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

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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.
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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 ...