Budapest Fridge Festival

Caution: This blog post will take you at least 3 hours to read. Kyle's Editor is out for the week.

My next destination after Prague was Budapest, Hungary! My friend David lives there and I was stoked to see him again (it’s been ~3-4 years since I last saw him last in CA with Kirsten Halden). I actually planned my trip around seeing him to some extent because he told me there was going to be a large festival in Budapest Nov. 10-13. It’s called the Budapest Fridge Festival, and is essentially a crazy outdoor festival with a giant ski jump competition (they build a huge ramp in the square) and partying all night. There’s live music and DJ's all night (til 4am), food and drinks everywhere, and even an ice rink. David was working at the festival (part of the time) and said I should definitely visit him while this event is going on.

My train to Budapest arrived late, so I unfortunately missed my connection in a town south of Prague, and ended having to stay in that random town for 2 hours which sucked. Everything was already closed down by 6pm (it was so weird). I made the most of it tho and checkout out a small castle and skyped with Jenny for a bit in a cafe, before eventually making my way back to Budapest. I forgot my eurail pass doesn’t work in Slovakia tho, and the train was definitely passing through Slovakia to get to Budapest, so I ended up having to pay an additional 20 euros to the stewardess/conductor which wasn't very cool either.

I planned on blogging a bunch during the long train ride, but was I wasn't feeling to well from the night before to think clearly and decided to take a nap and finish my book instead. I also met a really cool guy from UCLA who was sitting next to me and we talked for most of the train ride which was cool. He’s doing a different kind of Europe trip, hitting up all the eastern countries that no one really ever goes to like Romania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. He definitely had some interesting stories to share about Eastern Europe.

Ukraine particularly sounded interesting. Apparently most families make their own vodka in their backyard, and everyone is VERY proud of their “Family Vodka.” Haha That’s so cool! The baths/hot springs there are supposed to be very cool there as well. ____ got a FULL body massage at one of them, and even suffered for a bit in the saunas which is apparently a different experience than what we Americans are used to. ____ also talked about how Ukraine somewhat of a 3^rd world country, where the locals rarely have access to a hot shower, internet, or an actual toilet. Kinda sad really, but ____ said they were some of the most fun people he’s met on his trip.

When I arrived in Budapest around 10:30pm, David and his girlfriend Rita were there waiting to pick me up. It was kinda funny when I first saw him, because neither of us immediately recognized the other person (it’s been a few years since we’ve seen each other, and to be fair, I look like a MAN now with my burly mustache. Haha) Either way, after some quick greetings and introductions we were on our way to his brother’s house to drop off my bag, take some shots, and then head out to the Fridge Festival.

We met up with some of David’s friends outside the entrance of the festival and hung out for a while in the freezing cold drinking even MORE vodka, trying to finish what we could before going in (you’re not allowed to bring food or drinks in). Since David was working at the festival, he managed to get me a pass for the whole festival for free which was pretty sweet. Thx dude.

Oh man, the next part of this story was really funny/nerve racking (and possibly too drawn out haha). We still had a bunch of vodka bottles with us, and I wasn’t really sure what we were going to do with it all, when all of a sudden I was given a bottle a told to stick it in my sock/under my pant leg, and that we were gonna go through security now. Oh man! I did my best to put it in my sock and conceal it, but my socks were just too loose at the top and the bottle was swaying every direction, about to fall out with each step I took.

If anyone would have looked at my feet, or even just observed the way I was walking for more than a split second, they would have easily noticed a giant object protruding from my ankle. Haha Well, I didn’t have much of a choice, and was gonna do my best to walk through security without it falling out and potentially ruining everyone’s chances of getting alcohol in. Oh, and I also put the bottle of chaser in my other sock, so now I was walking like Frankenstein, with my legs completely straight, and in slow motion.

Not only did I have to walk SUPER slow (snails pace really, it was embarrassing), but my ankles were now throbbing from the stupid glass bottles. I was sure there was no way security wouldn't suspect something about me, so I improvised and borrowed David’s girlfriend Rita, put my arm around her, and started to walk through security, slowly.

I was hoping the security checkpoint would be right next to the entrance and I would be home free soon, but NOOOOO, I had to walk through a maze of metal crowd barriers just to get to the “pat down” area! It took Rita and me so long to snake our way through that stupid thing. The pat down went ok as they just checked our upper body and waist, but there were seriously security guards every 30 feet, and I wasn’t home free yet.

I had to walk further to along the path to get to the festival, and then had to conquer 2 sets of stairs with security guards swarming the place. Haha I have no idea how the bottle didn’t fall out on those stairs (it would have been pretty funny tho), but it stayed where it needed to and soon we were in the middle of the festival with people all around, where we could sneakily retrieve our merchandise. I just realized that whole little story totally sounds like I was trying to smuggle 5 lbs of cocaine in . Haha

Anyway, after that whole ordeal (which only I was truly aware of at the time), we explored the festival for a bit, which was situated right next to Hero’s Square and some magnificent castle. It was so cold outside btw. I miss San Luis Obispo. Haha

I wasn’t really expecting such a huge event to be going on. And the ski ramp. THE SKI RAAAAAMP! This thing was so big. Check out the pics. The competition may have been done for the day when we arrived, but I could easily imagine skiers flying through the air pulling all sorts of tricks off this jump. After marveling at the jump for a while and getting a cup of gluwein (hot wine that is spiced and has juice added), we made our way inside the biggest festival tent where the main DJ’s were playing at the time.

BAM! I was immediately slapped in the face with amazement as I walked in the tent. Techno/house music was blasting in my ears, laser lights were drawing intense patterns of color in my eyes, and there was a giant mob of dancing people stretching endlessly to the stage. I had no idea this event was gonna be so big. Budpaest definitely knows whats up and how to get their party on. Our group of friends joined the party soon but not after finally mixing our vodka with the free Monster energy drinks that David hooked up for free.

I’m not really sure what we did the whole time we were there, but dancing, head bobbing, and “fly swatting” were at the heart of everything we did. Haha Taccini would have fit in perfectly. We were there for 2-3 hours before finally making our way back home to David’s place which was where I crashed for the night (even tho my bag was still at his brother’s). Oh, and a couple quick notes: The Doner Kebab I had near the main tent was amazing and was the second best one I’ve had on my trip (the pizza kebab in Berlin is still #1. Thanks Phillipe). And the music all night was horrible. It was seriously the same freaking beat all night. It sounded like the same song was on repeat , and probably was to be honest. And the beat wasn’t even good! Ugh. The next night was supposed to have way better music tho.