I flew into Budapest so the three of us had two nights of party before driving to Romania. Up to the border this was all smooth sailing over high ways. In Romania on the other hand only exists a highway from east to west through Bucharest, another one connecting Cluj (the second biggest city in the country) with the capitol is under construction.
Some potholes and overtaken horse carriages later we arrived in Cluj and headed on to the festival. The first night the locals went crazy for Fatboy Slim. More than two kilometers before the entrance cars were parked everywhere. With his better days already long behind him we skipped Norman Cook and headed over to the Staples stage. Situated in one of the buildings this stage presented us with firm and dry ground ;). Because of the rain the whole festival area was a gigantic mud pool. Patrick and I in our Converse weren't well prepared... ^^
After Sirius Modeselektor, DC Breaks and a short visit to Evil Nine we said goodbye and took the shuttle bus home.
The following day we spent shopping, as two of us needed sturdier footwear ;) In the evening the weather was a bit better than the night before so we could enjoy Glitch Mob and Netsky.
On the third day the weather was getting nice and sunny, so we could enjoy even some day light ours on the area. Red Bull had some dudes on bikes doing crazy stunts and also the mini ramp (surrounded in a see of mud) saw some action. The festival ground was actually really nice! With lots of different places to discover. Just bad luck with the weather, as we got told it almost never rains in these days.
Headliner (for us) of the day was Subfocus, the rest we spent more or less wandering around or in the Stapels ;) There some local DJs played some nice classic tunes. I can't remember who they were but one of them was so drunk that he broke the mixer trying to climb up on it ^^. Afterwards Bass Turbat from Bucharest really picked up the pace, check them out!
The last day was again crazy with people, everybody wanted to see The Prodigy! We made the best of it (each of us having seen them multiple times) and enjoyed the party people. Did I mention we all really liked the Romanians? Friendly people and because it is a latin based language you're not completely lost with a menu ;) The whole festival remembered us a lot of the first few times we visited Exit festival in Serbia. Just a few foreigners and everybody amazed that somebody would travel all the way to Romania for a festival ;)
Sadly this was already the end and we headed for a final time home to our hotel. As mentioned the castle isn't next to Cluj. So depending on the lines in front of the shuttle bus we took the bus or taxi home. On our last night we took the cab, the "wrong" one... Listening to Modern Talking our driver raced his Dacia Logan all the way back to Cluj! The rev counter always in the red, overtaking cars which were overtaking other cars, signalling oncoming cars to go out of the way, etc o_O He managed the distance in half the time... I was sitting in the front with a seatbelt, the two guys in the back weren't that happy ^^
The next morning we had an early start for the massive drive to Bucharest. It was only around 600km, but with almost no highway, the Carpathians and some stops on the way it took us almost 8 hours to reach Bucharest. We did a little detour to drive the fabled Transfăgărășan, rated the greatest road in the world by Top Gear ;) Check it out:
In Bucharest we met up with Vlad and his girlfriend. Patrick and Genti had met him on the Mototaxi Junket in Peru. So we had an evening in the city to wander, drink, eat and sightsee. Especially the gigantic Palace of the Parliament at night was a sight. Some clubs bursting with people later it was time for bed and the next day to fly home for me =/.
Patrick and Genti continued on to Kiev, with Moldavia as next stop!