Heide Week Parade

My quirky little town has a yearly extravaganza that revolves around heather. Not a person named Heather, but the plant heather. And my quirky little town devotes an entire week to celebrating its existence. Mostly it's just an excuse to get drunk.

The whole shebang starts with a parade. Actually, it starts with a Heather Queen and a Heather Princess but since neither one of them is me, we'll skip all that.

We all met up at Jenn and Niels' place for dinner. This was the best place since their house is on the parade route.

Some pictures taken at Jenn's before we left.

Then we heard all the drums and stuff and headed out to see the parade. It was a pretty weak parade but it was amazing enough for a nearly four-year-old and a one-year-old. Seeing the whole thing through their eyes was pretty cool. Bella doesn't mind loud noises as much as Caitlin so she held on a lot longer and even managed a wave. Caitlin had her own little horn to toot but didn't get around to it much since she was covering her ears most of the time.

The theme this year was the Olympics (oh, the originality) and some of the floats were actually very cool. Caitlin loved the horses and we were all impressed by the firetrucks.

All is well in the world again.

In the end it was pretty fun. Mostly because the girls enjoyed it and were pretty much gobsmacked for the whole thing.

Waking Dreams

Sometimes I get hit by a wave of inspiration. Had that when I was staying at Suze's. Thankfully I had my BlackBerry with me to take it all down ...

----

I dreamt that I walked through the woods. In a small clearing surrounded by dancing birch trees, I came upon a cottage fabricated by faeries. Before I even entered I knew it was a happy place where hearts were at ease and sang with the joy of life.

I entered and found a great wooden table set to feed the cockles of my heart. There was wine and fruit, food and flowers, good cheer and fortune. And seated there were the friends of all my lives. All the happy souls of those I held dear. Kindred spirits in the stormy sea of life experience, anchors in restless waters.

We raised crimson glasses to toast our dreams and wishes in the knowledge that all the goodness of life would find us. We supped and laughed, sang and were quiet. The little bobbins and vessels of our destiny cheerily chattered and made us smile indulgently, with a thinly veiled pride.

As we let our bellies and minds, replete and sated, settle in the glow of the evening, I looked to the sky and saw a pair of kestrels circle in the dusk. They played and flitted on the light breeze, their carefree nature a balm to my bruised soul.

And I knew that in this short measure, my life was perfect and good and wholesome and full.

I smiled, filled my cup and nestled into the fold of my blessed friendships.

The dream never woke, but stayed in a whisp of mist to accompany me in waking hours.

----

If you didn't figure it out - I'm in a pretty good place right now. :)

Sziget Logs - Part IV

So, I am finally getting around to the last installment of the Sziget Logs. Here it is then:

August 18th, 19th and 20th

I woke up ridiculously early on Monday because ... it was quiet. No music at all. This was it then, the day we break camp and walk off of the island. I started packing up my things and was finished getting all of my wordly possessions into my bag in half an hour. That's camping for you. All that remained was breaking tent. *sigh* It took awhile for the rest to get up because it wasn't such a sweltering morning and there was no heat chasing you out of the tent.

Watching the exodus of people past our tent was kind of odd. Loads of people who'd gotten up even earlier and were already heading out.

When we finally all got going and took the tents apart we made excellent time. There were still loads of tents around us so we figured the warning in the information booklet that you had to be off the island by 8am probably wasn't such a strict one.

Once we'd had our breakfast and a Milli Milk or two we loaded all of our stuff on our backs and headed to the exit. The walk to the HEV train line isn't really that long and because everyone was kept moving there were no traffic jams and we could step right onto a train to take us to Budapest city center.

We found the street our hostel was on no problem but finding the hostel was another story altogether. First we walked the wrong way down the street, then we walked right past the building because I thought it was number 66 (it was number 30 - go figure I would miss that!), then we walked back and found number 30 and had to walk up three flights of murder stairs to get to the hostel entrance. Luckily, Peter, The Hostel Guy was very friendly, let us dump our stuff, freshen up and said our room would be ready at 2pm (it was just after 11, I think, when we arrived).

We had decided the day before that we wanted to use our Sziget discount to go to see the Bodies exhibition on Kíraly út so we headed out (a tad dusty but whatever) to see the human body up close and skinless. On the way we stopped at a café and had a drink or two and enjoyed the shade.

The Bodies exhibition was really amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone living in a city they come to. I mean, you've seen the pictures and drawings of the human body in text books and you've seen the lungs or whatever in the smoking warnings but seeing them in one human form with bits and pieces exposed, or a whole human being but then just the skin - that is just too bizarre. Jenn had decided that she didn't want to see any baby corpses (all of the displays were people who had donated their body to science) and was afraid, since the tour led you from one room to the next in a snake-like fashion, that she wouldn't be able to avoid it. Then we got to a junction where they warned you on a big sign that the next room might be a bit too much for some and that it was the babies. There was an alternate route to skip the baby exhibit and, in the end, Jenn decided that she did want to see. They had the progression of uteran growth on display. Honestly, it was fascinating. At 7 weeks - that's a person. I have never been someone who would be able to get an abortion but this sold me completely. [For the record, I am still pro-choice, but my choice is clear now].

At 3 o'clock we arrived back at the hostel and found out that our five person room was actually an apartment two blocks down and two blocks up. Ooookay. So we got to lug all of our stuff down three flights of stairs and walk a bit to the next place. It was a *very* nice apartment and we were all delighted to get into a real, working shower with hot water and change into some dust free clothes. I got to go first since I had booked the hostel and played leader on the subway trips. :)

Our apartment

After showers and changes and a short jaunt to the supermarket by the boys we went out to dinner. We (read: I) decided that we should go to the For Sale Restaurant since Jenn and Niels ate there last time we were in Budapest and raved about it. I hadn't gone and when we tried to go the next night it was full. So I wanted to try again. The difference being that we were now a 45 minute walk away from it instead of a 10 minute walk. Ah well. I plotted a route past some fun touristy things and, since it was a lovely evening, we had a great walk and built up an appetite for dinner.

Steffie and Werner at St. Stephen's Basillica
St. Stephen's Basillica - day
Jenn, Steffie, Werner and Niels in front of Buda Royal Palace
I have no idea what this statue is for but it's on top of a huge hill and I just had to get a picture. Isn't it great?
Arty shot on the way to the restaurant.

Dinner was fabulous! I had deep fried Camembert cheese with rice and salad, Jenn, Werner and Steffie had the garlic chicken and Niels had the steak "Stroganoff" (Steak in a sauce with mushrooms and pickle - sounds odd? Yes, it does but it was *really* yummy). We got a little bit confused by the bill (damn expensive wine if you sell it by the deciliter) but in the end we made it out with full tummies and smiles.

I had charted a new route home that would take us past the Opera house (among other things) and we set off into the night.

National History Museum
St. Stephen's Basillica by night.
Look! We found George Clooney!
Jennifer gets close to a bronze man

The next day we had a lovely breakfast at the apartment and got all of our things together so that we could hand in our key at the main building. We could have left all of our things at the main building all day but that involved getting it all up and down those stairs again which none of us wanted to do. So we opted to go to the City Park instead. There was a zoo, fun fair, thermal baths and all sorts of things to do there and Jenn and I weren't averse to sitting with all the stuff while the rest were off to the pool.

Jenn and I make a fort and hunker down.

We spent a few lovely hours in the shade reading and doing puzzles and the rest went to the thermal baths. At exactly 3pm we broke up the fort and headed to Keleti station to catch the train to Vienna.

In Vienna we changed trains and that one was an hour delayed by the time we left the station. They had to change the locomotive and then there was a poor boy with food poisoning that had to be picked up by an ambulance. We all felt for him and his friend (who had to get back on the train and leave him behind). We picked up another hour's delay on the way and arrived at Arnhem train station at 12:30pm on Wednesday 20th August instead of 10:30am that same day, as originally planned.

It was good to be home, though.

And there, kiddies, ends my account of our adventures in Budapest. I forgot to tell the tale of the crazy drunk lady that harrassed us at the apartment and Werner and Steffie's tent being robbed but, really, those weren't the highlights of the trip.

Who's coming along next year? ;)
xxx

Sziget Logs - Part III

August 15th, 16th and 17th
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent mostly the same way Wednesday and Thursday were. Chilling out and relaxing by day and then heading out for live music at night.

We made an attempt to look for the swimming pool on the island at some point and found that it hadn't been cleared since, roughly, the last time we had been to Sziget in 2005. Pity as the swimming pool was a good way to break up the day. Especially with the tropical temperatures (we heard that it was something ridiculous like 37°C at one point). We also went to the Luminarium on Saturday, saw a huge line and decided it wasn't really that important to go in and see. (basically it was like walking inside giant, interlinked balloons - was cool but not worth waiting for in the heat).

Relaxing at the tents

Brothers Grimm

Goofing around with the camera, some amateur dramatics and Steffie's left breast.

Werner and Steffie do Temptation Island

---
I forgot to mention in Part One that my PIN pass didn't work anywhere in Budapest. Once we arrived, we all decided to PIN some Hungarian Forint (HUF) so we could pay for the subway and any food we may want on the way. All was going well; I could choose my language, enter my PIN code, the amount I desired and then I got the message "Please take out your card". Nothing on the hand, right? Only, there was no money. Nothing came out. So I tried again, hoping it was a machine blooper. The second time I tried I got a red flashing message that my card was deffective. WHAT?? The machine promptly spit it out and I had to let the next person go. Niels and I looked for a machine outside of the station (maybe that one bank didn't take my bank's cards?) and we found one not far away. That machine took my card in and then promptly spit it back out. Not even a welcome message. Same thing at all other banks and machines. :( Luckily my sister and her hubby were kind enough to PIN for me or I would have been up Excrement Creek without a steering apparatus.
---

Friday
So anyway, Friday night rolls around and we head out to see The Sex Pistols. Now, I admit, I am not a fan. Not because I don't like their music but because I never bothered to listen. For pure cult/punk/whatever you want to call it reasons, however, we all felt we should (at the very least) go and watch. I can safely say that I wasn't mssing anything all these years. I fully realize that Johnny Rotten is out to provoke people, get a rise out of them and that he's meant to be controversial but this was just a joke. "Who here thinks George Bush should be eeeeee-rrrrraised* ( *not a spelling error on my part, that's how he said it)?" said Rotten on several, drawn out and, quite frankly, boring occassions. Gimme a break. Is that ground-breaking? Everyone takes a jab at Bush these days. Where's the cutting edge? Or was that when he dropped trou to reveal Union Jack boxers? Was that the controversial part? You're trying too hard, mate.

So we left the Pistols and headed to the Converse tent where Danko Jones would be performing. He started relatively on time but I was so tired (from doing nothing all day? from the heat?) that the lights they shone onto the crowd all the time, making me close my eyes, were pointing out that it was getting harder and harder to open them again. So, after four or five songs, I called it a night and crept back into my tent.

Saturday
Róisín Murphy - Didn't catch too much of this as I was trying to find Jenn and Niels who were not on the spot we always stood on so instead of standing there like a yo-yo on my own I went to eat something. Sounded okay. Jenn loved it.

Serj Tankian - We had this on as a sort of background music while we stood at the bar and drank. He was wearing a white top hat and long white overcoat. Looked pretty cool. The sky was ominous and fit right in with all the storm warnings we'd gotten the day before. By the time R.E.M. started, however, the clouds were all gone and the sky was crystal clear.

Listening to Serj and enjoying a drink. Sisters and brothers.

The ominous sky that turned out to be not so ominous after all.
Jenn trying to make her slushy a little bit easier to drink by melting it a bit. Was difficult as we were kind of cold from the drop in temperature. Probably not the best time to drink slushies, in retrospect.

R.E.M. - Quite possibly my favourite act of the festival. Michael Stipe was all energy, they played some fantastic oldies (Losing My Religion, Immitation of Life, What's the Frequency Kenneth, It's The End of the World As We Know It and Man In The Moon). I loved hearing the entire crowd singing along for the better known ones and I really liked hearing their new stuff. Much more like the old - upbeat, fun to dance to and, once you know the words, you can sing right along.

Sunday
Our last festival day.

Pendulum Live (AUS) cancelled so we had an afternoon free all of a sudden. We grabbed an early dinner at the Curry and Rice tent (which I wish we'd found earlier in the week - I actually ate spicey food ... and liked it!), I picked up my mobile phone from the free phone charging booth for the fourth time that week and we headed to the Blikk tent to see Piknik Park, a Linkin Park cover band. And damn were they ever good! If you closed your eyes it was almost like you were hearing the real thing. And then they went and spoke Hungarian in between songs and the spell was temporarily broken. Still, a damn good show.

Steffie and Werner (Viking Werner, complete with braids) at the Curry and Rice tent
Me and Niels at the Curry and Rice tent (and Jenn's finger getting in a sneaky squeeze)

Since there were no Main Stage bands we wanted to see anymore we headed back to the Converse tent where two Dutch talents were playing that night - Moke and Voicst. We watched the beginning of Moke in the tent and then went outside to sit on the grass to listen to the rest. They were pretty good. I especially like the song they started with (something about the road being closed or something, I forget the words and can't find the song anywhere).

We had a good laugh when a Dutch guy asked some Hungarian guys near us how to ask someone if they were interested in having sex in Hungarian and he realized that he was surrounded by nothing but Dutch and Belgian people. The Hungarian guys then proceeded to tell us how to say and pronounce different things. Honestly, that language doesn't sound like anything. Then we had fun with Werner's mini flashlight while listening to Voicst (also from outside). They were very good.

We were going to stay up and check out Justice but we were all too tired and agreed that a drink at the tents would be a much better idea. Which we then did before an early night's sleep.

Coming up ... breaking up camp and heading into the city ...

Sziget Logs - Part II

August 13th and August 14th

My favourite thing about the Sziget festival is that it's basically camping with background music. All day long there is music coming from somewhere and, since the campsite is on the festival site and not seperate from it like most other festivals, you are always surrounded by sound.

We accidentally found the perfect camping spot the first year we went (2003 - Joanne, Jenn and Emma) and we have put our tent there every time after (2005 - Joanne, Jennifer, Niels and Carol and now 2008 - Joanne, Jennifer, Niels, Werner and Steffie). The spot we found was across the road from the Szupermarket and the showers and it's behind the Afro-Latin World stage and tents. I've marked it on the map with an X, you should be able to see it if you click on the image to enlarge.

Camping there is ideal because you get the shade of the trees and you're near all the things you'll need when you're not on the main festival area. Namely, breakfast and coffee. Also, the Afro-Latin World area has a cocktail bar, dance classes, fans with mist coming out of them (very necessary in the heat) and is just generally a fun place to be.

A thing every Sziget goer (or Islander, as we get called there) learns is that there is no point getting girly about staying clean. It is impossible. The island is one giant dust lump and you get covered in it head to toe. Seriously, you get visibly dirty elbow pits. It gets everywhere. You may think you are really tanned but you aren't. We always bring wipes and try to maintain a bit of hygene but it's futile, really. Best thing to do is embrace the Lord of the Flies-ness of it and go with the flow. Sziget is not a place where you should get wound up about anything, especially not the state of your nails.

Exhibit A

It may seem like there isn't a lot going on during the day before the Main Stage acts start but that couldn't be further from the truth. There are rugby matches, dance classes, massages, language courses, bungee jumps, obstacle courses, climbing walls, chill out zones, stalls where you can shop and food stands like nobody's business. During the day is when the real party animals sleep and the rest relax, poke around or shop. Some people even leave the island and do the tourist thing in Budapest. We like to chill out, read a book, do a puzzle, play some cards or chit chat.

Sistahs.
Jenn and Steffie at the cocktail tent in Afro-Latin World.
Me with newly purchased Emily the Strange bag.

And then the Main Stage and other tents get going and it's time to be a real Islander. As soon as the line up gets announced people are already planning who to go and see when and at what stage. Your favourite bands/artists get highlighted on the print out or circled in the Sziget booklet you get from information when you land on the island.

My choices for Wednesday were: Flogging Molly and Alanis Morisette on the Main Stage.

Flogging Molly was an experience in and of itself. What a tornado of energy and fun! I was expecting a good show but I did not expect to find myself singing along (I don't know any songs) or grinning like a fool from the first chord to the last echo as they left the stage. I certainly didn't expect to get goosebumps and emotional during a song (Whistles the Wind). I was so impressed that I Googled the lyric I could remembered in order to find the title so that I could download it from iTunes. Which I have now done. Looking back on the whole week, I would have to say that FM was definitely one of the strongest performances of all.

Alanis Morisette came after FM and I was really looking forward to seeing my 90s heroine live. I knew Jagged Little Pill backwards and forwards and Steffie, Jenn and I were hoping she would do the hidden track. Alas, it was not meant to be. But she did do an amazing rendition of Perfect, a song I really love which more than made up for it. Her voice is amazing and I really let go and blasted along to the songs I knew. I also really enjoyed the songs I didn't know - the ones from her latest album. It might be time to get back on the Alanis bandwagon. Yes, it really might be.

We didn't have any real motivation to see the bands that were playing Thursday afternoon so that became a really chilled out bunch of hours and a moment to attempt the lines at the showers. By nightfall, though, we were all looking forward to Jamiroquai and Kraak & Smaak. I think Thursday was the most disappointing day of the week.

Jamiroquai, in my mind, was going to be as much dancing fun as Flogging Molly. Jamiroquai was going to be a sing-a-long dream. Jamiroquai was not supposed to be a hard to understand show with poor energy and no momentum whatsoever. Unfortunately, that's exactly what it was. The sound was poor and it seemed they didn't have a setlist because there was a very long pause between songs which meant that the crowd was left hanging every 6 or 7 minutes. It was a crying shame because that should have been the best show all week.

Steffie and Werner at Jamiroquai

Jenn and Niels test gravity and breast support

Kraak & Smaak was another let down. Not so much for me, though, because I had never heard of them. But I had heard that they were a really fun set of DJs that got the house jumping every time they played. They were supposed to start at 11pm in the Converse Wan2 tent so right after Jamiroquai finished up we headed over. They were still soundchecking at 23:15. Shortly after that the crowd (I think it was all 6000 Dutch people that had made the trip over as K&S are Dutch themselves - an amazing amount of people given that Jenn, Emma and I were the only ones who even spoke Dutch that we encountered the first time we went to Sziget in 2003) began to start chanting and singing every single Dutch football song they could think of. All of us. In chorus. Which was pretty cool. Until 23:35 when they finally started. By that time we were so tired of waiting that we called it quits and headed to the tents. It sounded cool, but there is only so much tolerance in me (read: none) for sweaty people pushing up against me and bouncing around erraticly.

Still to come ... Friday, Saturday and Sunday (August 15 - 17) ... after I eat lunch.

(for some damn reason Blogger doesn't want to put blank lines where I want them - it's annoying me)

Sziget Logs - Part I

Right, so it's been a long time since I last blogged anything and I didn't even update about my fabulous trip to England to visit Suze, Kev and Ella.

Given that I want to update on my trip to Budapest as well, I will do a short summary of my trip to Ingleby Barwick and then do Sziget and Budapest on a (nearly) day to day basis.

Visiting the Hunton/Wilkins clan was a week and a half of bliss. Like they live around the corner and we hang out all the time, only they live across the channel and we visit on a quarter year basis (if not, more often). We spent and amazing week in London and went to see Stomp! with a few other ladies from the 30 Seconds to Mars forum. The show was outstanding and the hotel we stayed in was really too nice for scruff-pots like us. But we lived the high life for a weekend and I have loads of pictures on Facebook to peruse, should you wish to see them.

Another highlight in England was dressing up to go to the park and watch Kev and Co. do a rendition of The Hunting of the Snark. I think those pictures are my favourite of the whole weekend.

*** This picture is not one of the dress up ones - I just really like it ***

Visiting Suze and her family is one of my favourite destinations these days. Even with all of my "world travelling", her cozy place with assorted pets, husband and child are a real treat to be at and enjoy. Can't wait for my next jaunt over.


In the meantime I will have to content myself with lesser holidays like the one I just got back from:

Sziget Festival Week
(with a day of Budapest stuck on at the end)

This is Part One of ... many, I think.

I will start with the train ride to Budapest. When we were planning this trip the issue of how we would get to Hungary came up quite quickly. This would be Jenn and my third trip over to go to the festival and we had already gone by bus (22 hours and not an experience I would recommend to anyone) and by plane (one way, one and a half hours - ideal). This time, though, there were no direct flights from Amsterdam to Budapest and the ones that had a change-over were kind of expensive (plus, your luggage might not make it in the short connections times). So, after some hemming and hawing from me, we looked at train prices and possibilities. Turns out the Dutch organizers/Sziget ticket sellers also have a very good deal on a train connection to Budapest. We booked five beds in the City Night Line train and left our journey plans to the lovely people at Magyaren Travel. And they did a fabulous job.

On Monday, 11 August we took a train from Arnhem (10 mins down the road from where we are) to Vienna and changed trains there to get to Budapest Keleti (East) Station. It was a smooth ride and sleeping in the train was an interesting experience. The whole carriage was full of Sziget punters so it was a lovely atmosphere. Probably a bit of a weird one for the few lost souls simply taking the train to Vienna or Frankfurt that got random seats in and amongst us, though. We arrived at Keleti Station at approximately 1pm on Tuesday, August 12th.

From there we went straight to Óbudai-sziget (Óbudai island) where the Sziget festival is held every year. We set up tents and got changed because the difference in temperature was quite noticeable. Budapest is hot. Literally.

Train Life pictures ... On The Way Over

Me, doing a puzzle.
Niels and Jenn
I got the vodka!! And I am *so* happy about it!
Werner gets tucked into bed. And gets confused about where the ear plug goes.
Arriving in Budapest. We got the carriage with the defective door. It took five guys (including ours) to keep it open so people could get out.

Tuesday night was called Day Zero at the festival. It wasn't the official start but they already had a band lined up. Well, they had two but Laura Whatsherface wasn't very good so I won't count her. The main show Tuesday night was Iron Maiden. They were fantastic. They put on a two hour, high energy show that just pulled us all in and got us all revved up for the rest of the week. The atmosphere was phenomenal and they had a different backdrop for every song! What a way to start a festival! With old skool rockers and a bunch of nutty Hungarians who couldn't be happier to welcome them! There was a sea of Iron Maiden T-shirts and happy faces! Bring on Day One!

In Part Two ... Wednesday, August 13th and Thursday August 14th.
Stay tuned!