For many people in Hungary a trip abroad meant Czechoslova-
kia some decades ago. Not only, because this country was the nea-
rest one to us, where, besides, a significant Hungarian population
has been living, but also for the fact that this was the first foreign
country that had signed an agreement with Hungary that made it
easier for tourists to visit it. For me it wasn't the first foreign country, I had seen half a dozen others to the date of my first visit there, even
then it was only a transit stop for me. It happened in 1963, when, as
a member of a student group from the Technical University of Buda-
pest, I made a trip by train to the GDR for a summer practice. Our
teachers organised this one-day stop for us to enable us to see also
Prague, although our prime target was Berlin then. Well, time was
short, but to make our inconvenience worse, it also rained heavily,
but that is no rarity in Prague. Having an area equal to the inner
districts of Budapest Prague was covered by us quickly. I have been
astonished to see the similarity with towns in West-Germany, where
I had had the opportunity to visit some of them a couple of weeks
before. Now I wouldn't be, as I know that the Czech lands had been
organic parts of the empire of Charlemagne, Prague had even been
named the Holy Roman Emperor's capital later, in the 16th century. I
liked very much the castle Hrajin, the river Vltava with its fine old
bridges, and especially the hilly landscape where the city has been
built. So much I remember of Prague. Although I travelled there also
by car some years later, that time we drove around and didn't stop.
My second trip to that country took me to Komárno. I have been
working for the Óbuda Shipyard as an engineer and have been sent
there to take part in a symposium and make a lecture in the name of
my company. It was in 1973.
At the beginning of October I went to my namesake town on the
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Slovak side of the Danube and took part in a conference on anti-
corrosion. It was a very modest event, rather a seminar, most of the
people understood my native language. The organiser has been
the shipyard of the town having a double profile. It exported freight-
ers for large water reservoirs to the Soviets and built the best dredg-
es on the Danube. Their factory originates from before World War I,
when the land was still part of the Austrio-Hungarian Monarchy and
belonged to our country. Actually this event has been a little self-
celebration of the company with foreign guests present.
The town has been known for me, but it was the first time I enter-
ed it. There was a little nostalgia too, my family name had been a
title originally, my ancestors had been living here. They had moved
from here not voluntarily, together with several other families they
were deported to the village of Buzsák in Somogy county south of
the Lake Balaton after the freedom fight in 1848 to 1849 as a pu-
nishment for taking part in it. Anyway, before this trip I consulted with
my young colleague, a girl from this town, and could find my way. I
liked the town, there was certain care for order and cleanli-ness in
the '70s in the Eastern block. Buildings were well maintain-ed, both
old ones and new houses, traffic was civilised.
My lecture has not been apt to the main line of issues of the
conference, besides, this was the only German-language letter.
The organisers did not care too much about the composition and
linguistic knowledge of participants at sending out the invitations
and promising German to be official language. De facto official
language was Slovak, but all Slavic people were speaking in their
own tongues, in Polish, in Croat, there was no need for a translator,
all understood each-other. I have been informed about happenings
by my new acquaintances, Hungarian nationals being citizens of
Slovakia. The next day it was very instructive to see all the original
"K. und K." (Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) pieces of machinery and
buildings during the factory survey. Only production technology has
been up-to-date, but it really has.
My son was four when we decided with my wife to take advant-
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Czech and Slovak country
age of the newest opportunities to get passports and make a visit all
the three of us for a solo day in Komárno. It was fine autumn weath-
er, we walked in the small-town streets, bought the necessary orn-
aments for the Christmas-tree and walked back to our country via
the road bridge over the Danube. My son made it public in the
kindergarten the next day that "yesterday we were in another
country".
My next trip to Czechoslovakia originated again in my job three
years later, I represented my employer at the autumn industrial
exhibition in Brno. I was a newcomer there at that time, in
November, 1978. Among the sights of the town there is one real
unusual place. It is a monastery turned into a basement-pub, and it
has a special room where the "dry monks" are kept. Already at that
time I was appalled by the sight of mummies, my real disgust of that
custom came fore in Egypt years later. The town itself I didn't find
attractive, my manner is always spoiled from industrial settlements.
No less important has been the ugly November weather, even snow
was falling, the thick cover of clouds made you think of night. You
could also feel the characteristic policy of "socialist camp" about accommodation. Brno is a sleepy small town all the year round,
except the two exhibitions annually, that is twice 8 days. Why should
the state have invested into hotels being empty in 95 percent of the
time? You could only reserve rooms in family houses via travel
agencies. I have also been accommodated in a house in the out-
skirts, where the housewife reminded me of my mother, and the pie
that she helped me to has been an item of traditional from Austrian
times, she called it strudel. She also spoke German, her teenage
daughter knew only some Russian.
In 1983, after my stays in Africa and several countries in the
south of Europe, I found my way to the northern Carpathian
Mountains, that has always been the favourite of Hungarian
sportsmen, since the opening of the borders for tourists. That
November my family joined an excursion, organised again by the
trade union of our directorate, to those mountains. That part of the
mountain is called Tatra. That excursion was well arranged, weath-
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er was beautiful, last days of the Indian summer, but one of our ex-
periences made us, my wife and me, wish to forget it as soon as
possible.
Late afternoon one day we stopped and the group went to see a
kind of attraction. This involved a long descent to the site and ascent
on the return walk. My son was with us downwards, but, as we came
up slower, he would go to the front and back again. I told him not to
make detours as dusk was on us.
Arriving to the bus we could not find him. Darkness fell already
and I began to run down and up, my heart near to an attack, but he
was nowhere. It is impossible to describe my despair. I could not
help imagining him dead. Our group slowly learned about the
situation and some of them helped me in searching for him, others
were very sympathetic.
Suddenly another child came to us and said:
“Joe has been sitting on the other side of the road for half an
hour.”
Well, he became tired and sat down unaware of the fuss about
him.
I remembered the despair of my parents when my brother died
in his childhood. I could feel now something similar they felt. This
was the last trip I joined my colleagues.
I haven't seen Slovakia for years after that, it has not been
attractive for me, the positive changes in 1989 induced a lot of
negative ones, too. As I was returning to my assignment in Kiev
from my holiday by car in 1993, I crossed it with my family, that time
my impressions were less favourable than in Poland or at home.
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Poland