Budapest and the Sziget Festival

In August I went to my first overseas music festival. I did 5 years of the V festival in Stafford from 2007 to 2011 and decided that was enough for me, and I would not come out of festival "retirement" for love nor money. However, the lure of Sziget in Budapest, Hungary was too much - the combination of a line up including one of my favourite bands Skunk Anansie with the option to hostel rather than camp, in a new country - was too much.

I went to Sziget with my friends Gemma and Dawn. We chose to stay at the Sziget Hostel as it was advertised as being 10 minutes walk from the hostel site and seemed that it would be full of people going to the festival, so we were hoping for a good atmosphere and more comfort that we'd have got in a tent!

Sziget Hostel was fine, but it was a shock! It's only used for festival accommodation for 1 week of the year and the rest of the time it's used as cheap student accommodation. There was a garden but otherwise no real communal areas, and although there was a kitchen there were no pots and pans, plates or cutlery etc and obviously we hadn't brought our own! The lack of air con was horrible in the 40 degree plus heat, and with no option to hire a fan we were permanently sweaty! Communal bathrooms with only 3 out of the 10 showers on our floor having curtains made washing an interesting experience (I didn't anticipate seeing any naked men - or women - that week, but thanks to the showers I certainly did!) and it was definitely the most basic place I've ever stayed... and I've stayed in some basic places in my time!

Despite the shock of the accommodation we were determined to have a great time and as we arrived the day before the festival started we dumped our bags and headed straight into the centre of Budapest for a few welcome drinks. The city was around 15 minutes in a taxi or 40 minutes of walking and getting the train, but as prices are much lower in Hungary we were happy to pay for the journey as well as several beers and a meal!

The next morning we headed over to Sziget island for day 1 of the 5 day festival. It was actually a 20 minute walk so a couple of days out of the five we took a hungover taxi ride instead! Once there, the festival was amazing. As well as the main stage there were several tented arenas, smaller stages and "ruin" bars to dance the night away in. We were there until around 5am most nights, and it was a really fun, laid back, inclusive vibe with all sorts of different people from all over Europe and the world. I was ruined, but it was worth it!

As well as pickling our livers we were determined to see some of Budapest too. We spend several amazing chilled out hours at the Szechenyi Thermal Baths and Spa which was much needed after the excesses of Sziget! We also took an open top bus tour of the city (I LOVE a good open top bus tour!) as we had a festival-free day at the end of our stay. Budapest is a great, beautiful city and I'd definitely go back. I'd go back to Sziget too for sure, but I have the festival bug back and want to do more new ones before that! Next up, Glastonbury (tickets go on sale next Saturday - fingers crossed!)

 Budapest (above) and Sziget (below) highlights!