Monday July 13 - Thursday July 16
Didn't do much, just caught up on washing, blog, emails etc and met Goran for drinks. We talked Shelley into Eastern Europe and she flew to Budapest Monday and due to get a train to Belgrade to meet us for the weekend.
Friday July 17
Went to the train station to meet Shelley. It's so hot in Serbia atm, mid thirties and humid so while we waited for Shelley we sat in the shade and had a few beers.
When she arrived we went and finally checked out Kalmegden Fortess during the day, it was pretty cool.
That night we went down to the ? Tavern and had a really good feed before heading back to the hostel so Shelley could be soft as pass out in a bean bag. Steve and I decided to go out anyway and we hit up the clubs on boats that we'd missed last time we were here. They would definitely be in full swing.
We visited 3 clubs, the drinks were really expensive for Serbia so we didn't drink that much. The music was fairly commercial but we had a nice night out before heading home around 4am.
Saturday July 18
We took Shelley to the place we got our tatts at so she could get her boyfriend's birth date tattooed for his birthday. Steve got 2 more ear piercings. Shelley got filmed and interviewed for a news show the following day - they were doing a feature on the studio.
After Shelley's tatt was done we headed to Natasha and Goran's place. We hooked up Shelley with her first couch surf - she goes to stay with them on Monday. Natasha, Shelley, me and their Russian couch surfer all went out to their local kafala (so don't know how to spell that) and had chevapcici again (yum yum). Before we left we had rakija as an entree. We had it with the milk stuff which I actually remember the name of now - kymak. We continued drinking at Natasha and Goran's place after that. The Serbs like their drinks strong, and so we drank rakija and then vodka with just fresh lemon juice. The Russian couch surfer had brought them a bottle of vodka.
After that we headed out to the boats again, where the 3 of us drank and chatted to locals for a while. We actually found a place that played Serbian music - it was a live band. Very cool. We headed home again around 4 or 5.
Sunday July 19
Did pretty much nothing again today. Cooked an awesome dinner of thrown together left over veges and stuff, and drank with the hostel owner. Then we headed to a cafe and drank with Damian, Andrea and Sebastijan. Damian came back to the hostel with us to keep drinking. The hostel owner got out the home made rakija. Damian stayed until I went to bed which was around 3.30-4am. We had to get up at 6.30am to get the train to Budapest, yay.
Sorry this blog post is boring Fudd :P I will try and include some boobs in the next one...
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
EXIT Festival Overview - July 7-13
Ruth highlights:
Korn, The Irish guys, the Scottish embassy, Carl Cox & Green Velvet & the dance arena in general, partying in a fortress
Steve highlights:
Korn & the Scottish embassy
Ruth disappointments:
Missing Adam Beyer vs Eric Prydz, James Zabiela vs Nic Faniciulli, leaving early on 2 of the nights.
Steve disappointments:
missing most of the 3rd night
Monday, July 13, 2009
EXIT Festival July 7 - 13
Tuesday July 7 & Wednesday July 8
We landed at Budpest Airport, Hungary on Tuesday afternoon and decided that we really wanted to live in Serbia. So we went house hunting. We had something in mind from our last visit to Hungary and we returned to see if we could make a purchase. Upon arrival we discovered the sale that was on when were in Hungary last was still on, a whopping 57% off. It seems the housing market in Europe had crashed too. We made our purchase, signed our lives away and walked away the proud owners of our first home. We couldn't wait to get to Serbia and move in.
Just because our first home happened to be a tent detracts nothing from how excited we were... Serbia here we come baby!
We then headed to the train station to see about an overnight train to Novi Sad. We were heading to EXIT a day early to get a good camp site. Upon arrival to the train station, it seemed half the population of Europe had the same idea. We lined up for an hour and a half for a ticket and secured the midnight train. We me some Maltese guys, Mat, Steve and Pablo at the station and they shouted us beers while we waited. I love being able to drink everywhere in Eastern Europe. We had about 4 hours to kill so we decided to drop in to the hostel we had stayed at when we were in Budapest last time, the Backpack Guesthouse. When we got there we found that everyone who worked there had moved on, but Kevin (and Aussie) who was working there then welcomed us with open arms and so we used the net, chatted to people in the common room and made some new friends to kill the time. It's one of the coolest hostels, we are going to stay there again when we come back before we fly to the UK.
We left Backpack and headed to the station. When we reached the platform, I nearly fell over. Holy shit, how are all these people going to fit on the train? Well the easy answer is, they didn't.
When the train finally pulled up to the platform there was a massive cheer from the crowd. Everyone scrambled to get a seat. We didn't get seats (Eastern European trains have booths, with 6-8 seat per booth). It was to be the most uncomfortable train ride in history (at least, the history of my life). What should have been a sleep in your chair job, turned into sit in the aisles, or on the toilet, or where ever you can find space job.
When the train finally got moving there was an almighty cheer from the hundreds of punters squished into the train. We knew EXIT was going to be awesome. The atmosphere was electric, and we were still 6 hours away from Novi Sad.
These pics are the door way (and I nearly fell out when border control tried to get in to stamp our passports)
We finally made it to Novi Sad - man what a long night - at 5 something in the morning. We grabbed breakfast with the guys from Malta before saying goodbye and heading to set up our new home.
After setting up we crashed out for a few hours. It had been raining so it was cool enough to sleep. When we woke our sleeping bag mats were damp. So we decided to invest in some new furniture for our home - some foam mats (the EXIT shop had camping gear, even tents!). After that we went to check things out. Whilst EXIT hadn't started yet, they had 2 music stages set up inside the camp site to keep people entertained. There was a reggae stage and another random stage which played minimal most of the times I heard it. As it had been raining and the reggae stage had some rather muddy punters in attendance, or should I say lots of dirty girls. If I describe just how dirty they were, will you keep reading the blog Fudd?
We discovered the camp site was pretty well serviced. There were portable ATMs, internet cafes, safes, mobile phone charging stations, pretty much everything we needed. But most importantly, our tent was near the beer vendor. Beer in Serbia is cheap, really cheap. But we were at a festival, so it was expensive for Serbia, but for a festival? You would never get a schooner at a festival for $3 back home. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a schooner under $3 in any pub in Melbourne (if indeed you could find a schooner).
The porta loos, were, er, well pretty unsavoury. It seems they hadn't been cleaned for a few days. We were starting to dread camping there for the next 5 days. As it turned out once the festival got under way the cleaned the regularly, lucky, because we would have thrown up if they kept that up.
The food vendors were pretty good, there was a chinese take away place that had pretty nice veal, cabbage, carrot and rice stir fry, no onion (w00t!) which I would live on for the next few days, and for Steve there was pizza, hamburgers etc, the usual festival food.
After we had a feed, downed a few beers and hung out in the "chill out" area, which was more of a beer pavilion, we headed to bed. Just after we went to bed, we heard and almighty cheer go up, which "mexican waved" around the campsite. Some louder music fired up and we knew again, EXIT was going to be awesome.
Thursday July 9 - DAY 1 - EXIT Festival
We woke once the sun came up cos god damn our tent was roasting. We were looking forward to the day, as EXIT was kicking off at last...
We went for an explore and to collect our wrist band, there were street vendors lining the streets from the camp site to the fortress (for those of you that don't know, EXIT is in a fortress) and so if you didn't feel like paying $3 for a beer, you could buy them for even less on the street. The camp site staff permitted everyone to take their own beer in too, the rules were very relaxed... AWESOME.
We headed in to see Lily Allen play main stage that night. She was good but really not as good as I was hoping.
Roots Manuva were on after and the got boring very quickly so we headed to the dance arena.
It's a little hard to tell in the photos, but this is looking down on the dance arena. There were 3 different levels of dancefloor (different platforms of the fortress).
This is the dance arena stage off to the right, the people and 3 platforms full of punters extend out to the left
We saw Reboot (Live), Lee Burridge and Steve Lawler, but left to go see some of Artic Monkeys main stage and so missed Sasha and Digweed and James Zabiela and Nic Fanciulli. When we arrived at the dance arena for Reboot, they let off several minutes of large fireworks over the crowd.
We only saw a bit of Arctic Monkeys before heading back for sleep - the tent was too hot to sleep in during the day. I woke up and heard Zabiela and Fanciulli from my tent and was really pissed for missing it - it sounded fucking awesome.
Friday July 10 - DAY 2 - EXIT Festival
It was way too hot for people to sleep in tents so everyone got their sleeping mats and crashed under trees, in the beer tent, where ever they could that was in the shade. I think I slept with my head out of the tent with the zip for the front done up around my neck so mozzies didn't get in. It was not raining and very hot. Still annoyed about missing Z&F.
We met some cool Irish guys and headed down to the 'beach' with them. The beach was an artificial beach created on the banks of the Danube. We took our sleeping mats so we could doze in the shade if we wanted to. We drank beer all day and Steve crashed eventually while I stayed up drinking.
That night we went out and it was uber cold. We were wearing shorts and so when it got cold we found it rather bad. We saw all of Korn's set, which was awesome, one of the highlights of the festival for us.
It rained the whole time, Korn was playing so our jumpers got wet and the wind cut straight through us. We saw the start of Andy C - there were 2 DnB sets after the bands finished on main stage each night, as a warm up for people to transition to the dance arena (main arena closed at 4am). We crossed over to the dance arena to see Richie Hawtin vs Dubfire, but alas, the cold got the better of us and we bailed just half an hour before they were due to start. Walking home we stopped at a pub and had a beer and thaw, and we heard some of his set and tbh (Brian & Julie: to be honest) it didn't sound that good. We continued home and got some sleep in the cold.
Saturday July 11 - DAY 3 - EXIT Festival
That night we were trying to make it down for Kraftwerk but we met up with a guy we knew from our last visit in Serbia and missed them. We watched Moby who was really good, really different to the last time I saw him. Steve was really tired and falling asleep in my lap so we called it a night really early. Missed Adam Beyer which was a bit of a bummer.
Sunday July 12 - DAY 4 - EXIT Festival
By morning I was too hot again so I moved my mat into the entry of our tent where it was cooler. During the day we caught up with some Scots we met over the course of the festival, and hung out with them at the Scottish Embassy - the only place in Eastern Europe that accepts Scottish money.
We first met one of the guys at the airport in Hungary, his bags went missing so he didn't get the night train with us but we randomly met him again at EXIT. These are the guys we spent the most time with at the festival.
We all headed in to the fortress together that night and saw Madness, then the Prodigy. The numbers at the festival that night were crazy, it seemed there were twice as many people, I'm guessing the got day passes rather than for the whole festival. It was slow going going anywhere.
Before the Prodigy ended we headed to the dance arena to watch Valentino Kanzyani & Marco Nastic
We headed to a smaller arena after that to see the guys playing psy (from the club we visited on our last trip to Serbia). Then we headed back to the dance arena and saw the end of Sander Kleinenberg and Darren Emerson's set which was way cooler than I thought it would be. I expected really commercial electro but it wasn't.
While it was still dark a guy came through the crowd dressed all in black on stilts, he had a helmet covering his face which was black, and wound around him from head to toe was a thin plastic tube of green lights. He stopped right next to us to 'perform'. He had a pack on his back and was firing a fire extinguisher (or something similiar) over everyones heads. He then let off fire works from his hands, the sort that fire short range and continuously, like a massive sparkler. We were literally right next to him and I felt the sparks on my head. It was really fucking cool. The sun started to come up and the it was time for Carl Cox & Green Velvet to start the festival closer. We met back up with the Scottish embassy again and danced with them for the next 2 hours. Steve's camera batteries died so we didn't get any pics :( It was insane tho, so packed out. Green Velvet sung La La Land live... Half way through we moved from the bottom level to the top level, so we were looking down over several packed out levels of the dance floor. Going nuts in a fortress to Carl Cox and Green Velvet was the perfect way to finish our weekend and we were glad that we'd managed to stay all night at last.
Monday July 13 - EXIT Festival is over...
We all walked back to the Scottish embassy and hung out there for the morning and kept drinking. Brody passed out and so we piled stuff on top of him so you couldn't see him anymore, then put a plum in his mouth and made him close his mouth so it stayed there by it's self. Then we put a whole tent on him and pushed the pegs into the ground, so only his head way sticking out. Of course pictures were taken but not on our camera, so alas I cannot post pics here.
We packed down our tent and got ready to leave. We decided to leave and head for Belgrade again rather than camp the extra day so we headed to the station and caught the train late afternoon. It was only a 90 minute trip but we passed out as we hadn't slept. We stumbled back to the Star Hostel to see if they had room which they did, thank god. We had a quick feed and shower (hooray a real shower!) and went to bed.
We landed at Budpest Airport, Hungary on Tuesday afternoon and decided that we really wanted to live in Serbia. So we went house hunting. We had something in mind from our last visit to Hungary and we returned to see if we could make a purchase. Upon arrival we discovered the sale that was on when were in Hungary last was still on, a whopping 57% off. It seems the housing market in Europe had crashed too. We made our purchase, signed our lives away and walked away the proud owners of our first home. We couldn't wait to get to Serbia and move in.
Just because our first home happened to be a tent detracts nothing from how excited we were... Serbia here we come baby!
We then headed to the train station to see about an overnight train to Novi Sad. We were heading to EXIT a day early to get a good camp site. Upon arrival to the train station, it seemed half the population of Europe had the same idea. We lined up for an hour and a half for a ticket and secured the midnight train. We me some Maltese guys, Mat, Steve and Pablo at the station and they shouted us beers while we waited. I love being able to drink everywhere in Eastern Europe. We had about 4 hours to kill so we decided to drop in to the hostel we had stayed at when we were in Budapest last time, the Backpack Guesthouse. When we got there we found that everyone who worked there had moved on, but Kevin (and Aussie) who was working there then welcomed us with open arms and so we used the net, chatted to people in the common room and made some new friends to kill the time. It's one of the coolest hostels, we are going to stay there again when we come back before we fly to the UK.
We left Backpack and headed to the station. When we reached the platform, I nearly fell over. Holy shit, how are all these people going to fit on the train? Well the easy answer is, they didn't.
When the train finally pulled up to the platform there was a massive cheer from the crowd. Everyone scrambled to get a seat. We didn't get seats (Eastern European trains have booths, with 6-8 seat per booth). It was to be the most uncomfortable train ride in history (at least, the history of my life). What should have been a sleep in your chair job, turned into sit in the aisles, or on the toilet, or where ever you can find space job.
When the train finally got moving there was an almighty cheer from the hundreds of punters squished into the train. We knew EXIT was going to be awesome. The atmosphere was electric, and we were still 6 hours away from Novi Sad.
These pics are the door way (and I nearly fell out when border control tried to get in to stamp our passports)
We finally made it to Novi Sad - man what a long night - at 5 something in the morning. We grabbed breakfast with the guys from Malta before saying goodbye and heading to set up our new home.
After setting up we crashed out for a few hours. It had been raining so it was cool enough to sleep. When we woke our sleeping bag mats were damp. So we decided to invest in some new furniture for our home - some foam mats (the EXIT shop had camping gear, even tents!). After that we went to check things out. Whilst EXIT hadn't started yet, they had 2 music stages set up inside the camp site to keep people entertained. There was a reggae stage and another random stage which played minimal most of the times I heard it. As it had been raining and the reggae stage had some rather muddy punters in attendance, or should I say lots of dirty girls. If I describe just how dirty they were, will you keep reading the blog Fudd?
We discovered the camp site was pretty well serviced. There were portable ATMs, internet cafes, safes, mobile phone charging stations, pretty much everything we needed. But most importantly, our tent was near the beer vendor. Beer in Serbia is cheap, really cheap. But we were at a festival, so it was expensive for Serbia, but for a festival? You would never get a schooner at a festival for $3 back home. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a schooner under $3 in any pub in Melbourne (if indeed you could find a schooner).
The porta loos, were, er, well pretty unsavoury. It seems they hadn't been cleaned for a few days. We were starting to dread camping there for the next 5 days. As it turned out once the festival got under way the cleaned the regularly, lucky, because we would have thrown up if they kept that up.
The food vendors were pretty good, there was a chinese take away place that had pretty nice veal, cabbage, carrot and rice stir fry, no onion (w00t!) which I would live on for the next few days, and for Steve there was pizza, hamburgers etc, the usual festival food.
After we had a feed, downed a few beers and hung out in the "chill out" area, which was more of a beer pavilion, we headed to bed. Just after we went to bed, we heard and almighty cheer go up, which "mexican waved" around the campsite. Some louder music fired up and we knew again, EXIT was going to be awesome.
Thursday July 9 - DAY 1 - EXIT Festival
We woke once the sun came up cos god damn our tent was roasting. We were looking forward to the day, as EXIT was kicking off at last...
We went for an explore and to collect our wrist band, there were street vendors lining the streets from the camp site to the fortress (for those of you that don't know, EXIT is in a fortress) and so if you didn't feel like paying $3 for a beer, you could buy them for even less on the street. The camp site staff permitted everyone to take their own beer in too, the rules were very relaxed... AWESOME.
We headed in to see Lily Allen play main stage that night. She was good but really not as good as I was hoping.
Roots Manuva were on after and the got boring very quickly so we headed to the dance arena.
It's a little hard to tell in the photos, but this is looking down on the dance arena. There were 3 different levels of dancefloor (different platforms of the fortress).
This is the dance arena stage off to the right, the people and 3 platforms full of punters extend out to the left
We saw Reboot (Live), Lee Burridge and Steve Lawler, but left to go see some of Artic Monkeys main stage and so missed Sasha and Digweed and James Zabiela and Nic Fanciulli. When we arrived at the dance arena for Reboot, they let off several minutes of large fireworks over the crowd.
We only saw a bit of Arctic Monkeys before heading back for sleep - the tent was too hot to sleep in during the day. I woke up and heard Zabiela and Fanciulli from my tent and was really pissed for missing it - it sounded fucking awesome.
Friday July 10 - DAY 2 - EXIT Festival
It was way too hot for people to sleep in tents so everyone got their sleeping mats and crashed under trees, in the beer tent, where ever they could that was in the shade. I think I slept with my head out of the tent with the zip for the front done up around my neck so mozzies didn't get in. It was not raining and very hot. Still annoyed about missing Z&F.
We met some cool Irish guys and headed down to the 'beach' with them. The beach was an artificial beach created on the banks of the Danube. We took our sleeping mats so we could doze in the shade if we wanted to. We drank beer all day and Steve crashed eventually while I stayed up drinking.
That night we went out and it was uber cold. We were wearing shorts and so when it got cold we found it rather bad. We saw all of Korn's set, which was awesome, one of the highlights of the festival for us.
It rained the whole time, Korn was playing so our jumpers got wet and the wind cut straight through us. We saw the start of Andy C - there were 2 DnB sets after the bands finished on main stage each night, as a warm up for people to transition to the dance arena (main arena closed at 4am). We crossed over to the dance arena to see Richie Hawtin vs Dubfire, but alas, the cold got the better of us and we bailed just half an hour before they were due to start. Walking home we stopped at a pub and had a beer and thaw, and we heard some of his set and tbh (Brian & Julie: to be honest) it didn't sound that good. We continued home and got some sleep in the cold.Saturday July 11 - DAY 3 - EXIT Festival
That night we were trying to make it down for Kraftwerk but we met up with a guy we knew from our last visit in Serbia and missed them. We watched Moby who was really good, really different to the last time I saw him. Steve was really tired and falling asleep in my lap so we called it a night really early. Missed Adam Beyer which was a bit of a bummer.
Sunday July 12 - DAY 4 - EXIT Festival
By morning I was too hot again so I moved my mat into the entry of our tent where it was cooler. During the day we caught up with some Scots we met over the course of the festival, and hung out with them at the Scottish Embassy - the only place in Eastern Europe that accepts Scottish money.
We first met one of the guys at the airport in Hungary, his bags went missing so he didn't get the night train with us but we randomly met him again at EXIT. These are the guys we spent the most time with at the festival.
We all headed in to the fortress together that night and saw Madness, then the Prodigy. The numbers at the festival that night were crazy, it seemed there were twice as many people, I'm guessing the got day passes rather than for the whole festival. It was slow going going anywhere.
Before the Prodigy ended we headed to the dance arena to watch Valentino Kanzyani & Marco Nastic
We headed to a smaller arena after that to see the guys playing psy (from the club we visited on our last trip to Serbia). Then we headed back to the dance arena and saw the end of Sander Kleinenberg and Darren Emerson's set which was way cooler than I thought it would be. I expected really commercial electro but it wasn't.While it was still dark a guy came through the crowd dressed all in black on stilts, he had a helmet covering his face which was black, and wound around him from head to toe was a thin plastic tube of green lights. He stopped right next to us to 'perform'. He had a pack on his back and was firing a fire extinguisher (or something similiar) over everyones heads. He then let off fire works from his hands, the sort that fire short range and continuously, like a massive sparkler. We were literally right next to him and I felt the sparks on my head. It was really fucking cool. The sun started to come up and the it was time for Carl Cox & Green Velvet to start the festival closer. We met back up with the Scottish embassy again and danced with them for the next 2 hours. Steve's camera batteries died so we didn't get any pics :( It was insane tho, so packed out. Green Velvet sung La La Land live... Half way through we moved from the bottom level to the top level, so we were looking down over several packed out levels of the dance floor. Going nuts in a fortress to Carl Cox and Green Velvet was the perfect way to finish our weekend and we were glad that we'd managed to stay all night at last.
Monday July 13 - EXIT Festival is over...
We all walked back to the Scottish embassy and hung out there for the morning and kept drinking. Brody passed out and so we piled stuff on top of him so you couldn't see him anymore, then put a plum in his mouth and made him close his mouth so it stayed there by it's self. Then we put a whole tent on him and pushed the pegs into the ground, so only his head way sticking out. Of course pictures were taken but not on our camera, so alas I cannot post pics here.
We packed down our tent and got ready to leave. We decided to leave and head for Belgrade again rather than camp the extra day so we headed to the station and caught the train late afternoon. It was only a 90 minute trip but we passed out as we hadn't slept. We stumbled back to the Star Hostel to see if they had room which they did, thank god. We had a quick feed and shower (hooray a real shower!) and went to bed.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Amsterdam - Nederland July 2-7
This one day, we saw, you'll never believe it, a DRAGON! Larger than life, all green and fire breathing and he came and took some large busted blonde damsels in distress from the castle turrets. The a brave knight called Steve came and rescued them with his legendary sword of death...
No, we haven't smoked too many spliffs in Amsterdam... Fuddly thought we needed to make the blog more exciting, so that one's for you buddy.
Now for the rest of the boring bits (you can go back to bed now Fudd)
Thursday July 2
We flew into Amsterdam and there had been a fire at the train station so we had to get a bus from the airport. We drove past the Amsterdam Arena where Sensation was to be held the following night. It looked much the same as the MCG on the outside. We got to the end of the bus line and got a train the rest of the way into Amsterdam Centraal. From there we paid a whopping 2.80 Euro ($5.60 Au) for a metro train ticket to go one stop. As we only had directions to our hostel on the train and we had no tourist map we had to cough up for it even though we probably could have walked. Not only was it expensive but Steve had to line up for ages to get it. We got off the train and started looking for a hostel. We stopped to look for the hostel and looked at the piece of paper the directions were written on and a stranger asked us if we needed help. We told him where we were going and he showed us. So far, Dutch people were nice it seemed.
We checked into the hostel. It was in an amazing location. Amsterdam central is full of canals and one way streets on each side of the canals. It is very bicycle friendly, not so car friendly and so there were bikes everywhere. The buildings are very pretty too, so I instantly warmed to Amsterdam. Unlike Berlin which took me a few days, Amsterdam made an immediate impact. I knew I was going to love this place.
Our hostel was the first Hostel International hostels we have used (we bought membership before we left Australia) and just this 3 day stay saved us enough that the membership was paid for. At 27 Euros a night this was the most expensive hostel we stayed in. It was the only hostel we actually booked well in advance, as Sensation was on we knew hostels would be in short supply. Shelley, Rosie and Luke booked late and couldn’t find anything less than 45 Euros each. (If you haven’t worked it out yet, double the amount to get Aussie Dollars). The hostel was a big generic hostel much like any we’ve stayed in in Western Europe. Eastern European hostels are so much better.
We had told Shelley to meet us at our hostel at 8pm (allowing 2 hours to get there from the airport) but due to the fire we were there around 9 and they had left us a note with their phone number. We called them and met up with them. Carol & Amber were in tow, some Melbourne girls living in Canberra who we had met at gig in Canberra last year (or the year before? I really can’t remember) so it was nice to see them again. We said our hellos and then parted ways with Carol & Amber to head off for a feed.
We were expecting Amsterdam to be expensive because the hostels were so expensive and boy were we right. Dinner and drinks was uber expensive and we knew we’d really struggle to keep under a hundred Euros a day for our stay. We headed to the local coffee shop for some cake. I only had a third of a piece due to the wheat content, Shelley and Rosie shared a piece and Luke had a piece to himself. We wandered around Amsterdam and looked at girls in the red light district, smelled copious amounts of weed being smoked and took in the busy Amsterdam street life. There were basically shop fronts with hookers in the windows, the most attractive ones were in the main strip and the side streets all had every size shape and colour imaginable. There were lots of places with sex shows, we all wanted to go to one but we didn't spend long enough there so we missed out. The atmosphere was positively electric. I decided yes, I really like Amsterdam.
We didn’t really go anything except wander around and take it all in, and we had Sensation on the following night (well it was tonight by the time we parted ways @ 2am) so we headed back to our hostels and crashed.
Friday July 3
Luke and Steve headed out curiously to check out the smart shops and Shelley, Rosie and I hired bikes and cruised around the city for the afternoon. It only cost us 9.50 Euros to hire a bike for 24 hours – cheaper than anywhere even in Eastern Europe. This would turn out to be the only cheap thing in Holland. We went to see Anne Frank’s house but upon arrival we saw a huge line and an 8.50 Euro cover charge, so we bailed on that idea. There was a huge line for the wax museum too – the only time in our travels that I have seen a line for a tourist attraction. No wonder Amsterdam’s expensive – because it can be! We decided to do a spot of shopping and OMG I could spend so much money there. In fact by the time we all met up again, Steve and I had blown 150 Euros on shopping and lunch for the day! Ouch. Steve had bought a bottle of Agwa for our pre-Sensation drinks, which is one of our favourite drinks back home. We pay $60 Au-ish for it at home, and it was a massive 48 Euros here (yes double that for Aussie). AND it’s made in Amsterdam. How the fuck does that work????
We headed back to our hostels to get ready for Sensation. After we got dressed Steve and I started our night of party with 5 shots of Agwa in 5 minutes while chatting to people in our hostel room and waiting for Shelley and Rosie to get ready. 10 minutes later we had another shot for good measure and left to get the girls and Luke. Sensation ended up starting earlier than we thought so we missed the open which was a bummer cos Sensation is all about production. We weren’t really there for the music, since Sensation has shifted away from being a trance party in recent years, but the sound and lighting would be something special and it was. The theme was Wicked Wonderland and had an Alice in Wonderland styled theme but with an over riding good vs evil theme, or more naughty and nice and so there were girls wearing kinky stuff vs girls wearing ‘nice’ stuff. Not worth describing really, but pictures tell a thousand words.... Unfortunately Shelley’s camera tells less words that Steve's, but u still get the gist. Steve wasn’t allowed to take his in because it looks like a professional camera.
We left early as Luke felt sick and went on a mission through the streets on Amsterdam at 5 in the morning as we told the cab driver to stop as we’d reached and breached our cash limit for the night. We handed over the last of our cash and after about 1.5 hours found our hostel again.
Saturday July 4
After a nice sleep in we got up and headed out again. I returned the bike and Shelley and Rosie decided to stay and keep cruising around on the bikes as Rosie was leaving to head to the US on Sunday morning. Luke, Steve and I got a train out to the beach to attend a beach party that a friend of mine was playing at. He had arranged 2 free tickets and we were going to split the cost of the last ticket as entry was 30 Euros. We arrived and it was in a beach club venue on a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold just perfect. It was an all trance event with some big names and in particular Luke and I were looking forward to seeing DJ Shah. We saw my friend Misja Helsloot play when we arrived, and after that someone we didn’t know, and then off to see Shah in the second arena. He was on at the same time as Mark Sherry, but we’d all seen him before so we gave him a miss. There were a few other people playing after who we wanted to see but the last train back to Amsterdam was at 11.15 and the event finished at 12 so we had to leave early. DJ Shah’s set was amazing. He played the sunset set and it was perfect. The perfect finish to our one weekend of partying in Amsterdam. He even played my favourite mix of Who Will Find Me, when I usually hear his other remix being played by other people. Even though we had to leave early we felt like it couldn’t have ended more perferctly.
We headed back to Amsterdam and crashed out.
Sunday July 5
We collectively decided that Amsterdam was way too expensive to stay. Steve and I had blown 700 Euros or a whole weeks budget in 3 days. So Shelley tracked down a cabin in the middle of nowhere and we headed out there in a taxi to spend some time out of a major city for once, and enjoy Holland for a fraction on the cost of Amsterdam.
The taxi was 50 Euros, but the buses out there were going to be a massive stuff around, so we just wore it. When we arrived it wasn’t what we were expecting. We thought it had wifi, a shared kitchen etc. But they were just cabins with a gas stove and kettle – nothing else. No kitchen, no net (well they did but it was broken). So we just had the Dutch countryside to enjoy. We didn’t get up to much the first night, the whole camp was full of young German guys in our section and a Newfoundland club in the other section. I had always wondered what those dogs were as I’ve seen one in Melbourne (and I want one!) but never knew what they were. My dad told me a story about a Newfoundland capsizing his friends boat when we were kids so the name has always stuck in my head.
Monday July 6
All we did was relax, attempt to play cards and enjoy smart shop supplies, beer, vodka, metaxa and Bacardi all day and night until 2am. We went out for a walk and checked out these beautiful Dutch cottages and talked to some cows. It started to get dark and with no street lights we were worried about getting lost so we headed back to the cabin.
Steve picks up in Amsterdam
We couldn’t get details of our flight to Budapest due to Malev Airlines being the worst airline in the world so we were waiting for Brian and Julie to call the Australian number at 9am their time. We thought they might be Tuesday they might be Wednesday, as we were going back for EXIT Festival which started on Thursday in Novi Sad, Serbia. Malev did not send us an itinerary, and to call them cost something ridiculous. They sent an invoice with no details, and about 6 different document numbers. We had 20 Euros credit on the phone, and we called and before we could find out we ran out of credit. Fuck me. Like seriously WTF? So we bought a 10 Euro card and ran that out too. So for $60 Au we found out NOTHING. Brian and Julie messaged us to say our flight was at 12, and later we found out the company in Australia is ceasing to deal with the airline too as they are so bad. So anyone travelling to Hungary, avoid Malev Airlines at all costs. Brian and Julie got a lovely large phone bill talking to us also, so we added a fair bit to the cost of our 300 Euro flights.
We packed everything we could and crashed out as soon as we found out we only had 10 hours left in Holland.
Tuesday July 7
We got a taxi to the airport for 75 Euros only to find out our flight wasn’t on the board, and when we tried to use the auto check in booth it said it couldn’t find the booking. Steve scanned his passport and nothing. The attendant told us to proceed to the check in counter and hope for the best. We lined up for ages and eventually got served and they had the booking under my first name not my last name, and obviously their booking reference number was a load of shit. The flight was not at 12, but luckily we hadn’t missed it as it was at 12.25. Talk about stressing. We were both glad when that was over! And then we left Amsterdam...
Ruth
PS if there are lots of typos, too bad, I CBF (B&J this is can't be fucked) re-reading my own essays anymore...
No, we haven't smoked too many spliffs in Amsterdam... Fuddly thought we needed to make the blog more exciting, so that one's for you buddy.
Now for the rest of the boring bits (you can go back to bed now Fudd)
Thursday July 2
We flew into Amsterdam and there had been a fire at the train station so we had to get a bus from the airport. We drove past the Amsterdam Arena where Sensation was to be held the following night. It looked much the same as the MCG on the outside. We got to the end of the bus line and got a train the rest of the way into Amsterdam Centraal. From there we paid a whopping 2.80 Euro ($5.60 Au) for a metro train ticket to go one stop. As we only had directions to our hostel on the train and we had no tourist map we had to cough up for it even though we probably could have walked. Not only was it expensive but Steve had to line up for ages to get it. We got off the train and started looking for a hostel. We stopped to look for the hostel and looked at the piece of paper the directions were written on and a stranger asked us if we needed help. We told him where we were going and he showed us. So far, Dutch people were nice it seemed.
We checked into the hostel. It was in an amazing location. Amsterdam central is full of canals and one way streets on each side of the canals. It is very bicycle friendly, not so car friendly and so there were bikes everywhere. The buildings are very pretty too, so I instantly warmed to Amsterdam. Unlike Berlin which took me a few days, Amsterdam made an immediate impact. I knew I was going to love this place.
Our hostel was the first Hostel International hostels we have used (we bought membership before we left Australia) and just this 3 day stay saved us enough that the membership was paid for. At 27 Euros a night this was the most expensive hostel we stayed in. It was the only hostel we actually booked well in advance, as Sensation was on we knew hostels would be in short supply. Shelley, Rosie and Luke booked late and couldn’t find anything less than 45 Euros each. (If you haven’t worked it out yet, double the amount to get Aussie Dollars). The hostel was a big generic hostel much like any we’ve stayed in in Western Europe. Eastern European hostels are so much better.
We had told Shelley to meet us at our hostel at 8pm (allowing 2 hours to get there from the airport) but due to the fire we were there around 9 and they had left us a note with their phone number. We called them and met up with them. Carol & Amber were in tow, some Melbourne girls living in Canberra who we had met at gig in Canberra last year (or the year before? I really can’t remember) so it was nice to see them again. We said our hellos and then parted ways with Carol & Amber to head off for a feed.
We were expecting Amsterdam to be expensive because the hostels were so expensive and boy were we right. Dinner and drinks was uber expensive and we knew we’d really struggle to keep under a hundred Euros a day for our stay. We headed to the local coffee shop for some cake. I only had a third of a piece due to the wheat content, Shelley and Rosie shared a piece and Luke had a piece to himself. We wandered around Amsterdam and looked at girls in the red light district, smelled copious amounts of weed being smoked and took in the busy Amsterdam street life. There were basically shop fronts with hookers in the windows, the most attractive ones were in the main strip and the side streets all had every size shape and colour imaginable. There were lots of places with sex shows, we all wanted to go to one but we didn't spend long enough there so we missed out. The atmosphere was positively electric. I decided yes, I really like Amsterdam.
We didn’t really go anything except wander around and take it all in, and we had Sensation on the following night (well it was tonight by the time we parted ways @ 2am) so we headed back to our hostels and crashed.
Friday July 3
Luke and Steve headed out curiously to check out the smart shops and Shelley, Rosie and I hired bikes and cruised around the city for the afternoon. It only cost us 9.50 Euros to hire a bike for 24 hours – cheaper than anywhere even in Eastern Europe. This would turn out to be the only cheap thing in Holland. We went to see Anne Frank’s house but upon arrival we saw a huge line and an 8.50 Euro cover charge, so we bailed on that idea. There was a huge line for the wax museum too – the only time in our travels that I have seen a line for a tourist attraction. No wonder Amsterdam’s expensive – because it can be! We decided to do a spot of shopping and OMG I could spend so much money there. In fact by the time we all met up again, Steve and I had blown 150 Euros on shopping and lunch for the day! Ouch. Steve had bought a bottle of Agwa for our pre-Sensation drinks, which is one of our favourite drinks back home. We pay $60 Au-ish for it at home, and it was a massive 48 Euros here (yes double that for Aussie). AND it’s made in Amsterdam. How the fuck does that work????
We headed back to our hostels to get ready for Sensation. After we got dressed Steve and I started our night of party with 5 shots of Agwa in 5 minutes while chatting to people in our hostel room and waiting for Shelley and Rosie to get ready. 10 minutes later we had another shot for good measure and left to get the girls and Luke. Sensation ended up starting earlier than we thought so we missed the open which was a bummer cos Sensation is all about production. We weren’t really there for the music, since Sensation has shifted away from being a trance party in recent years, but the sound and lighting would be something special and it was. The theme was Wicked Wonderland and had an Alice in Wonderland styled theme but with an over riding good vs evil theme, or more naughty and nice and so there were girls wearing kinky stuff vs girls wearing ‘nice’ stuff. Not worth describing really, but pictures tell a thousand words.... Unfortunately Shelley’s camera tells less words that Steve's, but u still get the gist. Steve wasn’t allowed to take his in because it looks like a professional camera.
We left early as Luke felt sick and went on a mission through the streets on Amsterdam at 5 in the morning as we told the cab driver to stop as we’d reached and breached our cash limit for the night. We handed over the last of our cash and after about 1.5 hours found our hostel again.
Saturday July 4
After a nice sleep in we got up and headed out again. I returned the bike and Shelley and Rosie decided to stay and keep cruising around on the bikes as Rosie was leaving to head to the US on Sunday morning. Luke, Steve and I got a train out to the beach to attend a beach party that a friend of mine was playing at. He had arranged 2 free tickets and we were going to split the cost of the last ticket as entry was 30 Euros. We arrived and it was in a beach club venue on a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold just perfect. It was an all trance event with some big names and in particular Luke and I were looking forward to seeing DJ Shah. We saw my friend Misja Helsloot play when we arrived, and after that someone we didn’t know, and then off to see Shah in the second arena. He was on at the same time as Mark Sherry, but we’d all seen him before so we gave him a miss. There were a few other people playing after who we wanted to see but the last train back to Amsterdam was at 11.15 and the event finished at 12 so we had to leave early. DJ Shah’s set was amazing. He played the sunset set and it was perfect. The perfect finish to our one weekend of partying in Amsterdam. He even played my favourite mix of Who Will Find Me, when I usually hear his other remix being played by other people. Even though we had to leave early we felt like it couldn’t have ended more perferctly.
We headed back to Amsterdam and crashed out.
Sunday July 5
We collectively decided that Amsterdam was way too expensive to stay. Steve and I had blown 700 Euros or a whole weeks budget in 3 days. So Shelley tracked down a cabin in the middle of nowhere and we headed out there in a taxi to spend some time out of a major city for once, and enjoy Holland for a fraction on the cost of Amsterdam.
The taxi was 50 Euros, but the buses out there were going to be a massive stuff around, so we just wore it. When we arrived it wasn’t what we were expecting. We thought it had wifi, a shared kitchen etc. But they were just cabins with a gas stove and kettle – nothing else. No kitchen, no net (well they did but it was broken). So we just had the Dutch countryside to enjoy. We didn’t get up to much the first night, the whole camp was full of young German guys in our section and a Newfoundland club in the other section. I had always wondered what those dogs were as I’ve seen one in Melbourne (and I want one!) but never knew what they were. My dad told me a story about a Newfoundland capsizing his friends boat when we were kids so the name has always stuck in my head.
Monday July 6
All we did was relax, attempt to play cards and enjoy smart shop supplies, beer, vodka, metaxa and Bacardi all day and night until 2am. We went out for a walk and checked out these beautiful Dutch cottages and talked to some cows. It started to get dark and with no street lights we were worried about getting lost so we headed back to the cabin.
Steve picks up in Amsterdam
We couldn’t get details of our flight to Budapest due to Malev Airlines being the worst airline in the world so we were waiting for Brian and Julie to call the Australian number at 9am their time. We thought they might be Tuesday they might be Wednesday, as we were going back for EXIT Festival which started on Thursday in Novi Sad, Serbia. Malev did not send us an itinerary, and to call them cost something ridiculous. They sent an invoice with no details, and about 6 different document numbers. We had 20 Euros credit on the phone, and we called and before we could find out we ran out of credit. Fuck me. Like seriously WTF? So we bought a 10 Euro card and ran that out too. So for $60 Au we found out NOTHING. Brian and Julie messaged us to say our flight was at 12, and later we found out the company in Australia is ceasing to deal with the airline too as they are so bad. So anyone travelling to Hungary, avoid Malev Airlines at all costs. Brian and Julie got a lovely large phone bill talking to us also, so we added a fair bit to the cost of our 300 Euro flights.We packed everything we could and crashed out as soon as we found out we only had 10 hours left in Holland.
Tuesday July 7
We got a taxi to the airport for 75 Euros only to find out our flight wasn’t on the board, and when we tried to use the auto check in booth it said it couldn’t find the booking. Steve scanned his passport and nothing. The attendant told us to proceed to the check in counter and hope for the best. We lined up for ages and eventually got served and they had the booking under my first name not my last name, and obviously their booking reference number was a load of shit. The flight was not at 12, but luckily we hadn’t missed it as it was at 12.25. Talk about stressing. We were both glad when that was over! And then we left Amsterdam...
Ruth
PS if there are lots of typos, too bad, I CBF (B&J this is can't be fucked) re-reading my own essays anymore...
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Spain Overview June 14 - July 2
Spain overview:
Lots of people own little dogs.
Not as many people speak English as you would think.
The weather is nice and warm, Valencia is hot.
Barcelona’s rail network is messy and confusing but very frequent. Madrid’s is far more organised.
Siesta is a pain in the butt if you’re not used to it - we always happened to be looking for a supermarket when they were closed (1-5ish)
Spain is not cheap (contrary to what I had heard). It might be cheap in comparison to say France, Germany and Holland. But to me cheap is not cheaper than the most expensive countries. Eastern Europe is cheap.
It’s VERY touristy, the most touristy place we've been so far.
It seems almost barren...
Facial piercings are very common for young people.
Ruth Favourite things:
HTID!!!! Hot weather especially in Valencia. Xavi & our tatts.
Ruth disappointments:
Spain in general didn’t really live up to what I thought it would be like. Not my favourite destination, but still good fun none the less.
Steve favourite:
Siesta, HTID, Pinxtos
Steve disappointments:
Getting phone stolen
Lots of people own little dogs.
Not as many people speak English as you would think.
The weather is nice and warm, Valencia is hot.
Barcelona’s rail network is messy and confusing but very frequent. Madrid’s is far more organised.
Siesta is a pain in the butt if you’re not used to it - we always happened to be looking for a supermarket when they were closed (1-5ish)
Spain is not cheap (contrary to what I had heard). It might be cheap in comparison to say France, Germany and Holland. But to me cheap is not cheaper than the most expensive countries. Eastern Europe is cheap.
It’s VERY touristy, the most touristy place we've been so far.
It seems almost barren...
Facial piercings are very common for young people.
Ruth Favourite things:
HTID!!!! Hot weather especially in Valencia. Xavi & our tatts.
Ruth disappointments:
Spain in general didn’t really live up to what I thought it would be like. Not my favourite destination, but still good fun none the less.
Steve favourite:
Siesta, HTID, Pinxtos
Steve disappointments:
Getting phone stolen
Valencia - Spain June 28-July 02
Sunday June 28
We left Madrid on the train as the bus and train were pretty much the same price (45 Euros/90$Au each) but the train was 3 hours faster.
We arrived in Valencia and it was very hot, hotter than anywhere we'd been so far. We checked into the Indigo Hostel which was a pretty cool hostel, the staff were nice and the hostel was pretty well serviced and had a friendly atmosphere.
We didn't do much and cbf thinking about it right now. This is hard work writing and in depth blog!
Monday June 29
Was booked in to get my tatt with Xavi today. Most painful tatt ever. By far. Really awesome job, so happy with it. Afterwards, Xavi took us out to dinner for tapas and then to a blues band. One of his friends was playing in a bad that was the support act. The band was from Mexico, it was Igor Prado and band, they were pretty cool... They had faster pussycat playing on a projector screen the whole time too.
Tuesday June 30
Steve went and got his tatt done so we couldn't really visit the beach even tho the weather was perfect for it. I'm not much of a beach person at home, but on holidays I really like beaches.
Once they are healed Xavi said they will soften in colour, they are designed to be softer look that normal tatts. Will post some pics when they have settled down.After his tatt we decided to go on the pub crawl as there were a bunch of people from our hostel going. It was good fun, we met tonnes of people and the pub crawl was really large. It was 10 Euros and included a free drink at each place. It was the biggest pub crawl we had been on. We stumbled home at around 5am and slept most of the next day.
Wednesday July 1
Got up at 1 and decided to do the tapas tour at 2. We went to 4 restaurants, and we got a free beer or sangria plus tapas at each. It cost 12 Euros each. At the last restuarant we got tonnes of food, not just one tapas, it was such good value and it filled up lunch and dinner so we were pretty happy. We met some Aussies we had stayed in the same hostel as in Santorini and they were doing the pub crawl that night so we decided to do it again.
At the last bar Steve has his phone pick pocketed so that pub a shit end to an otherwise rad stay in Valencia. Was my fav place in Spain fo sure. Steve went to the police station to report it because we knew we wouldn't have time before our flight in the morning.
Thursday July 2
Got up a bit seedy, packed and left for the airport. Flew to Amsterdam.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Spain - Barcelona, San Sebastian, Madrid June 23-27
Tuesday June 23
Barcelona was expensive so we decided not to stay. We checked out at 10 and went to the train station and put all our luggage in storage for the day an went out exploring. We were all really tired from more than a week of partying, so we kinda of dragged our feet around and got bored a lot before our bus. Rosie left us and headed to Paris to meet up with another Melbourne girl – Grace. We’d booked a night bus, but I think we were all wishing we had just booked the day bus anyway. We got on the bus at 11.30pm to head to San Sebastian on the opposite coast of Spain.
Wednesday June 24
The bus trip was very uncomfortable. We arrived in San Sebastian rather worn out still. We got a bus then a taxi to the hostel which we arrived at way too early but they hadn’t filled the beds so we were able to check in and sleep. The place was Ernie’s Place and it was really a 3 bedroom apartment that had the 3 bedrooms turn into dorms. We booked a 4 bed dorm which was the master bedroom so we got an ensuite to ourselves. It was all quite new and the kitchen was good too so we had a nice meal in that night.
During the day after we slept we headed down to the beach. It was a very busy beach and there were lots of topless people, something we had noticed all over Spain. Everyone from teenagers to old fat ladies had them out, it seemed to be the norm. Shelley and I didn’t however :P
Thursday June 25
My 29th Birthday! I don’t have it listed on facebook so I was expecting to be forgotten but plenty of people remembered anyway. The only person who didn’t that I was upset about was Buzz... It’s usual for my family not to wish each other a happy birthday but I expected him to remember. Byron wins however, as I haven’t seen him in a while and he remembered out of the blue...
We headed out to climb a big hill and see a castle with a big Jesus statue on it which looked out over the whole of San Sebastian. After that we went for another swim but it was quite cold so we didn’t stay long. We went back to the hostel and changed to head out. We went for a tapas/pinxtos dinner and drinks for my bday. We went to several different places and sampled a few different types of food and drink on the way. We didn’t stay out too late as we had a bus to Madrid the following day and we were intending to party for my bday then.
Friday June 26
One the bus to Madrid I messaged Buzz to see how he is doing and if he has net access yet cos he hasn’t replied to any emails since we have been away (and he forgot my bday :P). He still didn’t remember my birthday ah well. He hasn’t had net access so he won’t have even read the blog to know what we’ve been up to... Hurry up ya bastard!
We arrived in Madrid in the biggest bus station I have ever seen. We booked an apartment hotel as it was cheaper than 4 dorm rooms. We booked one between the main city area and the club I had picked to go out to that night. We were going to see Deadmau5. I had really wanted to go out to techno but the club I wanted to go to was hosting Stacey Pullen and I thought that would be boring. I missed some of my favourite artists over the last month at that venue so that was a bit of a bummer.
We had a cooked dinner and drinks at the room as we knew they would be expensive out.
When we got there, there were hundreds of people drinking outside. We asked on the way in if once we were in we would come out again and they said yes. We went in at around 12 and they had only just opened and it was empty. We went to go out and they said we couldn’t! So we just had to wait... Over the course of 2 hours the club went from empty to full – a couple of thousand people. The club was a pretty cool club... The opening DJ was good, building up well with fat minimal. The 2nd DJ just flat lined it and was pretty boring. Deadmau5 started and he was playing with a big mouse head with big ears, his opening track was awesome and the crowd really got going. It seemed promising, but from there, it was only downhill. He took his mask off. He got more boring as the night wore on and when he sensed he was losing the interest of the crowd he just put his mask back on so everyone cheered again. But he didn’t play more upbeat tunes to match. We called it a night at about 4.
Saturday June 27
Lazy day! We slept in until 3 and all we had to do today is book a train to Valencia and go our for a feed.
Barcelona was expensive so we decided not to stay. We checked out at 10 and went to the train station and put all our luggage in storage for the day an went out exploring. We were all really tired from more than a week of partying, so we kinda of dragged our feet around and got bored a lot before our bus. Rosie left us and headed to Paris to meet up with another Melbourne girl – Grace. We’d booked a night bus, but I think we were all wishing we had just booked the day bus anyway. We got on the bus at 11.30pm to head to San Sebastian on the opposite coast of Spain.
Wednesday June 24
The bus trip was very uncomfortable. We arrived in San Sebastian rather worn out still. We got a bus then a taxi to the hostel which we arrived at way too early but they hadn’t filled the beds so we were able to check in and sleep. The place was Ernie’s Place and it was really a 3 bedroom apartment that had the 3 bedrooms turn into dorms. We booked a 4 bed dorm which was the master bedroom so we got an ensuite to ourselves. It was all quite new and the kitchen was good too so we had a nice meal in that night.
During the day after we slept we headed down to the beach. It was a very busy beach and there were lots of topless people, something we had noticed all over Spain. Everyone from teenagers to old fat ladies had them out, it seemed to be the norm. Shelley and I didn’t however :P
Thursday June 25
My 29th Birthday! I don’t have it listed on facebook so I was expecting to be forgotten but plenty of people remembered anyway. The only person who didn’t that I was upset about was Buzz... It’s usual for my family not to wish each other a happy birthday but I expected him to remember. Byron wins however, as I haven’t seen him in a while and he remembered out of the blue...
We headed out to climb a big hill and see a castle with a big Jesus statue on it which looked out over the whole of San Sebastian. After that we went for another swim but it was quite cold so we didn’t stay long. We went back to the hostel and changed to head out. We went for a tapas/pinxtos dinner and drinks for my bday. We went to several different places and sampled a few different types of food and drink on the way. We didn’t stay out too late as we had a bus to Madrid the following day and we were intending to party for my bday then.
Friday June 26
One the bus to Madrid I messaged Buzz to see how he is doing and if he has net access yet cos he hasn’t replied to any emails since we have been away (and he forgot my bday :P). He still didn’t remember my birthday ah well. He hasn’t had net access so he won’t have even read the blog to know what we’ve been up to... Hurry up ya bastard!
We arrived in Madrid in the biggest bus station I have ever seen. We booked an apartment hotel as it was cheaper than 4 dorm rooms. We booked one between the main city area and the club I had picked to go out to that night. We were going to see Deadmau5. I had really wanted to go out to techno but the club I wanted to go to was hosting Stacey Pullen and I thought that would be boring. I missed some of my favourite artists over the last month at that venue so that was a bit of a bummer.
We had a cooked dinner and drinks at the room as we knew they would be expensive out.
When we got there, there were hundreds of people drinking outside. We asked on the way in if once we were in we would come out again and they said yes. We went in at around 12 and they had only just opened and it was empty. We went to go out and they said we couldn’t! So we just had to wait... Over the course of 2 hours the club went from empty to full – a couple of thousand people. The club was a pretty cool club... The opening DJ was good, building up well with fat minimal. The 2nd DJ just flat lined it and was pretty boring. Deadmau5 started and he was playing with a big mouse head with big ears, his opening track was awesome and the crowd really got going. It seemed promising, but from there, it was only downhill. He took his mask off. He got more boring as the night wore on and when he sensed he was losing the interest of the crowd he just put his mask back on so everyone cheered again. But he didn’t play more upbeat tunes to match. We called it a night at about 4.
Saturday June 27
Lazy day! We slept in until 3 and all we had to do today is book a train to Valencia and go our for a feed.
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