sziget 2009
Me and my b/f went to the Sziget festival in Hungary which took place from the 10th until the 17th of august. From The Hague to Budapest, we had to drive for almost 1500 kilometers and we’d travel this distance by car. Which was a bad idea at the end of the trip, but more about that later.
Germany’s bigger than we thought it was. It seemed like it never ended, we even had to spend the night somewhere in a little village called Kist. Luckily the pension we found had one room left, and we had a good night rest. Nice and cosy, and I really liked the smell of the towels they had there. Fresh and clean. Nice.
The next day we continued our journey to the east of Europe. And finally we crossed the border from Germany to Austria. We spend the night there in Vienna. Very nice city, I wish the shops weren’t closed when we got there but oh well. After Vienna we only had to travel for a few hundred kilometers to reach Budapest. We arrived there somewhere in the afternoon and checked in at the cheap hotel we booked before on the internet.
I was really happy that we had a hotel instead of camping at the festival. Because I really hate camping and we decided we’d never ever go camping again hehe. Anyway.
Good food and Aquaworld
We wanted to try some Hungarian cuisine that day, and I found a card from a nice looking restaurant at the hotel’s reception. So we decided to let Tom Tom be our guide to that place. The traffic in Budapest is crazy. People are driving here as if their lives aren’t worth anything and they don’t care about rules. I don’t get it. Glad my b/f drove the car here because I really couldn’t do this. Anyway. We arrived at the wrong restaurant. But that wasn’t such a disaster, because this restaurant called Fanyuvo was a nice little place where they serve great food! Their Dubarry Chicken Breast and Forest Mushroom Soup was delicious, and I really enjoyed my desert too! Perfectly thin pancakes with cocoa and warm vanilla sauce, yummm! And it was cheap too. Great place. We enjoyed our first dinner, so far so good.
The next day we went to Aquaworld, a big swimmingpool. Time for some freshness! It was really hot in Budapest, at some days it would be 32 degrees celcius! Aquaworld was fun. It’s a very modern pool with a lot of different slides and I enjoyed two very nice hot water bubble tubs.
Time for Sziget!
So finally, the next day it was time for Sziget. We were getting fried when we were standing in line to exchange our tickets for a wristband, it was so hot that day. We saw a lot of bands and enjoyed a lot of beer and cocktails. The festival was great. I’ve never been to such a big festival, you can do all kinds of things there too. Pottery baking (I really wanted to do that, but it was so hot and I didn’t want to get that dirty haha), for example. The partying never ended, the festival was open 24 hours a day all week long. And you could camp your tent anywhere, so different than any other festival I visited.
We saw the Subways, Editors, Manic Street Preachers, Pendulum, Prodigy, Offspring, Turbonegro, Klaxons, I am X, Nouvelle Vague, Ska-P, Oi Va Voi, Vive la Vete, Deathstars, Maximo Park, and The Notwist.
The sickness
The last night of Sziget, we were discussing wether we’d check out Life of Agony or not. We decided we were too tired, and we don’t really like Life of Agony THAT much, so we went to the hotel. Which was a good choice. Because after I slept for an hour, I woke up sick. So glad we didn’t camp there, because I had to throw up and go to the toilet all night long and I couldn’t get my rest anymore. I felt empty and terrible.
Normally I feel very relieved when I get rid of my stomach contents. All the bad stuff is out and gone and stuff. But not this time. I felt weak and every muscle in my body was very sensitive and hurt when you touched it. I tried to move my body to the car because my b/f would drive us to a hospital, but it was one of the hardest things I had to do that day (next to the anal examination and the smell of mushy unrecognizable food from an old woman lying next to me) because I felt so weak and powerless. I thought that my body would stop working and that I’d just die that day.
The hospital
Luckily Tom Tom brought us at the hospital, but we had to find the right entrance for ourselves. The Hungarian language is a weird language. I don’t understand anything of it. Every sign at the complex the hospital was, was in Hungarian. Of course. After a minute of walking around like aliens on an unknown planet, we saw a man. No speak English. Oh my God. He saw that I was holding my stomach and that I was in a lot of pain, and he sent us to a building a few meters right from us in his alien language. The receptionist from that hospital department sent us to the third floor from the hospital, in the same alien language.
We found an English speaking doctor there, and we found out that the man outside had send us to the baby department of the hospital. He probably thought I was pregnant or something. Hmmz. I don’t even look that fat now do I. Anyway. The doctor, who was a gynaecologist, brought us to the right building where they examined me.
A wheelchair, a male nurse with the bluest eyes ever, two not so modern hospital beds, three examinations and a few hours later, a doctor told me they had to move me to another hospital. They’d move me with an ambulance. So after one and a half hour, (I don’t know why, but they kept me waiting a lot for a long time that day!!!) they finally came and got me for the ambulance.
Trent Reznor
Two men arrived and one of them looked like Trent Reznor. The one that looked like Trent Reznor didn’t speak any English. The other one, let’s just call him John, perhaps had an English vocabulary of two words (’hello’ and ‘come’). They led me and my b/f to the ambulance, were a big fat driver was waiting for us. I felt like I was in a James Bond movie or something when we were driving through Budapest. The drive seemed like a chase and we were driving like crazy, while the driver and John were checking out hot chicks and honking at them. Trent Reznor was sitting with me and my b/f, just sitting there, drinking his cherry coke and being a Trent Reznor look a like.
No speak English
We finally arrived after half an hour, and I had to walk upstairs to the first floor. We asked if there was an elevator, because I was exhausted, but John’s English vocabulary couldn’t help him formulate an answer in English, so I believe John made gestures to me that said “it’s just one floor up, stop being such a cry baby, stupid tourist”, so I just climbed the stairs slowly.
A nurse came up to us while we took a seat in the waiting area (just some old chairs in the hallway). I believe she asked me if I could walk, because of the gestures she made. But when she found out I couldn’t speak Hungarian and she couldn’t understand any English, she just let me walk. Well, fine. People aren’t willing to do anything for you when you don’t speak Hungarian there. Nice.
IV therapy
They put me on IV therapy and I also had to stay there for the night. I felt terrible. My b/f couldn’t stay, he had to pick up the car at the other hospital, and he had to stay in the hotel 20 kilometers from the hospital at the other side of Budapest. I felt so alone. Only the doctors speak English, the rest of the hospital (the patients, the nurses, the cleaners, EVERYONE ELSE!!!) only speaks Hungarian. Luckily I was lying next to a woman who was also able to speak German. She was the only one I could kinda communicate with.
No speak English again aaaaah
The next morning I wanted to take a shower. I heard some knocking on my door while I was standing naked next to the shower. I opened the door while I wrapped myself up in a towel. It was the cleaning lady. She instantly started to speak Hungarian to me while making a lot of hand gestures. I said I’m sorry, do you speak English. It was silent for a moment. And then the lady started rolling her eyes and sighing and I could just feel how annoyed she was! Argh. That’s it. I pointed at her buckets and the bathroom, and she nodded. She wanted to clean the bathroom. Great. I moved my naked self to my room and let her clean the bathroom. At least I could shower in a clean bathroom when she’s done. Hmm.
Breakfast
My breakfast at the hospital was very poor. I believe people in prison get better food than I got. I only got three buns of bread (luckily I still have all my teeth so I could actually chew the bread with the rough exterior..) and a slice of cheap ham. I don’t even eat ham. And even if I did, what am I supposed to do with the other two buns of bread, I only got one slice of ham? Weird!
Released!
Luckily after a doctor’s check, I could go. Finally. I was released from the hospital. I couldn’t wait to go home. Go to the Netherlands. Where people understand what I’m saying, where I get a decent breakfast, and my mom.
We left Budapest as soon as possible, and it sucked so much that we still have to drive for a long time. This was when I really regret going by car. After we stayed in a little hotel in St. Valentin in Austria, we continued our journey to the Netherlands. We still had to drive for 1000 kilometers. Unfortunately I experienced 800 kilometers with bad stomach cramps. At these times I wonder why I deserve this.
Finally we arrived home at seven o’clock in the evening. After a doctor’s check, a painkiller and a good night sleep, I still felt terrible and weak and dizzy. But at least my cramps were gone.
Goodbye Hungary.
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