On Places, People and Cultures

Is it the best festival in the world or what? Great stuff, really. Location, crowd, lineup was all brilliant. I suppose the best thing about the Exit festival is you can experience it as you like it. I mean you can go dance till you drop at the World, Fusion or Latino stages in the early evening hours, catch your breath to the vibes of the Roots Reggae, making sure you don’t miss big acts at the main stages, and then meet the dawn to the tunes of the biggest names in electonic music with the massive crowd at the Dance Arena. Just make sure you’ve got enough energy to do that four days in the row.

EXIT 2009. Definitely recommended.

Serbia was a real highlight of the European leg of my trip. A true discovery. Very warm, helpful and welcoming people, lovely town of Novi Sad, good weather, beatiful ladies. It is amazing how you can immidiatly feel the contrast crossing the border to Serbia from Hungary. You’re not in Eastern Europe anymore, no gloomy faces, no god-knows-what-inspired-by fasion, no newly-born consumption oriented class, racing to empty the shelves of the conviniently emerging and headed by Tesco shopping babilons, to satisfy the hunger for goods and services after decades behind the iron curtain. It’s Serbia. It’s Southern Europe. It’s Balkans. I absolutely fell in love with the place. I’m defenitly visitting the Balkans next year. Everyone welcome to join. Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Hercogovina, Serbia, Montnegro. Really looking forward.

Loved old school wall-painted man-made advertising and billbords of Novi Sad.

Ahhhh…Home sweet home. Every time I come back to eastern Europe can’t help but get a little smile on my face. See for yourself.

Perhaps, this is the only one that needs a bit explaining to do. They are roughly 40 yearolds smartly dressed lovers rolling and making out on the glrass in park full of visitors. Love is in the air! Quite a contrast to the reserved British ways I’ve got recently used to :)

Budapest, Hungary. 

Not sure how common it is to call streets your name in Hungary, Zol, but thought you’d be delighted to see it :).

First of all, I have to say, I’ve hardly ever hitchhiked before. It turned up to be pretty exciting stuff. On ocasions I felt like that guy that from the Ultimate Survival Guide show on Discovery channel, with the acception I had to survive in a hostile urban environment and not out in the wild. Ironically enough, we both put ourselves to that test on our own will.

But, is being serious, the best thing about hitchhiking is its unpredictibility you can be on massive high one moment and hit the lowest of lows the next minute. A lot of it is a lottery, but equally it is a skill. Know your basics apply some common sence and, most imortantly, prepare for the chellenge, especially mental one. How long is too long to wait to be picked up? This is the question. The funny thing is, nine time out of ten locals are convinced it is imossible to hitch a car in their area, before you do so in front of them. Here I have to send a message to all of my British friends. It possible to hitchhike in the UK. There are still louds of former hippies around ;)

No matter how difficult it can get sometimes, there are obvious rewards. There’s no other way, perhaps, to experiance the vibe and get to understand the places you’re visiting. And, if meeting new exiting individuals is your thing, I urge you to join the club.