Portsmouth: The Intro

I felt awful on the train on the way to Portsmouth as a really nice guy helped me with my bags onto the train and he then fell asleep, waking up in Portsmouth, asking if we were at Gatwick, which we had stopped at over an hour before. If only I'd known, I would have woke up up! Poor lad. Jimmy, my boss and old manager from Temple Walkabout picked me up at the station. I was going to move into the staff house eventually but had to wait until one of the guys left so Jimmy very kindly let me crash on his couch for the two weeks until then. He took me out to show me some of the bars that everyone goes to, it's a really nice area and there's so many places to go. Tuesday I just used to organise myself, get some black shirts and jeans for work and sort out my bank account etc.

Wednesday, first shift! Having worked in other bars, as soon as you get familiar with where everything is and how to work the till system you're pretty much sorted which doesn't take too long. Slowly met everyone at work, they all seemed cool...the staff house was going to be pretty entertaining! After work on Thursday, Jimmy's to be housemate Mal who ran some other pubs/bars in Portsmouth decided that we were going for cocktails at the local restaurants and bars around Gunwharf Quays which is where my bar/club - Bar Risa and Highlight is. We started at Jamie's Kitchen which is one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants before moving across to Las Iguanas, a Latin restaurant. One of the managers from our pub, Sam, came too. Mal seriously loves his cocktails. I couldn't keep up! After this we went to Yates's, Mal's pub and then Jimmy did a Houdini and Mal decided he was off to bed so Sam and I swung by the staff house to pick everyone up and head to Tiger Tiger. Was fun meeting all the rest of the staff, night is a bit hazy but had a really good time, great introduction to Portsmouth nightlife that's for sure!

A quick run down on the staff at Risa and Highlight - Jimmy is the boss, then under him is Ty. Then there's Sam Evans, who is so lovely, and his parents have a house like something out of the O.C. Bates is the supervisor and he's heaps of fun, Shell is the only other Australian girl working at the bar, she's also really nice. Sarg works in the kitchen and on the bar and is possibly the biggest man I have ever seen but somehow manages to look like a big baby but is awesome fun. Robyn is the other full time girl apart from Shell and I who work there and she's great, we get along really well, have a lot of fun going out together. Nick is whose room I'm moving into because he's joining the army and moving to part time so he will be bunking with Sam G... Sam G is funny as, loves the women too, somehow I've become his mentor on nights out. Gabs is Shell's boyfriend and is in charge of marketing which I do every Wednesday with him. Gabs and Shell are like the mum and dad of the house. Gary and Allison are also dating and work on the weekends in the Comedy Club which is Friday and Saturday nights. Vinnie is our token gangsta and also my dance partner behind the bar and of course when we hit the town. We're getting about twenty new staff from the 15th onwards in preparation for Freshers week and of course uni going back in general so will have many more people to include soon!

Work on Friday was pretty slow and then did a double shift on Saturday so more or less slept the whole of Sunday. Starting to become nocturnal again like I was at the Walkabout. This means lots of coffees during the day and not being able to get to sleep until after one in the morning...ah the life of a full time bartender. Was a pretty typical but eventful introduction to my new job and to Portsmouth in general. Haven't even moved into the staff house yet and already experienced the boys' fascination with subjecting people to their nudity. I'm going to have to become desensitized very quickly...you have to be very careful going into the store room or freezer or any room in case one of the boys is waiting there to prank you. Good. Anyways, ready for Week Two!

Back on Track in Wimbledon and Lucy's Epic Birthday Weekend!

The air was a lot chillier in England than Croatia of course, but it felt fresh. I had had the best three weeks travelling Eastern Europe but I was definitely ready for some down time with family before heading down to Portsmouth for work on the twenty ninth. It was Lucy's 21st birthday on the weekend and was going to head down on the Friday but first I spent the week with Elspeth again in her lovely little Wimbledon house. Had a relaxing couple days catching up on sleep, healthy eating and pampering with bubble baths, hair treatments etc. Generally getting myself back on track! Finally got rid of the festival cough I'd been battling with for a week or two. On Wednesday I caught the train into London to meet up with an old friend, Stef, who I'd met on my gap year. We had lunch in Camden Town and then did a bit of market shopping. Was really nice to catch up, did a lot of reminiscing about our adventures in 2006!

On Thursday Elspeth and I went to the Antique Roadshow which was being held at the Wimbledon Stadium. I was SO excited, it's one of those English events that I've always wanted to do just to have a bit of a laugh, so because it just happened to be in Wimbledon when I was there I had to go. I loved it. Elspeth and I managed to get on camera as an expert valued some old signed photographs of Princess Diana when Will and Harry were just toddlers. It was all just so English! When the expert, an little old fat man with big rimmed glasses and a posh suit, asked the owner of the photographs where she got them, he replied to her answer, "Really? Oh that's absolutely SPLENDID!" in the most stereotypical posh English accent ever. I had to put my hand over my mouth so the camera wouldn't pick up my laughing. When this finished we had a wander to look at all the other items that were being valued, and then went to see the Wimbledon museum. It was really interesting in there, at the end we got to go and have a look at centre court as well where the score board from the final between Nadal and Djokovich was still up. It was awesome to see!

Friday I caught the tram to Beckenham Junction where I met Jackie. I was really excited for Lucy's birthday weekend, for Friday night she had organised a limo to pick us two, her boyfriend Matt, Little Lucy, her boyfriend George, and two other friends of hers and take us to the Ice Bar in London. When you arrive you line up to get a big blue hooded coat thrown over you with gloves to wear. It was amazing inside, EVERYTHING was made of ice, even the cups that you drink the cocktails out of! Each session only goes for forty minutes because it was so cold so we enjoyed a few cocktails sitting on our ice chairs and taking photos. After this we went to Oxygen Bar and Ruby Blues to dance the night away before the limo picked us up at three am to take us back to Bromley. The party only stopped when we got back as we were all dancing and going crazy in the limo on the way back. Definitely the best way to get around! Wish I could travel in a limo more often :)

For Lucy's actual birthday we went to a member's club where Penny, Jackie's cousin was a member. Here we went swimming and relaxed in the sauna and spa, Lucy was treated to a massage and manicure and then we had lunch while Lucy opened her presents. Mum, Dad, Katrina, Penny and I gave Lucy personalised number plates which she absolutely loved, I also got her a huge 21st wine glass and a ring I bought in Camden Town. Was such a nice day!

Sunday was the big family BBQ with forty guests which Jackie was having in her back garden. We had lots to do during the day, preparing food and setting up, then everyone arrived around four. Was such a fun day, had drinks and lunch and I got to catch up with so many people I hadn't seen in years, some of them I hadn't seen in around fifteen years! As the sun set with had a men vs women baseball match which was fun until Lotti threw her bat backwards after she hit the ball, nearly smashed about three people in the head before it smashed a glass out of her mum's hand. After that the game kind of died. A dance party started up again in Colin's den so we were in there for a while dancing to the classics. I think we got to bed around two in the morning....bit dusty the next day! Was such a fun weekend though, so glad I was able to go, we needed someone there representing the McGowans of course!

Monday it was time to head down to Portsmouth to start my new job! Definitely ready to settle in one place for a bit and earn some more money as funds are running fairly low!

Croatian Sunshine and Happiness

My final Eastern European destination was Croatia. We caught another overnight train through Slovakia overnight and arrived in Split around eight in the morning. It was so sunny and hot, if it weren't for the fact that we were carrying our packs around the city trying to find somewhere to stay, sweating like anything I would have embraced the heat...but we were battling. We met a really nice German guy, Leo, on the train from Budapest so when we arrived the three of us decided to find a hostel together. We managed to locate one amongst the markets so dropped off all our stuff, changed into our swimmers and headed straight for the beach. The water was AMAZING. Perfect temperature, clear, turqoise...so nice. We sun baked on the rocks in between diving into the water and just floating, enjoying the sunshine. After the festival it was great to have the chance to do some serious seaside relaxing. When we got back to the hostel we met some Australian guys who it turns out I actually had met at school about eight years ago. Small world again!

Leo, Emma and I went out to dinner to try some traditional Croatian food. We planned to head straight back after to meet the Australian boys and some other English people we met to have drinks but on the way back we stopped in the main square in the centre of the town to watch some live music. There were these little boys running up and down the main square having the time of their lives. One little boy in particular became our favourite so we started high-fiving him every time he ran down our end. He kept yelling: "Varoooooos!" every time he ran which his mum told us later means, 'For Russia' although he was not actually Russian and she had no idea where he got it from. Because this little boy was getting high-fives it seemed that all the others wanted to as well so we had about five different children running up to us high-fiving before running off again. I think we ended up staying for about an hour, and then realised we should probably get back to the others who were waiting for us. We met back up with everyone and had a few drinks before heading out. We stopped again in the main square where we watched some amazing fire twirlers and then Sam crashed the ballroom dancing number with his own, solo ninja dance, which won the whole crowd over. We went to the Fiesta Siesta hostel for drinks at the bar and met a lot of people and then we all went down to the beachside where a bunch of parties were going on. It was so much fun! Great group of people.

The next day we were feeling a bit dusty but decided we were going to get a ferry to Brac Island. We were staying at the Funky Donkey hostel and two of the guys that worked there met us at the dock and picked us up. After we dropped off our stuff we just had a lazy day on the beach, swimming and sunning and then got some amazing chicken burgers that were recommended to us by the water down in the bar area of the island. Had a really lazy night just hanging out in the common room of the hostel, and I think I went to bed around nine I was so tired! The next day we wanted to go and check out the famous Bol Beach on the other side of the island. Andy from the hostel took Emma, Leo and myself first to a five metre jump rock where we spent about an hour and then drove us to the beach. The famous part of the beach is called the 'Golden Horn' and that's exactly what it looks like! The water was amazing but I still much prefer sand to rocks and the beach was unbelievably packed. I forget how lucky we are to have such beautiful beaches back home, it kind of spoils everywhere else a bit, whereas Leo who was from Germany was absolutely blown away. Still really enjoyed it though. Leo decided he wanted to stay another night and go windsurfing the next day, so Emma and I said goodbye and headed for the ferry to catch the five o'clock to Hvar.

On the ferry on the way over we met Lily, Rose and James, three friends travelling together from London. They were lots of fun and we got on really well so when we arrived in Hvar we agreed we'd try and find each other later as they had already booked an apartment and we were yet to find somewhere to stay. When you arrive anywhere in Croatia there are people everywhere holding up signs for rooms in apartments. We found a sweet little old lady offering quite a good price so we went off with her. She was tiny, and seemed really fragile, but proved us wrong firstly by chasing off a woman on a bike who asked us if we needed accommodation and secondly when she put us to shame climbing over two hundred steps to the apartment with ease, Emma and I battling behind her, collapsing when we got to the top. I did maintain we had our packs with us which is why it was so hard, but it definitely didn't get any easier over the two days we were staying there. The apartment was run by a family and we had our own room and an amazing balcony with a view of the whole harbour. After three weeks of hostels we were stoked!

We had no plans so just decided to head out and have a look around. Emma's number one plan was to find a rich European and get invited onto a boat. Down on the harbour were some of the most extravagant, luxurious, humongous boats I have ever seen! I think Emma nearly had a heart attack. After we looked around we chose a really nice Italian restaurant in the main square. Now when Australian girls joke around and laugh with friends it does NOT mean that they are keen and are out for a bit of action, however Croatians do not see this behaviour as friendly banter. When Emma asked the waiter if he had a boat he definitely took it the wrong way. I was told I wasn't allowed to come, only Emma, and for the rest of the night he kept coming over asking how Emma's night was going and how her meal was. I just sat back and enjoyed how creeped out she continued to get the more times he came over. A man sat down next to our table and was dining alone and so we eventually got into a conversation with him. He was French and had been on a holiday with his boyfriend and his boyfriend's twin but they had had a massive falling out because he said it felt like he was dating both of them instead of just one of them so he was now holidaying alone. He thought Emma's situation with the waiter was hilarious, and proceeded to explain to us this misconception of Australian girls and how they appear to be easy due to our friendly and chatty nature. Emma then decided she would have to me much more selective and tactful in finding someone with a boat. Afterwards we had a few drinks and enjoyed watching the old seedy, rich European men parade their twenty something show pony trophy girlfriends, chatted with some locals but then decided to call it a night. We battled up the stairs of doom and collapsed happily into our beds in our own quiet room!

Spent the next day relaxing, swimming and sunbathing, of course, and then made our way over to one of the seaside bars for lunch. These American guys kind of butted right into our conversation obviously trying to chat us up which it seemed they were doing to anything in a bikini, but we were nice and spoke to them for a bit. They were just embarrassing, arrogant Americans who seem to think slagging off Australia was the best way to chat us up. Hmmm.... Luckily we spotted Lily, Rose and James, our English friends from the ferry so went over and set up our towels and everything with them. Had a nice afternoon lying around and swimming then planned to head back to our apartments and meet around eleven at one of the bars to celebrate Lily's birthday.

Back at our apartment some really nice Aussie and Kiwi girls and guys were staying in the other rooms so we had dinner and drinks with them and took them with us to meet up with Lily, Rose and James. Hit a number of the different bars along the harbour and also ran into Rob and Sam who I knew from home that we met in Split. The real party however, came after two am, when all the bars on the harbour close and everyone hops on a little ferry and gets taken across the water to Carpa Diem Island where there is a massive club in the forest. It was just the coolest thing, it was like being in a sort of beachside jungle with the canopies lit up with fairy lights and everything else lit up with all different colours, there was glitter and smoke in the air, a massive swimming pool which everyone could get in next to the DJ booth and all the bars were made out of wood. There was also tiki poles everywhere lit up with fire. The music was really good too, we had so much fun dancing away until around six thirty in the morning. All the Sail Croatia people were there too so it was packed!

Not much happened the next day other than having to make our one forty five ferry back to Split. We went back to the same hostel and just got some food and watched TV. We met two Australian guys who it turned out were on my flight back to England the next day and they were planning on heading out so asked if I could get them up the next morning so they'd make it to the airport. Because there was going to be three of us we organised with the girl working at the hostel to get a taxi to the airport which would be fifty kuna each. However when it came to the next morning I definitely wished I'd just organised to get to the airport by myself. One of the boys, Beau wasn't even in his bed, and Nathan took me about four attempts to wake up. We did find Beau who had fallen asleep in the common room, Emma and I tried to get him up but all he did was sit up, spit on the floor and then collapse back on the couch again. I was seriously about to leave by myself when Nathan managed to get Beau up and out the door. They were both definitely still drunk, I actually felt embarrassed to be associated with them as they were being so revolting and rude in the back of the cab and I could tell that the cab driver just thought they were arrogant, obnoxious, bogan Australians, which they were. It was alright to have someone to talk to whilst waiting for the plane but as soon as we got to Gatwick I parted ways...see ya MATE. And of course thanks Croatia it was fun!

Life as a Gypsy - Sziget Festival in Hungary

And so the the epic adventure begins...with no tickets or a tent we set off with Adam from the hostel to Sziget Festival, which was held on an island about twenty minutes up past the city by train. We did plan to buy a tent before we went in, but we couldn't find one anywhere. Then instead of buying the normal official tickets from the ticket office, we bought staff/crew/artist bands off people along the street for half the price. Just hoped that they were legit, which they were, so straight in we went ahead of the lines. Too easy. Adam said we could share his tent so that we did. Effie and Phoebe came in too but they were only going to stay for the night. After we set up camp we got some food and drinks and sat near the main stage taking it all in. This place was absolutely massive! The first night was unreal as Prince played to officially open the festival. I ran into Tom and Joe our friends from Aus that we met in Miami so we had an awesome night drinking buckets and swaying along to 'Purple Rain' and getting our groove on to 'Kiss'. Emma lost her shoes, which became the beginning of an entirely bare foot week for Emma. I think she became widely infamous as the girl with the dirty gypsy feet. Delightful right?

The next day Emma, Adam and I decided to go for a big wander and check out the whole festival site. Had a look at the markets, different music stages, watched someone bungy jump and then cause we had the staff/crew/artist bands we were allowed into the VIP camping area so went for a swim in the pool and then sat in the sunshine enjoying the atmosphere. After this we went for another wander and on this delightful stroll through the festival Emma very kindly stopped to tell a guy that his back was burning and he should probably think about putting some sunscreen off. This is how we met the Irish. This is where the madness begins. Spent a silly afternoon in the sunshine dancing, rolling around in the grass and running around with our new ten Irish family members. This is the only night that we didn't actually pay much attention to who was performing on stage as we were just having too much fun running around like a bunch of crazies. Craig went bungy jumping and hit his head, meanwhile Karen who watched on called the ambulance...in Ireland. Didn't work unfortunately. Probably a good thing, and Craig was fine! The Irish stole some chairs and tables for their campsite which we called The Kitchen, so after the music finished on the main stage we went and had a party at our campsite.

The next day we moved all our stuff over to the Irish campsite, we didn't mean to leave Adam but he was off with some of the other staff anyway and the Irish were staying in an area which had a much better vibe and was a lot more central to where everything was happening. Had a pretty lazy day hanging out in the kitchen before. Around two we headed over to the Reggae tent which was going off! Everyone was jumping around in the dirt while the Rastafarian DJ played the most amazing mixture of beats. We met two wonderful people Maria and David from Holland who joined our little party.

Around four we headed over for La Roux which I've never been much of a fan of but we found a spot near the sound tent and stayed for her set, after this was Good Charlotte. Considering I'm not a fan of their music I thought they absolutely rocked! There were a few songs that I forgot they sang and it actually brought back a lot of memories, I know I'll probably get paid out for enjoying them by everyone I tell I enjoyed it but whatever, if they had been there I'm sure they'd of loved it too! 'Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous' went absolutely off. Mary and I jumped around like lunatics for the entire song. Was exhausted afterwards! The next band was one of my favourite bands who are absolutely unreal live, and they definitely didn't disappoint this time round. Kasabian completely took over the night and I jumped and sang and screamed through the whole set with the thousands of other rock fans around me. I love those moments at a festival or listening to one of your favourite bands at a concert where you just have that moment of pure love for the music and feel so lucky to be there and be alive. Kasabian's song 'Fire' is one of those songs that makes me feel this way, I could watch them play a million times over! The Chemical Brother's played after who are also always fanastic to see. IN between sets there was a stage bar that played really good music so we'd go there each time. These two guys had a huge Australian flag so naturally I took it and ran around waving it all over the place. I did then get caught up in it somehow so decided it was probably a good idea to give it back. After The Chemical Brothers finished we, once again, ended up back at The Kitchen, talking about God knows what until the early hours in the morning. Great night.

The following night Dizzy Rascal and The Prodigy played. Like Kasabian, I was looking forward to The Prodigy all week as I hadn't seen them before. Dizzy Rascal is always fun but I after seeing him perform in Sydney I was kind of disappointed with his set at Sziget. All his songs sounded the same, he didn't put much diversity in his performance. While we still had a good time it didn't really stand out as one of the top performances. The Prodigy, however, were absolutely insane! It made everyone go crazy! 'Invaders Must Die' was one of the most intense festival experiences I've ever had, I was so blown away by how nuts everyone went, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be afraid, so I just got involved and went mental, jumping like a lunatic along with everyone around me. This night back at The Kitchen was probably my favourite, Laura, Craig and Fiona got dressed up in their 'goblin suits' and went off to reak havoc so I went with them. We were sitting on the road next to a long black fence just across from the Blues Tent where we first met the Irish. Behind this fence was all the alcohol stock for all the bars. There was a gap in the fence which was named Diagon Alley, and basically Craig and Laura would look to see if the security guards were watching, then ninja roll backwards into Diagon Alley and then emerge a couple seconds later with slabs of beer and run off into the darkness. Either the security just didn't care, or you can really get away with more when you're a goblin, because they took so much beer and I swear security watched them do the whole thing. After destroying the local forest, terrorising local workers and partaking in general goblin tomfoolery we went back to the campsite as the sun was coming up. Tried to get some sleep but its just so hard in a broken, overcrowded tent with nothing but rocks to sleep on! I think I got a few hours in...

The next day we decided to have an activities day as we were all feeling a bit fragile and decided this was the best way to take our minds off of the fact that we felt fairly average. We went to check out the Abilities Arena which was an area set up at the festival that had all these different games and activities where you got to see what it was like to do different things as if you had a disability. For example they had a wheelchair course that you had to navigate your way around, going uphill is very difficult! My favourite was the blind game where it was set up like a crime scene and you had to go into this pitch black room and find different items then try and get out by finding the phone and dialling the right number, all without vision. We were there for an hour or two before going to check out the free hairbrading and massage, dress ups area and the Hungarian Circus. There was so much to do!
Kate Nash played on the main stage so we went to watch her. I don't really like her music, find it too angry, but there was a guy in the crowd who had 'Marry Me Kate' on his chest and she kept talking to him and about it throughout her set until eventually everyone crowd surfed him forward and threw him over the barrier onto the stage. Security went to kick him off but Kate told them to let him stay so he laid suggestively infront of her piano and she sang to him. Was funny though cause she was trying to sing but couldn't stop laughing. We were all loving it and cheering him on. Best moment of his life! Even got a kiss on the cheek at the end :) The Kaiser Chiefs played after they were heaps of fun. The lead singer is mental, went running through the crowd and acting like a crazy on stage. Was really awesome I had so much fun dancing around with the Irish to their music.

I spent the last day of the festival with Tom and Joe from Tasmania at the Kareoke Bar. Tom actually has a really good voice so we got him up there to sing a bit of Backstreet Boys and then ACDC. By sunset I was exhausted and managed to make it to Kid Cudi but then decided I really needed to sleep! That was at about nine am, but then I was woken from slumber by Laura who came tumbling into the tent screaming: "Dani! You have to come see this! They're stealing everything! The Dutch have gone crazy!" I got out of the tent to watch hundreds of people walking down the road carrying tree branches, fences, tents, lilos, urinals, pretty much anything they could find and taking it all into this DJ tent where some Dutch DJ was performing. Apparently every time he plays anywhere the fans steal anything they can and take it to his set. We thought it was amazing so we all grabbed some trees branches from the forest and joined the crowds of people inside. It was like a big canopy of trees inside there was so much wildlife, people were getting crowd surfed in tents and on lilos, there was a human sling shot flinging people through the crowd, someone even walked past with a dog above their head. It was mental. This crazy Dutchman came running up to us yelling: "We have no trees left in Holland! This DJ, he play so much, all our trees are gone!" The music itself sounded like...circus music mixed with Pac Man. Definitely added to how strange the whole thing was, but it was awesome, and the best act to see last at Sziget Festival!

We got out of there pretty quickly on Tuesday morning, apart from feeling like I'd probably knocked a good few years of my life due to the lifestyle I had been living in the past week, I was really sad to go. It was definitely the best festival I've ever been to, Europeans are crazy. Huge travel highlight thus far, maybe one day I'll get to go back, but in the meantime I knew it was time to get back to reality!

Stefano's Website

http://www.chalangproject.com/home_eng.html

While we were in Budapest Stefano showed us his website which show cases a number of amazing images with an interesting concept that he and his friends set up. I think its unreal, so have a look!

Happy Hippy Life in Budapest

After a much better train ride overnight due to being able to lie down and sleep we arrived in Budapest around 8am. We'd booked into the Backpack Guesthouse which was recommended by some Australians we'd met in Prague so caught the bus to our new temporary home. We liked the hostel straight away. It was like a little hippie mismatch tree house hostel, with people from all over the world just relaxing, cooking, chatting and hanging out together. All the walls are painted with different pictures and nice quotes, there was memorabilia from all over the world in between hundreds of photographs of the adventures of people who'd stayed there. Straight away we made friends with some English girls, Effie and Phoebe from Brighton, an American guy called Heath from Florida and the most entertaining Italian man I've ever met - Stefano. We also got to know some of the staff, Adam from Sydney, Simon from Portsmouth and Casper from Denmark.

We spent the day chilling out in the garden before heading to some of the Hungarian baths to enjoy the sunshine. After the initial shock of the many naked women wandering around the change rooms, some that we would have been better off never seeing, we enjoyed a beautiful sunny afternoon swimming in all the different pools and saunas. Stefano was hilarious, I think it was the way he tells stories in English in his Italian accent, he just had the funniest way of explaining things to us as his English isn't very good. For example, he informed us that he thought the English word mystical wasn't dramatic and romantic enough so he made up his own word - Mystificate. He then went on to tell us as he swam lazily through the water that when he dies he wants to "Drown in Mystiiiificate Wine!" Standard Italian...soo dramatic :) Love it.

We had a really nice evening and all cooked a vegie stir fry together and drank wine. The hostel puts out a communal shiesha for everyone so we sat around than with our wine and chatted, meeting so many people from all over the world. One of the guys from Israel was making everyone flowers, hats and dogs out of balloons while a girl from Montreal played us some tunes on the guitar. We were just so relaxed, what a great place to be.

Our second day in Budapest, Heath, Phoebe, Effie, Emma and I headed into the city to have a look around. It was full of some really amazing buildings, especially the parliament buildings and churches. We were told that we MUST go to the Hummus Bar for lunch so that's exactly what we did. We ordered a falafel and hummus dish with chick pees, beans and spices. SO. MUCH. HUMMUS! But it was delicious so we could tell why everyone raved about it. Definitely could have shared one between two though and felt a bit sick afterwards :) Had a wander down the river after lunch and found all these old iron shoes decorated along the edge of the water. They were supposed to represent and remember the Jewish victims in World War II, and we were surprisingly all quite emotionally affected by its simplicity but also how beautiful the artwork seemed. Took a lot of photos.

The guys at the hostel also suggested that we check out one of the Hungarian tea houses. We found one via directions from a local and entered through a tiny wooden door through a stone wall into what looked like Neverland.  The place was unreal, and definitely looked like Peter Pan and the lost boys' home. We ordered some tea and sat in our little tree house world with pillows and some Angus and Julia Stone playing in the background! The tea was so good, I had a strawberry cleansing one which came out bright red, quite sour actually but really delicious. We sat there for ages, what a cool chiller city Budapest was!

Our little bubble of hippy splendour was momentarily popped when we boarded the tram to get back to the hostel without tickets as the machine was broken. Of course the ticket inspectors got on and instantly tried to fine us. A ticket for public transport is three hundred and twenty forent, but a fine is six thousand. They made us all get off and we sat there arguing with him for a good ten minutes before we managed to put the price down so that we'd back twelve thousand between five of us instead of six thousand each. We nearly did a runner after he admitted that he would not be able to catch us, but after this the whole thing just became a big joke and while we paid him we left in alright spirits....the dodgy guy definitely just pocketed the money as he didn't fill out a report or give us an official ticket...whatever. Heath's stare down with him was worth the money!

We had a similar night to the previous night just cooking together, relaxing, swapping travel stories. We were also trying to decide whether we were going to travel down through Slovakia to Croatia next or go to the Sziget Festival which was a week long festival on an island outside the city in Budapest. By the end of the night we decided we were going to brave the week long extravaganza, so got an early-ish night to prepare for the monstrosity of a week that lay ahead. Nervous!