My first memory of traveling was on my father’s back as we escaped Communist Hungary during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. My mother had converted one of her old wool skirts into a backpack and added straps so my dad could carry me. As I was only 3, walking the long distance across the Hungarian/Austrian border was too much for a small child.
Judy on Kapellbrücke bridge In Lucerne
I remember my corduroy pants riding up on my legs while I was in the backpack and then my legs got cold. I kept trying to push down the pant legs but it was no use.
I remember my dad telling me if I had to go to the bathroom to whisper it in his ear and he would take me to pee but definitely to not yell it out as we did not want to attract attention from anyone other than our traveling party.
My poor dad struggled with back problems for months after our escape and saw a doctor regularly until the pain was gone.
I’ve always had wanderlust to go and see different places and experience different cultures. Since I had the Hungarian culture ingrained and now the American culture developing inside me, I yearned to see and experience new things and meet new people with different views and cultures.
I remember driving from Cleveland, Ohio to Bellevue, Washington in an old jalopy that my dad bought from a friend. This drive seemed interminably long and I kept asking, “Are we there yet?”
My first real memory of fulfilling my wanderlust was when my mother and father asked me how I wanted to travel to the Los Angeles area – by plane or train. I seemed to be excited to travel by train so my mother, younger sister and I traveled by train from Bellevue, Washington to Long Beach, California in 1962 to be with my father who had secured a new job in California. Next a summer trip peaked my appetite about the South to Marietta, Georgia in 1966 to visit my dad who was working there temporarily on a job shopping assignment for Lockheed. Then my dad and I traveled back to Hungary in 1976 to visit the country of my birth as a young adult. Each trip awakened in me a desire to learn more about the states, countries and peoples in those locales. This desire has not diminished over the years.
Imagine my delight when I met a guy in 1976 on the fencing team at Long Beach State (CSULB) who had lived in Spain for three years and had the same wanderlust I did! That guy became my husband and this year we celebrate 40 years of marriage.