aug
0820 (19Aug)
Sunday Breakfast was a crack up. Not long after I got back a few other revellers got back to the camp from sziget. I was talking to one of them and as a result every one presumed that i'd come back with him. I didn't realise at first but he was the campest bloke i'd ever met. I really need to get my gaydar sorted out. He was pretty funny though. He read out all the mornings points for Kay and just hang around being really gay and intrucive.
Sundays bus ride was an interesting one. I was super super tired.we set off at about 8 and I was struggling to keep my eyes open from the start. I was really looking forward to writing in my diary while I was still in the mood that I was in. I opened up my computer and it was flat. I left my computer out so that people could use the internet that was available via the WIFI, and people hadn't even bothered to make sure it was plugged in. It wasn't the end of the world, but in trying to make it easy for other people I'd been burnt by these people that are only concerned about there own little world.
I wrote on a pad and then tried to sleep. I really struggle to sleep on the bus but hit it pretty hard at this point.
We got to Bratislava for lunch and went on a walking tour. I was feeling filthy. I hadn't showered in 48 hours and my feet were feeling grosse. I myself wasn't holding up to badly. I hadn't drunk too much at the festival I was just exhausted. After the walking tour we had an hour to walk around. I went to a supermarket, bought some clean sox and some deoderant and then went and spent the rest of the time with my feet in a fountain.
I'm looking forward to Bratislava its nice and close to Vienna, only 30 something K's away. Which in turn is only 80k's from Graz, where i'm working for 6 weeks at the conclusion of this tour. We got to Vienna in the early arvo. We drove into our campsite and found our spot. It was right near the contiki bus thats been following us for the last couple of days.
George and I went for a run soon after. I was feeling fine for about the first 20 steps. I wasn''t hungover my legs, particularly in the joints at my ankles and knees were killing me. We ran down to the river. It was really nice except for half way there we ran past a storage area for a company that hires out portaloos, there was a good 200 m where I could hardly breath let alone concentrate on the running. There's this cool waterskiing place there where a heap of tow ropes are pulled in a loop by an overhead cable. The place was full of wakeboarders and it was here that I turned around and left George to go on his way. The rivers really nice and I walked for a good 400 meters and started to stiffen up badly. I probably walked at least 2 thirds of the way home.
We had dinner and then went into the theme park. This place has the oldest Ferris wheel in the world and a stack more rides. I had a great time. Myself George rosie and Ange hung out for the most of the time. Ange was a crack up. She's this little, I mean tiny, asian who hardly speaks any English, This didn't matter as you could tell exactly what she wanted by judgeing the ear to ear grin on her face.
I went on four rides, I was surprised as I was so tired I didn't expect to feel like anything. The first ride was an old roller coaster, it was steel, not wooden so not too old, but what was suss about it was the sign. It was one of those old signs where each of the letters was full of regular bulbs, for this sign more then half the globes were blown. It was incredibly dodgy..
The next ride was a giant swing pretty much, it was pretty average. I gave the teller guy 10 euros for the 5 euro ride. He gave me a pile of change, chich upon later inspection I realised was less then 2 Euros worth.
I followed this with a ride that shot us us a giant guide and at the top it wasn't free fall but it accellerated us back down. I started to feel pretty average here but had no choice but to stick it out. The last ride was great. It was a hanging rollercoaster where you lie down on your stomach superman style. This wwas great except I think I pulled something in my lat, it could just be a bit of a cork but it was still hurting a few days later.
The bus ride back went really quickly. I was asleep within 20seconds of sitting in my seat and didn't wake until we got back to the camp. We'de grabbed a heap of beers earlier and stuck them in a pot with a heap of ice. They were the ccoldest beers i'd had in ages they were awesome.
We sat up talking until the early hours of the morning.I was exhausted it had been nearly 48 hours since i'd been in a bed.
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