UPDATING BLITZ
Ok... so I haven't updated on my past trips in a bit.
So I'm doing it now:
It was back in December... and it was a SPARTY. Which stands for "spa" "party". These are hosted by Cenetrip, which is a professional "event hosting" type organization. The "sparties" as they are called take place in one of the many old Turkish baths/spas that have been built in the 1000+ years that Buda and Pest have been inhabited (although most of them have been built during the Turkish occupation or there after... but don't rub that in the faces of your Hungarian friends). Recently, one of the largest underground thermal lakes was found under Budapest. It may feed some of the natural spring water to Rudas Spa, which is where this particular Sparty was held. Rudas is a moderately old, and recently retouched, turkish spa. Instead of the multiple pools that most baths have, Rudas just has one large pool, which starts shallow and moves to deeper water of probably 10 feet (3 meters). One of the peculiarities of Rudas is that it has only that one pool. As it was built in more conservative times, men and women at this particular bath are allowed to bathe there only on separate days (except during a sparty), which means it is one of the few baths where you are allowed to bath... uh... au natural (by which I mean naked). That, however, is strongly frowned upon during the very co-ed sparty. But also... because of this, there is only one changing room. Which means, yes, there were around 600 20 somethings of both genders changing into swimsuits in a lockerroom probably meant to hold about 50 people. Let's hope my mother won't kill me and I'll just say it was "interesting".
Moving on. There was a bar down stairs, but as entry was 5000 HUF (~$25 ~EUR20), we decided to bring some of our own vodka mixed into a 2 liter coke bottle. I don't think that this would have been looked up favorably, but there was too much going on for them to care about me and my 3 female coworkers... yes I am one lucky S.O.B. The Sparty itself was really incredible. There was live entertainment in the form of synchronized swimmers and then fire breathers... and then get this Synchronized swimming FIRE BREATHERS!!! Yeah, it was awesome. The sparty was also incredibly international, I met people from the US, Latin America, most of the EU, North Africa, the Middle East, Japan... this list goes on. I don't think most of them were here JUST for the sparty, but they were also at the Sparty and that's what counts.
The other thing, and this is why I would try to bring some female friends along, is that as a party where most of the participants will be in a minimal amount of clothing, wet, and intoxicated, most of the people who showed up were guys. I'd say 55-60 % guys, 40-45% girls. And that's awkward. That's why I brought 3 stunning European coworkers. We'd all go off dancing, I'd find some girl, they might find some guy, if any of us got bored or if they thought the guy was getting a little too playful, we would just start dancing with each other. So... through out the night, I ended up having a pseudo harem of about 4-5 beautiful European girls (see pictures). As most of the guys couldn't find an entire girl to themselves... I got a lot of dirty looks throughout most of the night. There were certainly a lot of "who is that guy? ... how is he doing that?... Is he really rich?.... How can that happen?..." looks going my way. But there is no easy way to give back a "No, I'm interested in this girl here, but these ones are actually my coworkers and thus, available" in a stereotypical, non-verbal communication. I feel language must evolve.
So we danced and drank and partied and sang and were entertained from 10pm until 6 am the next morning. It was honestly the most crazy party I have ever been to in my entire life. There is another one in march that I'm supposed to go to. I hope it will be just as awesome.
Here are some of the pictures I was able to take before my camera started getting waterlogged and had to be retired. It's from the very beginning of the night (before 11). The place didn't fill up until 12:30. Oh... man... it was awesome :)
So I'm doing it now:
It was back in December... and it was a SPARTY. Which stands for "spa" "party". These are hosted by Cenetrip, which is a professional "event hosting" type organization. The "sparties" as they are called take place in one of the many old Turkish baths/spas that have been built in the 1000+ years that Buda and Pest have been inhabited (although most of them have been built during the Turkish occupation or there after... but don't rub that in the faces of your Hungarian friends). Recently, one of the largest underground thermal lakes was found under Budapest. It may feed some of the natural spring water to Rudas Spa, which is where this particular Sparty was held. Rudas is a moderately old, and recently retouched, turkish spa. Instead of the multiple pools that most baths have, Rudas just has one large pool, which starts shallow and moves to deeper water of probably 10 feet (3 meters). One of the peculiarities of Rudas is that it has only that one pool. As it was built in more conservative times, men and women at this particular bath are allowed to bathe there only on separate days (except during a sparty), which means it is one of the few baths where you are allowed to bath... uh... au natural (by which I mean naked). That, however, is strongly frowned upon during the very co-ed sparty. But also... because of this, there is only one changing room. Which means, yes, there were around 600 20 somethings of both genders changing into swimsuits in a lockerroom probably meant to hold about 50 people. Let's hope my mother won't kill me and I'll just say it was "interesting".
Moving on. There was a bar down stairs, but as entry was 5000 HUF (~$25 ~EUR20), we decided to bring some of our own vodka mixed into a 2 liter coke bottle. I don't think that this would have been looked up favorably, but there was too much going on for them to care about me and my 3 female coworkers... yes I am one lucky S.O.B. The Sparty itself was really incredible. There was live entertainment in the form of synchronized swimmers and then fire breathers... and then get this Synchronized swimming FIRE BREATHERS!!! Yeah, it was awesome. The sparty was also incredibly international, I met people from the US, Latin America, most of the EU, North Africa, the Middle East, Japan... this list goes on. I don't think most of them were here JUST for the sparty, but they were also at the Sparty and that's what counts.
The other thing, and this is why I would try to bring some female friends along, is that as a party where most of the participants will be in a minimal amount of clothing, wet, and intoxicated, most of the people who showed up were guys. I'd say 55-60 % guys, 40-45% girls. And that's awkward. That's why I brought 3 stunning European coworkers. We'd all go off dancing, I'd find some girl, they might find some guy, if any of us got bored or if they thought the guy was getting a little too playful, we would just start dancing with each other. So... through out the night, I ended up having a pseudo harem of about 4-5 beautiful European girls (see pictures). As most of the guys couldn't find an entire girl to themselves... I got a lot of dirty looks throughout most of the night. There were certainly a lot of "who is that guy? ... how is he doing that?... Is he really rich?.... How can that happen?..." looks going my way. But there is no easy way to give back a "No, I'm interested in this girl here, but these ones are actually my coworkers and thus, available" in a stereotypical, non-verbal communication. I feel language must evolve.
So we danced and drank and partied and sang and were entertained from 10pm until 6 am the next morning. It was honestly the most crazy party I have ever been to in my entire life. There is another one in march that I'm supposed to go to. I hope it will be just as awesome.
Here are some of the pictures I was able to take before my camera started getting waterlogged and had to be retired. It's from the very beginning of the night (before 11). The place didn't fill up until 12:30. Oh... man... it was awesome :)