Rather spontaneous than planned, I decided to visit Sziget festival with 3 old friends. We met one day before the festival began, drinking coffee in Che bar. We chatted about money and food that we need to bring, where do we meet for departure and what is Sziget really all about. I had no idea what bands preform there, or even how to survive on Sziget.

1st day - Traveling

My P1i failed again, leaving me in bed until friends called at 9:20 asking where the hell am I. It took me 3min to pack; and few more to brush teeth, update some website (which was urgent exactly the same moment I wanted to go) and kiss girlfriend goodbye.

Before going on trip, we went to buy about 40 beers to Hofer and at 10:15 we were already on road from Ljubljana (Slovenia) to Budapest (Hungary), which is about 450km apart. The trip was nothing special, we were chased by police on highway, but roundabout saved us. Čeh was nice enough to drive in both directions, so the others were able to open a beer on the way. When we arrived to Obudai island, official parking was already full. They recommended some others (like 10€ per night), but we parked in front of some old socialistic buildings and it turned out to be pretty secure;) We had some concerns about smuggling beers inside the festival, turns out it was pretty easy;)

Organization of the festival already shined at very beginning, you could really see they have everything thought through. No wonder, the festival has been performed already for last 15 years. Anyway, while we were setting up our tents, Čeh already went to Nouvelle Vague on main stage. Sara, Douč and me joined him later, when they almost finished. SKA-P followed; even though I don't really listen to SKA, mosh pit and crowd surfing were amazing. We split up during mosh pit and I went walking around, with main goal to find some good music to fit my taste.

This is when I actually first started to feel "the good spirits" for Sziget festival. Near to our tent, I found Budapest Jazz Club stage and listened to Tzumo Electronic Dreams. They really made my heart dance, it was like an entrance to all this festival music. At Jazz stage, one could buy burgers and I decided to go for chicken. After Tzumo, Free Style Chamber Orchestra started to groove some smooth, easy jazz. I decided to go check Blues Kocsma and to my surprise, The Blues B.R.Others Show were on stage trying to give their best music after the two famous brothers.

Čeh came to Kocsma and picked me up, we ran together to 38A stage, listen to the famous White Lies. It's not my type of music, but it was a pretty cozy concert. Light effects were amazing, but maybe the vocals were too low (at least in 4th row). Some chick really rubbed her Italian boy around penis with her ass, which made Čeh really nervous:D Another crazy guy tried to go mosh pitting on White Lies, but people cooled him down quickly. Before the end of the concert, I had to leave to drink some water (those beers really sucked all out of me). After that I wandered around, don't really remember anything interesting that happened:D First day successful!

2nd day - Total Knockout

Woke up at 11:00 and decided to go to Budapest for a "morning" coffee. This was my second time in Budapest (I spent New Year's Eve there, I think in 2003), it is a wonderful city. A little bit older and dirty than Ljubljana, but still very rich. We walked around for quite some time, searching for a "cheap bar". The thing is, we judged them by outlook, not by prices. Ended in bar where coffee was about 2.5€ and frape was only 3€. Noone took coffee;)

After the Budapest tour, we cooked some good Spaghetti with goulash and tomato sauce. At about 16:00 we went for walk around the island, we haven't seen the East part yet. Too bad we arrived at Blues Kocsma at 18:00 when Jimi Hendrix Memorial Band started. Thanks to all the folks that gathered around for alarming us:)

I wasn't expecting anything, since Pavle Kavec really gives best spirit to Jimmy Hendrix as far as I've seen. JHM surprised me, the lead guitarist played licks by Hendrix and didn't try to squeeze his own style. Take it as good or bad, people really enjoyed the show. As you can see, people got on stage, kissed the artists, shake'd the ass few times and dove into crowd surfing. I've been to many Jimmy Hendrix tributes, but this one really flowed with energy. Thanks JHM, keep up the good work! (missed Stone Free though;)

Short pause, followed by long, full of energy night. We went to Jack Daniels bar, where one could buy Jack with Cola and got an extra 100 point ticket for Blackjack. The dealers were nicely dressed girls, so tables were pretty full of bad guys. For 1100 points one could get Jack Daniels T-Shirt, I got one while Čeh got three of them. It wasn't that hard after all. The bar had commercial rock music, which was pretty good to relax. People inside got pretty crazy on some songs, so some security guys came closer. Nevertheless, nothing happened. I haven't seen a single blip of anger during 4 days in Sziget.

3rd day - Chill out

On Friday, it started raining just after we woke up. Festival organisation shined even in such circumstances, one could see people running around in raincoats. Čeh, Sara, Douč and me decided to play card game called "Enka" followed by big, fatass New York hotdog. At about 16:00 rain stopped, and we decided to change clothes and split up, each to his own stage.

Again, I went to the Blues stage and listened to New Orleans blues Jambalaya. With Zoltan Nemes on piano/vocals, the blues just got somehow jumpy and soulful. I really liked it, great music to drink a few beers;) Then again, to my surprise, came a band that preformed Jimmy Hendrix, called Póka Egon Experience (sorry I cannot find any info about them on internet). They really had somewhat special attitude against Hendrix and gypsy music. Something special, but solos from lead guitarists really made my heart hurt. Shredding on Hendrix's rythmical and melodical solos is really a great way to take everything from his music.

Afternoon. We went to eat some chinese noodles and visited Ability Park (which was really relaxing). Main goal is to finish the contest that the toy offers. Most of the times you have to get ball on the other side of the toy. After as-the-spanish-call-it siesta I went to Budapest Jazz Orchestra. Few jazzy songs to relax, and at 23:00 it was time for Jack Daniel's bar, again. Blackjack, rock music, crazy people and Jack Daniels. Night over.

Last day & About Festival

Festival was just awsome. I really liked the idea and challange to collect all different sorts of T-Shirts. WCs were pretty standard, cleaned every day. They even had bigger ones with mirror and AC/DC. You could even get showered by bikini girls and got free swimming pants.

Food choice was more or less anything Europe and Asia know. One could eat Hebrew, Chinese, Japan, Greek, Churros, New York Hotdogs, kebab, gyros, mini-donuts, etc.

Čeh also got this crazy idea, called "Tent raping". Girl would bond red headscarf to a tent, which would mean she's all in for action! Well, laughter was far from being absent in Sziget.

Anyway, we got up ta 8am, packed everything including tents, bought 40 cans of beer for 0.4€ and started driving back. We got some problems finding the right way out of Budapest, but in the meantime I bought postcard for my girlfriend Iris (she collects them). I spent about 200€ in 4 days, which is fair enough for that amount of phun;) I'm very sad I forgot to take my SX10IS PowerShot Canon, but hey, one year is quickly around;) May the force be with you!

PS: one free beer to first one that finds my face in this picture.