Outlandish

Sziget Festival is one of the biggest in Europe, organized every August for a week in Budapest. My best friends purchased tickets there in the Spring and since Budapest is a bus ride away from Bratislava it would've been stupid to miss this chance to go check it out. We stayed in a hostel/hotel on Téréz Körút, a very nice area walking distance from the centre and the river. The place was really nice and rooms clean and with modern furnishings (points for that!), but with the price we paid (53€/night) I would've expected the owner to be in the reception when he was supposed to. As a punctual Finn there are some situations where I want service exactly when it is promised; for example if check out should be done between 10-11am I would expect someone to be in the reception to receive the keys. Not a big issue, really, we were in no hurry on Sunday, but I like things working smoothly when I travel and I'm willing to pay extra for that. In this case I felt I paid the extra ...

Ruisrock is a legendary music festival in the Ruissalo National Park by the Turku archipelago. It is actually one of the oldest music festivals in Europe and it still sells out. This year they made a new turnout record: 95 000 people! For us it’s a place for a proper weekend out with the girls and this year having artists like Pharrel Williams and Ellie Goulding performing I had to book my summer vacation so that I can make it to the festival. Instead of buying tickets for the whole three days we thought two might be just fine. And oh lord it was. On Friday we were all scattered around the city and I joined the girls who were the earliest off work. As one might already know, alcohol is a must in Finland whatever you do. So they’ve banned people from bringing their own drinks into the festival area, of course. But that’s ok, we always cope when it comes to King Alcohol! As long as the bottles and juice cartons in your bag look like they haven’t been opened, you can b...

I can't remember ever having a good weather on my birthday. On the other hand, if you are born in January, what can you expect? This year, though, on my birthday Bratislava was enjoying a weirdly warm weekend. Whereas on last Saturday, when I had arranged a birthday party for us four girls who were born in January, I opened the curtains in the morning to a terrible winter storm.  Despite my fears of people cancelling because of the weather we only had two cancellations and one of them was due to sickness. So, the party could begin! For a venue I chose Urban House café/bar in the Bratislava old town. It's a big sister of my favourite café here, Gorila.sk. Most people describe the place as a hipster place. Whether it's an accurate description, I don't know, but in my opinion it has the most relaxed atmosphere, nicely inconsistent furniture and good local wines. If you find yourself there (which I would highly recommend) do try the halloumi burger!  Unlike...

Autumn in Central Europe means wine and beer festivals. Best known is obviously the Octoberfest in Germany, but Slovakia has its own alcohol-related festivities as well. September was the time for the local wine makers to provide their range of local wines to people in the multiple wine festivals around Slovakia. Unfortunately I did not attend any of them. But last weekend the beer fest came into town! If you ask Slovak people, many of them will recommend Czech beers over Slovak beers. I don't know much about beer since I never drank it before moving here. But out of the three beers that we bought at the beer fest I could easily identify my favourite. And that was all I was actually able to get out of the festival because after the first beers a colleague of mine (with whom I went to the fest) all of a sudden fainted. I was able to catch her before she hit her head on the gobble stones, thank goodness. She had barely hit the ground when there were people swarming ar...