Good, Better, Sziget 2009

Sziget proved again to be my favorite festival. Excellent camping spot in a beautiful and gigantic park (island), insanely diverse cultural/other happening AND superb concerts. What's not to like? Plus I got to go there for free thanks to my DJ friend Luk@May.

This years main theme of the festival were animals. Inflatable and furry animal toys, animal costumes, tents in the shape of animals and of course the beasts that come out of people after a bottle or two of vodka. Very primal, very zoo-otic.

It was literally impossible to go to all or even most the concerts and performances that were happening, so I choose only the ones I really wanted to see.

Highlights:

• I am X,
  
• Editors,
• Bloc party,
• Primal Scream,
• Klaxons,
• Fat Boy Slim.

"Discovery":

• Pendulum

Cultural happening:

• Performance show in Magic Mirror,
• Dance and theatre show with gigantic wheel.

A slight dissapointment:

• The Prodigy,
• The Ting Tings.

Too bad I missed the White Lies AGAIN, because they were performing in an owercrowded tent. I think it's time to finally recognise their potential and put them on the main stage. Seriously.

As it is for the rest: It's been almost a week and I am still recovering from everything. If you are bored there, it's probably your own fault.

Heineken Open'er Festival 2009

It takes several good reasons to travel that far just for the music festival. Fortunately the organisers provided a couple of great reasons to book those plane tickets and pack my bags.

Open'er Festival was substantially smaller than Sziget with only about 60.000 visitors. But the nice surroundings, summer weather, great music and good organisation, made it equally unforgetable.

First surpise was the coupon/card payment method. At first it seemed quite weird to have to go to some boot to buy coupons or add money to your card, but later on, especially after few beers, it turned out to be a mighty good idea. If only I would be able to keep track on the amount of money I still have on the card.

Free bus to from the festival area at Babie Doly airport to the center of Gdynia was much appreciated. Need for proper coffee, cuttlery and a flushing toilet should never be underestimated.

And after years of visiting festivals I finally learned I can enjoy the concerts without being 10 meters away from the stage. Priceless.

Highlights of the festival

Arctic Monkeys:
I was really looking foward to this concert, trying not to expect too much after hearing their live performance is pretty much dissapointing. For me it wasn't. Even though they didn't connect much with the audience, they did connect a lot with the music.

The only real dissapointment were the technical problems. The sound went out in the middle of the song. Twice. So the concert was briefly interrupted to fix this problem and the guy explained that such things can happen also on the festival. I understand. But they really shouldn't.




Gossip:
Since I wasn't a fan of the bend and new only one of their songs, I didn't know what to expect. But when Beth Ditto came on stage in her black hot pants and corset, screaming: "We are so fucking happy to be here!", it was just getting better and better. Great concert great communication with the audience and excellent performance. Not to mention the drummer was illeagally cute. Worth seeing again.




The Kooks:
The band was mindblowing. Absolutely great performance, excellent communication with the audience and amazing energy. Don't remember when was the last time I danced so much. Love it, loved it, loved it! Maybe the security guys didn't love it so much as the singer spent a lot of time playing and singing off the stage. Bummer. Well done Kooks!

White Lies
I didn't manage to see much of the concert cause the tent where it was taking place kinda sucked, if you weren't in the front. Still I did enjoy the soothing music of White Lies. Didn't notice much of a performance, still the audience went wild everytime they started or finished a song. Lovely concert but I wish I would have seen more.

Kings of Leon
Least but not last - KOL. It was by far one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Not just because practicly everyone at the festival was attending it, but also because of the amazing honesty, energy and dedication of the band. They were amazed by the crowd, singing their songs, screaming, jumping, dancing.

"This is our first time here." they announced at the begining. Later on Caleb Followil said they didn't know what to expect and they though nobody will know who the hell they are.
"But this is amazing!" They promissed to come back to the festival every time we would want them and played an extra song too. It was an audio orgasm without competition.

Discoveries

Mass kotki
Cool Polish feminist electro punk band. Too bad I didn't understand any of the lyrics.



The Calog
Decent music but too few english songs to understand what the sing about. Hopefully not about beer, chicks and bohemian life of a rock star.

Trivia

Poland has their own simbols for toilets. I discovered that ▼ is not a sign for women's toilet. Apparently a circle is more of a female simbol. Go figure.

It is good time to visit Poland during the strawberry season. Got a bag of these beauties for only 1 EUR.


Sunsets were breath taking!



Rakoon dance


Queens of the rodeo


Flying commercials


Place for fashion junkies
So see you again next year?

Polish seaside

While visiting Open'er Heineken festival I couldn't resist my tourist urges so I took a look at the nearby cities. I was impressed. Apparently Poland is not only affordable but also very beautiful. People were very nice, often offering to help me with my luggage.

GDYNIA - small city that I visited every day to have brunch, coffe and relaxing time at the beach. After discovering cute little Hollywood bar, it soon became my favorite place. Apparently not only mine as every day it was harder to get the table. Lunch and delicious latte for only 3-5 EUR? Abso fuckin' lutely!

Café Cyganeria, also near Hollywood, is a perfect place for coffee people. Tastefully decorated place with a long list of coffee, nice waitress and comfortable couches made me wanna sit there for hours. So maybe it was a good thing that I found it only the last day.

SOPOT
A small city with a huge promenade, famous crooked house and creative tribute to Roman Polanski on the beach. Because of the less salty see, swans are randomely floating on the water. Quite adorable.

GDANSK
Absolutely amazing mideval city, rich with beautifyl buildings, street life and cultural happening. Accidently I visited it exactly at the time of big floods. However all the broadcasting made me a bit confused as I saw no traces of flood, nothing even close to what was shown on TV. Weather was perfect and if I could I would stay there much longer. Gdansk is a definite must see and I would love to visit it again.

One the way back I spent the night at the cuttest little hostel in Warsaw. Hostel Zielone Mazsowze is well hidden in the building close to the central train station. Instead having that impersonal hostel feeling I felt more like I am staying at my friends flat. The receptor was very nice, helpful and understanding about my struggle with the entrance door in the middle of the night. To make things more interesting - NGO that owns the hostel, is involved in projects on sustainable development. I like them even more.

So that was my Poland. Absolutely worth seeing more than once. And if you decide to visit it, don't miss the oportunity to try pierogi, gofry and Zubrowka. Possibly in that order :)

Better Than Heaven

There are some things that simply nothing can spoil for you and there are some bands that you want to see no matter what. And yesterday's Bloc party concert was definitely one of those situations. No wonder it was sold out.

Chaotic crowd, lack of air, sweaty strangers pressing against you, people jumping and dancing pushing around. Disturbing? I couldn't care less. We were all united by one wish - to see them live. And we were not disappointed.

The concert was spectacular and far beyond anything I imagined. Banquet, Like eating glass, Modern love, Song for Clay, Hunting for witches, One month off, Ares, Mercury and many more.

Soooo much energy, so much sunshine and such an excellent music! It was definitely one of my top 3 concerts ever. Completely surreal and I want to see them again.

And if you feel bad about wanting to go but not going, you shouldn't. I lied. You really should. I swear I felt love.

London

If I would get 1 Euro for every time I heard: "You really gotta see London", I could probably buy myself a nice dinner. Or in these days more likely just a sandwich and maybe a smoothie. But financial crisis has its advantages - it is now much cheaper to travel.

So I visited London. Partly because of the "you really gotta" recommendations but mostly just to shut them up. At the first glance London is rather vibrant dynamic city, excellent for everyone who likes shopping & partying & various cultural events. Shows, musicals, movies, stand - ups, performances. You name it, they got it.

However the city is also somewhat individualistic, fast-paced and occasionally quite chaotic. The drinking habits problems are really beyond my understanding and so is the drop-off-your-garbage-anywhere attitude. Of course there's only so much sightseeing and partying you can do in few days. Even if you miss your plane back and stay an extra day.

Overall I must say I liked it - especially The Camden town and The Borough Market. I thought the Cockney accent was rather cute, even though sometimes quite hard to understand. I even liked the funny toilet water handles and the fact they drive on the wrong left side of the road.

London indeed is lovely. However, it isn't Berlin...

My darling Berlin

Most of my friends know about my obsession amazement with Berlin and how I can go on and on and on about it. Somehow there is this unexplainable urge to visit Berlin at least once per year, if I want to keep my sanity. Since I started this new year near Berlin I'm positive it's gonna be an excellent one.

Of course the fascination with Berlin goes beyond admiring the pretty buildings, enjoying cheap shopping & food and experiencing cultural diversity. It's actually the only city that makes me feel it. Being completely sober that is.

So if everything goes well, I should go there at least three times until December. But all that going back really enhances the feeling of not wanting to leave the city at all. And I know that someday I will just answer that call and won't return home.

After all, home is where my suitcase is...

I feel Sziget

1. The Preparation
Erase from my mind:

• healthy,
• quiet,
• clean.

2. The Companions:

• Hard copy,
  
• Paperback.
  

3. Activities:

• concerts,
• beer & Palinka sessions,
  
• Yoga,
• a movie,
  
• creative workshops,
  
• logical games (sometimes breaking it really means that),
  
• shopping,
• gossiping,
• reading,
• napping,
  
• photo taking.

4. Music Highlights :

• Flogging Molly,
• Roisin Murphy,
• The Wombats,
• The Killers.
  

5. Disappointment:

• MGMT

6. Missing in action:

• Burek,
• Soup,
  
• Some peoples' cleaning habits.

7. A Special Thnx to:

• Apis & Doriana for saving a place for our tents.
• Zewa for providing the luxury toilet conditions for my fancy ass.
  
• Slovenian railways for the priceless experience of getting to know different kinds of trains, delays and for giving us a unique chance of exploring the Slovenian countryside.

For more info see below:

Venice

Venice is one of those "must see" cities, like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna and Berlin. I finally got to go there and I must say it is lovely and quite romantic. Being there makes you wanna sit by the canal, sip your delicious latte macchiatto and listen to melodic Italian conversations which are far too fast to figure out what the hell are they talking about anyway.

I seemed to have arrived just in time for demonstration of public transport workers but luckily I still caught my bus to the airport :).












And now for something completely different.

B for back from Belfast

Just came back from Northern Ireland and obviously brought back Irish weather with me. It's perfectly natural to get that post-holiday "I wanna go back" feeling but I really do. Ireland isn't beautiful - it's fucking amazing!

First of all, people are really nice and I mean nice, not just polite. I love that "darling" and "love" they add to each sentence although when I come to think of it that would probably sound rather strange in Slovenian. The accent is quite strong though and sometimes doesn't even sound like English at all.

First thing you notice in Ireland (besides the rain) are endless green pastures, lavender fields, woods, loots of sheep, cows and water. Not to mention that wonderful misty "Sherlock Holmes" feeling. Unfortunately my camera broke down on the second day so I didn't manage to make any decent photos apart from the ones in Venice.

Northern coast is simply wonderful. Dunluce Castle and Giant's Causeway are definitely the places to visit and Downhill is just the place from my dreams. I think I might move there someday. Contrary to my belief Ireland wasn't all that expensive and I did manage to do some serious shopping. I must admit I could never keep up with the Irish drinking habits. However it was lovely to be able to tryout different beers and have my share of Guinness.

Belfast is famous for many things but mostly for being the city where they built the Titanic. Yeah, well maybe that's not really something to be so happy about but apparently that company still exists and is quite successful too.

Besides sightseeing, shopping and partying I read more books than in the past year, saw few good movies and a play and went ice-skating. And yeah, about that one thing I've never done before - I think singing off-tune at the karaoke night was quite enough. The only real question is - why the hell did I get back ;)

Is you on holiday?

I tried to remember the last time I had two weeks of vacation. I mean real vacation, not the ones when you work at nicer places. I couldn't remember, so it's either never or about the freaking time to have one already! I wanted to wait another week but my body said "no" to my workaholic schedule. So a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

For the next few weeks I'll be on my vacation mode. Which means:

• no internet, no phone (OK, I might cheat on the internet part a bit),
• no work related stuff whatsoever,
• have a good time,
  
• visit old friends (and maybe make some new ones),
• do something I've never done before (suggestions welcome),
• go to a few concerts,
• take photos (Japanese tourists style),
  
• relax a lot.
  

This year I'm not doing any sun bathing. Intentionally. I guess that shouldn't be too difficult considering where I'm going.

Have a hint:


Now excuse me while I get my tired ass to that beer-relax-enjoy land :)

Berlin, part two

People would often tell me they've heard about Berlin and ask me what is so special about it. Well, of course there are things like wonderful multicultural environment, alive atmosphere full of art and happening and quite low expenses of living but that's not quite it. What makes it special is something, you can't really put your finger to - that unique feeling this city gives you. Hard to explain yet so easy to experience.

Naturally I have my favorite places I always go to but I am also quite keen to discover new ones. Most of them are of course in the eastern part, around Kreuzberg. This year I made some extra markings on my personal map and added a cool alternative club and a rock bar - definitely places to visit next time.

But what impresses me the most (besides their massive fascination with bears) is the amount of cultural variety that manages to co-exist. It's so not-Slovenian I immediately fell for it. Not to mention the costs of living are pretty much the same in Berlin as they are in Ljubljana. However, I have to admit there are things I don't like about Berlin:

• weather is quite terrible, windy and colder than I'm used to,
• food - German food is a big no no for any soup/salad fans - luckily they have loads of restaurants with just about any kind of food you desire (big sucker for Asian cuisine),
• she's not there.
  

But enough about Berlin, you really should see and feel it for yourself. It's so close to home.

Depeche mode: Home

Berlin, part one

Still hibernating - will be back with you soon: