I just arrived back home from Borneo a few days ago. Travel memories are still swirling in me. It is such a beautiful and unfortunately no longer untouched part of the Earth, where rainforests and 4,000-meter mountains perfectly fit together like the different ethnic groups who share on the island. There will be a post about Borneo later, but the millions of colours, scents and visual memories have yet to settle down in me.
I could not sleep at night due to jet lag and I looked up at the world map on the wall opposite my bed. I was wondering if I can recall my first travel memories and are they still alive?
The first time I went abroad was to visit our relatives in Slovakia around Košice. I remember we tried to hide the Deli chocolate and sneakers in every secret corner of the Trabant car so the border officers could not confiscate them.
By the way, I owe my first trip to the above-mentioned Slovakian relatives. Following the Hungarian regime change in 1989 we travelled to Romania’s upscale Black Sea resort, Constanta. I was so amazed by the sight and ripples of the sea at the age of 9. I enthusiastically collected pieces of shells on the shore to make a necklace or bracelet out of them at home. Actually this never happened and even I don’t have these shellfish any more. But I have my family photos made by Kodak 24 and 36 films. And I have the portrait made of me by a street artist at the beach. It is horrible but I still have it in my treasury box full of travel memories.
