A romantic story

In January 1989 I met a lovely girl in Budapest. I was traveling with Kyösti and spending an evening in a student disco. There she was. Unfortunately, after too short time together, I had to leave Hungary.

We exchanged some letters. Then, in August 1989, just before the Berlin Wall was about to come down, I traveled to Budapest again. For some reason, I did not know her address, only the street she lived in. I did not have her phone number either. But I desperately wanted to meet her.

What to do? I figured that maybe her surname is rare. So, I went to her street and began to walk down it looking for her surname in letterboxes. Not a short street. After a long time, I found it. I left a letter with an invitation to meet in the cafeteria of the Budapest main railway station, Keleti. At a certain time, any day during the next week. I think my visa was only valid for a week.

I was waiting in the cafeteria every day. After some days she came! It had taken a while for her to get my letter, because I had left it in her grandmother’s letter box! We got to spend some days together both in Budapest and by the lake Balaton. Young and happy. I was 21.

The last time I met her was in summer 1990 when I was again traveling through Hungary. This time by bicycle on the way to Istanbul. Then we lost contact. I thought for good, but then I found her in Facebook many years later.

Lovely memories from a world which was so divived and different.