the world and more

Szeged and the Vargas

By way of explanation, Szeged is the town my uncle Tibi and his family live in - and it became our home for almost two weeks after we left Gyamoindre. Szeged is where Em really got to know all my relatives: aka The Varga Clan.

After a bit of a drive with Em and myself in my cousin Peter's car and Mum and Dad in my uncle Tibi's car, we pulled into Szeged. Driving over the Tisza river brought back some fond memories of my last visit to this beautiful town. 17 years! Such a long time. Em and I dropped our bags off at my other cousins (Tommy) and his girlfriends house (Ildi) where we were greeted at the gate by their "cute as" dog, Panka, who soon became our "dog away from home" dog. Tommy still had work to do, 12 hours every day mon-fri, so we let him be and headed off to Tibi and his wife's house. Tibi's wife Kati had prepared a great meal for us which didn't last too long with the hunger we had.

After eating we loosened our belts and sat around catching up with all the goss and happenings of Szeged and the Varga clan.

Once Tommy had come to get us we went back to his house and drank wine with Ildi, her daughter Luca and of course our new found friend Panka.

Over the next few days we explored the city by car and foot, more often than not on foot to work off all the huge meals we kept eating.

Over the past five years the local council had spent a huge amount of money "renovating" the town. Well I have to say it was money well spent. The town center is amazing compared to how I saw it 17 years ago which is really great to see. Over the week or so we spent in Szeged we played tennis - badly, swam, walked, bowled, ate and drank more than we should and laughed a whole lot. We were also there

in time to share in Tibi's 75th birthday and also his 50 year golden diploma award. Two very special days for him and I felt priveliged to be able to be there for both of them. For Tibis birthday, Em and I were wondering what we could get him. Out of thin air Em came up with "THE" idea of the year. A photo frame with all his "Varga" relatives. I got to say it - I was a little weary of the idea but when he opened it at his birthday dinner I knew she was right. He loved it and all of Em's hard work had paid off. Also now all my cousins and second cousins had an explanation as to why this Australian girl kept taking photos of them when she didn't even know most of them.

The old saying goes: You can't pick your family but you can pick your friends. In my case there is no picking needed. They Rock!