26 July 2012

The trip of my life: Guestblogger #3 Tambourinesam


Third up for telling about the trip that won't disappear from the memories is Samantha, also known as Tambourinesam. I've followed her tales since she started up her very good-looking blog, and I always love visiting her world of coloured flags, girly nailpolish and dotted dresses, all spiced up with her impeccable music taste - so quite fittingly, she's taking us far and near for festivals:

The best travel experience of my life? That's just unfair. It's impossible to choose a single favorite amongst your collection of adventures, but now that I have to, I would like to introduce to you a very special, unplanned, and musical travel gem from my treasure chest. Let's rewind to the summer of 2007…
I had convinced one of my best friends to come with me to the Roskilde Festival. It was her first time. Result: The wettest Roskilde Festival ever, with flooded tents, soaked clothes, sickness, and huge amounts of mud.
Therefore, we clearly had to do something completely different the following year, although I cherish my yearly Roskilde Festival experience. Fast-forward to the summer of 2008: Thanks to our mad Google skills, and recommendations from the music site Last.fm we discovered a festival in London called 'Wireless' taking place exactly on the same days as Roskilde Festival - in that way, I wouldn't know what I would be missing. Yes, I'm such a clever girl, and as you know, London is quite famous for its tropical weather...
However, Wireless Festival was very neat and organized within Hyde Park, with a small Cider Garden, several stages, eating stalls, a skate ramp, and bars. The line-up consisted of (amongst others) Hot Chip, Mark Ronson, Beck, Morrissey, Hercules & Love Affair, The National, Dirty Pretty Things, and this guy:
Jay-Z! Big Pimpin’! Jigga!
We arrived in the morning and went back to our hostel (or out for drinks) at night. We dressed well, were clean, people were nice, and the bartenders thought I was a minor. Damn frills. Apart from that – a very sophisticated festival experience.
Oh, and the weather? It pissed all afternoon, of course, while Roskilde Festival 2008 had bright sunshine! Good thing we pre-decided to bring home a bit of Southern Europe with us, and had bought extra flight tickets for Lisbon, Portugal, after the Wireless Festival.
We didn't really know much about Lisbon, other than it looked like a small LEGO-town from the airplane. We navigated through guidebooks from the library and recommendations from the locals.
Portugal was such an interesting and beautiful country, and I would love to go back. I really liked the combination of city life, water, sunshine, tiny streets, vantage points, botanical gardens, and the possibility of taking the train to the country side or the beach, eat ice cream or paella, dip your pale Scandinavian body in the ocean, and watch the sunset on the coastline on your way back to the city. Wearing sandals.
While in Lisbon, we discovered that a one-day-festival, called Super Bock Super Rock, was taking place near the beach. It featured Duran Duran, Mika, Beck and Digitalism and was a perfect finishing touch to our slightly romantic days with dinners at the harbour, street parties in Bairo Alto, and beer drinking by the staircases.
We got loads of sun on our nosetips and tight thighs from walking the hilly areas. I had the worst haircut in my life, we saw very beautiful and well-preserved buildings and churches, and we even got evacuated from our hotel because the neighbor building was set on fire - and we had to spend the night at the local cinema! All of this, including the days in London, happened within a week.

I somehow always tend to attract a mild form of chaos, bad karma, or confusion when I travel. I always meet extremely memorable people, find myself in crazy places, and end up with exaggerated and far out stories in my suitcase - but I think that's the charm of travelling and surrendering yourself completely to other cultures. Just go with the flow, and see where it takes you. It's my favorite thing in the whole world, and I cannot wait to see where my upcoming holiday in Croatia will take me! Have a great summer J

2 comments:

Marian N. Larsen said...

Jeg er vild med de her ferie-historier :)

karen sofie said...

Åh, det er jeg glad for at høre! Det var bestemt også meningen med dem :)