Sziget - more than just a music festival

Sziget. Wow. I really cant begin to explain how crazy this festival was.

7 days, massive international acts, countless stages, 441,000 attendees...

What makes this place different to any other festival I have been to back home is that its not just about the music. This festival is about freedom of expression. There is arts, there is a circus, there are street performers... not to mention there are incredible stages with world-class artists performing.

Wooden AT-AT?

Dragon made of plastic bottles?

Wooden and wire-frame hands?

Yeah, Sziget has it all.

I have to mention how massive the island is also. The festival is situated on Óbudai-sziget island on the Danube river, and takes up the majority of its area. The distance from one end of the festival to the other is around 1.5km, a solid 20 minute walk.

The festival encourages szitizens to explore the island via collecting stamps in your Sziget passport (festival guide) from a bunch of the different points of interest.

Camping at the festival for a week was both a great experience and something I would have to reconsider doing again. I paid for upgraded accommodation in the Siesta camping zone which I'm very glad I did - access to wifi, extra showers and toilets and a guarded locker service were all welcomed. 

It was great to be able to crash out after a night of partying or catch a quick kip during the day if needed... but the dust. It was probably partly from the festival itself, but I'm sure camping didn't help the situation. After a few days I began coughing from dust inhalation and it's still going on a week later. Clean air is hard to come by at Sziget! Accompanied by the heat every morning in the tent, some days I had wished I was in a hostel outside of the island.

On the days where you just wanted to chill out and not jump around to the sound of ridiculously loud music, there was plenty to do. The Cirque du Sziget stage and circus tent had performances on all afternoon and night.

From dancing and acrobatics...

To fire shows...

Easily my favourite non-music performance at Sziget was Fuerza Bruta, an Argentinian group with its name translating to Brute Force. Set in a large circular stage, the show starts with the beating of drums and singing to amp up the crowd. 

Shortly after, a giant plastic cover is shuffled over the top of the crowd... before the fans start blowing. Huge fans are used to fill up the area with air and inflate the cover like a balloon. 

Performers on the outside dance around on top of the dome, sinking down to interact with the crowd. 

Before another sheet is pulled across the crowd and the projectors turn on...

The show ends with more drumming and a shower from above. The crowd went nuts.

I've never experienced anything remotely like this in my life. I was in total awe the entire time, it was a hell of a show!

There were also street performers that would randomly pop up at different places and times across the island. My favourite of which was the Spanish group Tutatis, who ran around in giant mechanical horse suits intimidating passers-by to the heavy beat of a drum.

I have to mention the food and drink prices at the festival. Around $3aud would get you either a 500ml beer or a giant slice of pizza - great price for a festival! There was a huge variety of food on offer, most of it tasting pretty damn good. 

Finally, the music. The main stage at Sziget is a masterpiece. Multiple screens and speakers scattered across the massive field. You can sit at the back and watch a screen and the stage from a distance or get right up close with the action and still hear it all perfectly. 

The lasers and light shows by some artists were just out of this world, nothing like I've seen at any festivals or clubs. 

The atmosphere was simply incredible. Looking around all you can see is a sea of people in every direction. Endless, it seemed like. 

Each day there was a different party on before the second to last act started - confetti, coloured powder, flags, maracas and balloons. 

To top it all off, a few of the main stage acts have their full officially filmed sets available for view on YouTube so you can relive the moments of the festival. Here are a few of the big ones. 

Limp Bizkit

Martin Garrix

Ellie Goulding

All in all, it was an amazing experience spending a week on the Island of Freedom. I'd love to make it back one year with some of my mates from back home to join in the fun. 

BUDAfknPEST

Budapest, my first real stop in Europe.

I decided to kick things off by staying at a highly regarded party hostel in the Pest city centre, Retox. Upon arriving, I got a great orientation by one of the chicks that works there; telling me about what to see and do, how to get around and what the city is like.

Just the look and feel of the city is so totally different to what I had grown used to.

That night I got talked into (didn't take much convincing) going on the Budapest Party Hostels boat cruise down the Danube on their private boat. After being in Asia so long I was totally blown away by the size of their boat - there is literally nothing like it down that end of the world! Apparently some four hundred people were on the boat that night!

$30aud got me the boat ride and a bottle of champagne. Good value. The view from the river against the lit up buildings on the Danube - in particular the Parliament building - was absolutely stunning.

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Despite feeling a little rough from the cheap champagne, I decided I had to do something. After checking into another hostel (Retox was full), I went to the House of Terror museum.

The House of Terror building (Andrássy út 60 as it was then known) itself was used heavily during the latter half of the 20th century as an interrogation and torture centre during the Soviet occupation of Hungary following WWII. The museum itself was set up to both commemorate and inform what was going on in Hungary during both the Nazi occupation during WWII and the Soviet occupation following it, way up until the late 80's.

The somewhat apt description by the girl from the hostel that told me about it was that "it explains why Hungarians are pissed off all the time". They copped it pretty hard during the 20th century, from losing a large portion of their land to neighbouring European countries, to the occupations I mentioned earlier.

The museum itself is very artsy and modern; everything is laid out very nicely and the area easy to navigate. Unfortunately photography is prohibited in the building so I can't show a lot.

The basement level is more-or-less an untouched replica of what was going on in this building during its heyday. Hangings, torture, imprisonment. It was an interesting and worthwhile visit, despite feeling a touch sorry for myself from the night before!

Rather than trying to make new friends at my new hostel I headed back to Retox to hang out with those I'd met the day before. Once again, I got roped into going out on their Ruin Bar pub crawl. Ruin bars are unique to Budapest - old derelict buildings that were long abandoned given new life through the form of flowing alcohol and music!

Unfortunately most of my time in these pubs was spent at the bar waiting for a drink rather than taking in the sights of the building I was in!

Later that night I accidentally discovered my new favourite drunk food - a Hungarian dish known as Lángos. It is a giant doughnut tasting fried flat bread topped with sour cream and grated cheese. I saw a local order one and my words were "I want that", excitedly pointing. 

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After a nice little sleep in I once more headed out to do something in the city. A non-profit organisation called Free Walking Tours runs daily (you guessed it) walking tours through Budapest.

We visited a few sights around the Pest side of the city (East of the Danube) before crossing the bridge into Buda to walk around Castle Hill. Despite the name, there are no real castles on castle hill.

One interesting fact that I remembered from the tour was the height of St Stephen's Basilica (first photo above) and the height of the Parliament building (the lit up one further up) are exactly the same at 96 metres. An interesting piece of symbolism I thought. 

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Following Sziget I ventured out to see a natural spring bath - a popular pastime in Budapest. The one I chose was was the Széchenyi Thermal Bath complex, one of the biggest and probably most popular in Budapest. 

The complex has three different pools, one for swimming and two for general relaxing. One of the two is about the same temperature as a heated swimming pool while the other is a slightly toastier 37 degrees. 

The problem with being so popular is that it was very crowded! It was difficult to find a good spot to sit and relax, and the place is very noisy. I couldn't help but compare it to the onsen hot spring I visited in Japan - the onsen was much nicer! Still, while in Budapest it is something I had to check out, and I got in free with the Sziget CityPass I bought when I arrived. 

On the walk to the bath I visited Heroes' Square, a tribute to what I assume is various important political and wartime leaders in Hungarian history. 

Unfortunately the remainder of my time in Budapest after Sziget was somewhat dampened (pun intended) by a large storm that came through the day Sziget closed up. The streets were flooded, basement levels in buildings turned to swimming pools and blocks of the city lost all power ... including the hostel I was staying at. 

The last two nights in Budapest I was in a hostel with no power, meaning no wifi, no way to charge my electronics, no hot water, no lights in the toilets, no air con ... it wasn't fun. It even went as far as a lot of the nearby restaurants were unable to open due to power cuts and flooding. Really disappointing way to end my time here!