Music, Mud and MADNESS!!!

August saw us off abroad for the third time this year! Susan is now considering signing up for Air Miles as we've become quite the frequent flyers! This trip was extra special because Tom would be coming too, AND we were going to a music festival!
When Susan visited Hungary in 2012 (I wasn't invited :( ) she fell in love with Budapest and kept saying how much she wanted to return. Well, the Sziget festival happens every August for 7 days on the Island of Freedom (aka Óbudai-sziget), in the middle of the Danube! Susan first heard about it in 2012, arriving in Budapest just afterwards, so the city was still buzzing with festival fever. Last year, she remembered about it too late and couldn't afford the tickets, even though it was a really good line up. So when she visited Oban for New Years, she spoke to her parents about Tom's 21st Birthday in February.  After some discussion, flights and tickets were paid for and holidays were booked off work. The line up looked good, but still had lots of gaps which would be filled over the year.

Ready to leave!

Anyway, eventually, it was time! Tom drove down to Wales in his new car, picked us up them we drove to Gatewick. The flight was exciting, passing over a pretty big storm which made some nervous flyers a little hysterical. We landed and headed into Budapest to stay with our CS host George. No sooner had we arrived, he took Susan and Tom for a night out at the Ruin Pubs of Budapest. I was disappointed not to tag along, but spent the evening admiring George's photographs - he's a freelance photographer and has travelled the world taking photos of people and places.
The next day, we caught the train to the festival. The queue was HUGE and Susan and Tom had to wait ages to get their wristbands (not issued to animals). Then we made our way across the bridge and joined another queue for bag searching. Thankfully, we Brits know how to queue, but it was rather dull for me, crammed in the bottom of the bag next to a cold water bottle. Eventually, we made it through, picked up our tents and went off to find our campsite. Susan and Tom had agreed to pay a little extra to stay in the French campsite, which sold itself for having extra security and showers. Personally, I would have preferred to have stayed with everyone else, roughing it around the island, but as I didn't get a say, I stayed schtum.

This camping malarkey is
quite fun!

View from our camp.

Susan has previously camped on a number of occasions, and Tom has attended a few UK festivals, so they both knew the best place to camp would be uphill slightly. Unfortunately, it was uphill a lot, but it soon felt like home once Tom had the Saltire flag flying from the Pine trees. We were overlooking the World Village Stage and the French bar area, which I did want to question, but they both seemed eager to set up camp and go exploring, so I left them to it.




What followed was seven days of FUN! We saw...The 1975, Blink 182, Queens of the Stone Age, Deadmau5, Jake Bugg, Imagine Dragons, Placebo, Skrillex, Palma Violets, Tom Thum, Cee Lo Green, Manic Street Preachers, Korn, Bastille, Lily Allen, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Bombay Bicycle Club, Punnany Massif, Madness, The Prodigy, The Kooks, Outkast, Calvin Harris. There were "Aliens", Balls, Bubbles, Confetti, Dragons, Fireworks, Flags, Glow Sticks, Lasers, Powder, Serpentines. We spent time learning festival traditions, Hungarian traditions, watching circus shows and street performers and trying food from all around the world too!

Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons)
takes to Centre Stage

Look at those crowds!

Susan was swooning at this point! (Imagine Dragons)

I think I might be famous!

Percussionist lead singers are cool!
(Imagine Dragons)

Rocking and Raving!

Flag Party

Couldn't help myself!

Woop! Bastille take to the stage!

Mr Cee Lo Green - I was so close!

Tom helping me to blow bubbles at
the Bubble Party

Those Welsh Boyos!
The ManicStreet Preachers

Found this funky recycled art of
Nyan Cat

My favourites - MADNESS!

Big Boi smiled at me!
(Outkast)

Watching The Kooks on the screen

Hey Ya was a hit with the crowds!
(Outkast)

Apologies for the bad writing!

I even managed to find some time to help Susan write her postcards!
The week ended all too soon, but we still had a couple of days to spend in Budapest before flying home.

The must see sights are the Castle on the Buda side of the river, and Heroes Square and City Park on the Pest side of the river. The Castle Hill area has fantastic views over Budapest, with many impressive buildings including the Castle, Parliament, Mathias Church and the Fishermen's Bastion. Unfortunately Heroes Square is not safe for Meerkats, but it looked very impressive from what I glimpsed out the bag.

Susan and Tom spent a morning relaxing at the Széchenyi Baths, and I was disappointed to not get a chance to to take a dip - they have a no animals policy. After they were both turned into prunes, we crossed the road for a visit to Budapest Zoo. Unfortunately, Susan's camera died so the only photo of our day can be seen below of me making some new friends!

Look at these beauts!

Watch out below!

Proud Lion             vs           Angry Lion 

My new friends from the
Zoo

Next time, I must pack my
Meerkini!

So, until next time Budapest!

Gloucestershire, Jul14

I spoke too soon! Almost as soon as we got back to Oban, Susan was planning another trip! She was invited for a job interview at a Falconry Centre near Gloucester a few days after our return to Bangor (we had a dog show to attend with Wish first).

We travelled by train on the Monday and were Couchsurfing for the week with Irvine. Tuesday Susan went to her interview and I stayed at home - after my recent trips being gobbled by things, I didn't fancy my chances with 300 birds of prey! She returned to say that it had gone well and she had been shortlisted to attend a work day on the Thursday, which was a brilliant achievement. Wednesday Irvine had the day off work so we planned a full day of outings with another Couchsurfer, Andrea. Susan has always wanted to visit the home of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, so when Irvine told her it was just down the road, that became the first port of call! It was really good, with well laid out paths and areas for the different birds. I don't think I've ever seen so many birds in one place before! I was safe from being gobbled because you can buy grain to feed the birds, so I think they were all very well fed!



After spending the morning at the Trust HQ, we headed back for lunch before going out in the afternoon to explore the Forest of Dean. Susan has been here once before, many years ago when she went with her mum to pick up Shimmy from her breeder. On that occasion they didn't spend much time in the area so she was very excited to see what was there. Irvine took us to the places he used to hang out when he was a kid growing up in the area, and we found some really lovely walks with stunning views over the Severn Valley. From one, using binoculars, we could even see his flat in Gloucester!

I made another friend, but this time a much more pleasant fellow, called Duck. We posed with eachother at the Roman Road, supposedly the last piece of original paved Roman Road left in the UK. Duck was telling me that he goes to work with Irvine every day, but he rarely gets to go on adventures as Irvine works hard during the summer so that he can spend his winters abroad (he doesn't like the cold and dark.) I think Duck was a bit jealous of all my adventures so I told him I'd post this photo of us so that it looks like he gets to go on some too!

Towards the end of the day, we visited Symonds Yat Rock, a magnificent outcrop that overhangs the Wye River. We all got rather excited when Susan heard a Peregrine Falcon flying overhead and spent a few minutes watching it lift on the air currents before disappearing into the distance at a great height. It was sunny when we arrived but dark clouds were soon rolling in so we beat a hasty retreat before the storm hit.

Irvine suggested grabbing a Chinese from his old village and eating it at one of the other viewpoints, which we all agreed was an excellent idea! Thankfully it rained really heavy for about 10 minutes while we were waiting for our food, then it dried up into another pleasant evening.

Susan had a lovely day at the selection work day, but unfortunately was unsuccessful in gaining her dream job. Still, plenty more to try for, I'm sure, and now that she has a driving license I'm sure we'll be able to go on lots more adventures which may aid her job search.

Scandinavian Summer

No rest for the wicked, as they say!

Susan was offered an amazing opportunity to work in Sweden this summer doing fieldwork on Flycatchers (small black and white birds). Everything was a little rushed as due to our adventures in Scotland, and a few busy weekends, she lost track of time and was once again reduced to last minute packing! She almost left me behind!

We flew to Stockholm then caught the train to Uppsala, where she was spending the weekend before journeying south to the research area on Öland. We had a lovely time exploring this city, which has a rich history. 

During the field season, I didn't get out much as Susan was so busy with the birds. I was most upset when she left me behind on her day off, when the team went to explore the north of the island. Still not really forgiven her for that! I did get out a couple of times though.
The first was an afternoon when we went snake hunting at Ismanstorp, an ancient ringfort near one of the fieldwork sites. Fortunately for me, they didn't find any snakes, but because of the time of year, there were many, many orchids flowering in the field. I couldn't resist having a sniff of a few, as well as posing beside a baby Oak tree... on seeing the photo, Susan's dad suggested that she take me back in a few years and let me sit in one of it's branches! Brilliant idea, Andy!

The second was a trip to the mainland city of Kalmar, where we visited the castle. Now, you all know me, I have a thing for cannons, so I couldn't resist climbing up for a better look. The view was pretty nice too, aiming the cannons towards the south end of the channel.

 At the end of the field season, we returned to Uppsala for a weekend before touring for a bit. This time, I got to go looking for Vikings, and was happy to spend a day at Gamla Uppsala, or Old Uppsala. This site has many burial mounds for ancient kings, which are quite hard to walk up (thankfully, Susan had my rucksack with her so I hitched a ride on her back).

In the background of some of these photos you can see the spire of Uppsala  Cathedral, which dominates the very flat landscape.

After a weekend in Uppsala, we made a 24 hour stop in Stockholm, where unfortunately we were so busy sightseeing that Susan didn't actually take that many photos! Here is one of my from the City Hall (where they award the Nobel Prizes every year).
Susan was very happy though, because she managed to finally see a Swedish Moose at the Open Air Museum called Skansen. I just wish we'd had enough time to explore it fully because we literally ran round the Native Animals part (it was fun watching the bear cubs play rough and tumble), then had to go back to pick up bags for our next venture.

As if spending the whole summer doing bird work wasn't enough, Susan had decided to volunteer at a Bird Ringing Observatory called Kvismare. She must be crazy as she was getting up at 2am to go out ringing every day! You'll be pleased to know that I retained some sanity and enjoyed snoozing until she got back at around 10, when she would go back to bed for a few hours, leaving me to explore outside. I was amazed at the different birds they had here compared to what we have at home, and made friends with some of the locals.

Thankfully, this craziness only lasted a week, then we were back on the train (a double decker!) and this time heading to Oslo. Having a little more time here, Susan actually remembered to take some photos, and we had a great time exploring the city while trying to stay cool. I think that was the plan when we visited the Fram museum, dedicated to Polar exploration. I made a few furry friends with the bears and tried my hand at sailing the ship (someone forgot to lift the anchor so we didn't get very far!)

On our last day in Scandinavia Susan decided to visit the Natural History Museum, but it didn't open til 11am! So we spent a couple of hours wandering around the Botanical Gardens which surround it, and I had a lovely time relaxing on this grassy sofa.
I also made a new friend that reminds me of the owls in the Harry Potter films. My friend was on a perch in the cafe courtyard and seemed most annoyed at everyone enjoying fresh cookies, cakes and waffles without sharing them with him. I was also conscious that if he was feeling hungry, I might become a snack, so we left him to his jealousy and went in search of more ancient friends.
I spoke too soon! Not sure if we found Rexy, or if Rexy found us, but either way, I was gobbled! Thankfully, after many years of display, he was missing a few teeth so I managed to escape without losing a limb!
All these adventures had taken their toll on me, and I found a really cosy bed to have a snooze in while Susan was having a look around. Unfortunately, the occupant came back before I could get comfy and I had to beat a hasty retreat before being gobbled again! What is it with all these museum pieces wanting to eat me?

 Anyway, we both made it back to Scotland in one piece. Don't know about Susan, but I'm all journeyed out for now - looking forward to a few months at home getting back into routine and catching up with all my old pals.