My brilliant friend and professor Larry graciously invited me to lunch at his university so that he could introduce me to his colleague, who is Hungarian. I left my house early to avoid traffic and arrived with plenty of time to rehearse sensible conversation. We sat down right away in the dining club and Lőrinc asked me, so you are the guy with the perverse fascination with Hungary?
Lőrinc, also a brilliant scholar, grew up in an academic family, in academic capitals around Europe, but with little experience in Hungary outside of Budapest. I explained that my experience in Hungary has been mostly outside of the city, literally outdoors in the countryside where I decided long ago to take on ownership of a rundown farmhouse in a rundown village (Lőrinc had never heard of it). The beer I drink there is chilled in a bucket down the well, and the language I speak there consists of short broken sentences. And so my fascination with his country is quite possibly just that, perverse, in that it's felt lower in my body and is visual, built more on grunts than words.
The lunch conversation has since left me wondering about not just my peaceful and picturesque longing for this farmhouse, but for anybody's dreaming for anywhere. I've kind of assumed that we all foolishly long for the idyllic, whether that place is quaintly rural or chic cosmopolitan. I just wired some funds for a new roof on my dream retreat that I plan to visit this winter with my family. My mind already drifts there to my wood-burning stove and to the adjacent forests, away from my present surroundings which admittedly do not suffer for lack of charm or coziness. But Hungary is my getaway and now my wife's, and our life would be narrower without it.
Here are a few books about quests into foreign lands that I've enjoyed. Please share yours with me.
"The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese" by Michael Paterniti
"Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Middle Danube to the Iron Gates" by Patrick Leigh Fermor
"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
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